This is the new world bowfishing record paddlefish.
If some fish can be sexy – and you can bet there are anglers who think that’s possible – these aren’t them.
Suckers. Common carp. Quillbacks. Sheepshead. Bullheads.
Not a pretty one in the bunch.
But they and others like them do have their fans, not least among bowfishermen. Such species, often referred to as “rough” fish, are the kind pursued by anglers who fish not with bait, but arrows.
They’ve been in the news a bit lately, too.
Most recently, a Montana man named Justin Fisketjon shot an 85-pound paddlefish from the Lower Yellowstone River to set a new Bowfishing Association of America record.
Some states recognize bowfishing records as a separate category. Others, including Pennsylvania, do not.
The Bowfishing Association has been maintaining its own set of world records since 1990.
Fisketjon’s paddlefish measured 69 inches long. According to media reports, he kept its flesh for eating, and sent the head and rostrum – the long, paddle-like nose – for mounting.
A couple of other anglers, one from Pennsylvania, made the record books recently, too.
Mike Lentz of Mt. Joy, Minn., set a Bowfishing Association world record by taking a 27.92-pound freshwater drum.
Meanwhile, here, Jordon Miller of Washington took the Association’s Pennsylvania record freshwater carp in Yough Dam. The fish weighed 49 pounds, 7 ounces.
Miller, who runs a bowfishing guide service called Nocturnal Addiction Bowfishing, is reportedly having the fish mounted.
More information on Bowfishing Association of America records can be found here/.
Jordon Miller with his big Yough Dam carp.
