Paddlefish that ‘felt like a tree on the line’ is a record by one ounce

An out-of-state fisherman went home to Illinois having broken the Missouri record for paddlefish and he did so by the slimmest of margins.

Jim Dain of Pittsfield snagged a 140-pound, 10-ounce paddlefish last Friday at the Lake of the Ozarks, the Missouri Department of Conservation confirmed. The record category is Alternative Method: Snagging.

The fish broke the previous record of 140 pounds, 9 ounces that was set in 2015 at Table Rock Lake.

Dain almost didn’t launch his boat that day because of the weather.

“The forecast was calling for storms, and then it changed to no rain, so we went out, but it just kept getting colder,” Dain recalled. “We weren’t having much luck, but decided to fish for another hour so we took another turn. And that’s when the drag on the reel started. It felt like a tree was on the line!”

It took Dain about 20 minutes to land the fish, and when he got back to the boat ramp, a man suggested he contact the MDC. The man was Steven Henson, who happens to hold the Missouri record for river carpsucker.

“He’s looking at the fish and says to me, ‘Boy, I think you should get that checked out because it could be a state record,’” Dain said.

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An official with the MDC suggested a place with a certified scale. Dain took it there and the rest is history.

The record was an added bonus to the future meals he and his family will be enjoying.

“We got 16 one-gallon bags of meat out of this catch,” Dain said with a laugh. “We’ve fried it, grilled it and made paddlefish tacos the other night. We’ll be having paddlefish for a while.”

Photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Conservation.