The calendar has turned over, it is a new year. It is also time to look back at last year and summarize some things. Things, like state record fish. . . .
First of all, I have one update to give. One application for a state record fish came late in the year. Noah Jelinek of Waverly caught that fish, a silver carp. He caught it on November 24. The fish was caught by rod & reel from Salt Creek in Cass County. Noah’s silver carp weighed 21 pounds 8 ounces, and was 40 inches long. He used a blade bait to catch his fish.
With that last catch in 2022, here is a summary of fish certified as Nebraska state records last year:
Surface Spearing
No state record fish were taken by surface spearing in 2022.
Underwater Spearfishing
No state record fish were taken by underwater spearing in 2022.
Bowfishing
One fish taken by bowfishing certified as a state record in 2022. It was a 63 pound 0 ounce bigmouth buffalo taken on May 5 from Fremont State Lakes SRA.
Rod and Reel
The rest of the fish certified as state records last year were all caught by rod & reel. There were five of them. Interestingly, ice fishing accounted for three of the five. The first was a yellow bass caught from Summit Reservoir on January 2. That fish weighed 1 pound 9 ounces, was 13 inches long and was caught on a minnow.
Two more fish caught through a hole in the ice were certified as state records in 2022, both of them creek chubs. The first was caught on February 1, and weighed exactly 1 pound. Five days later the same angler caught a 1 pound 1 ounce creek chub from the same private impoundment in Keya Paha County.
On April 28 a 3 pound 8 ounce shorthead redhorse sucker was caught and later certified as a new state record. It was caught from the Missouri River in Knox County on a jig and worm. That fish was 20 1/8 inches long.
Lastly, as noted above, the silver carp caught in November was certified as a new rod & reel state record.
So, in total we had six fish certified as state records in 2022, the exact same number as we had in 2021. Usually, we will see some fish taken by spearfishing, either underwater or on the surface, entered, but there were none this year. Likewise, we often see more fish taken by bowfishing submitted for new state records. Interestingly, ice fishing has produced more than half of the rod & reel state record fish caught the past two years.
I am just giving a summary of state record activity in this blog post. If you want to read more details about these fish and the anglers who caught them, be sure to check out State Record Update, Through an Ice Hole, 2022, and State Record Update, Fall 2022.
As always, you can see the whole list of Nebraska State Record fish HERE.
Every year I hear stories about “the big one that woulda been a record if I had just weighed it in”. Heard another one of those stories just the other day; it was a doozy, the story and the fish. Take a minute to familiarize yourself with the state records and rules which can be found in every copy of the Fishing Guide. You might think you will never catch a fish that big, but if you have your line in the water, you just never know.
Wonder what 2023 will bring?????
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