Carlson, who calls himself a “true fishoholic,” was specifically targeting catfish, which are legal to bowfish for in The Mitten State, though there are stricter regulations for catfish compared to other bowfishing quarry such as carp and gar. That said, Carlson wasn’t expecting to run into such a big mud cat.
“I thought I was about to shoot a channel catfish for dinner,” Carlson said. “Turns out, I guess we do have flathead catfish in these waters.”
And big ones, at that. Carlson’s fish weighed in at 64.46 pounds and was 45 inches long. Michigan DNR fisheries biologist John Buszkiewicz verified that catch, which crushed the previous state record, a 53.35-pounder caught with a rod and reel by Lloyd Tanner on the St. Joseph River in 2022.
Unlike most states, Michigan does not keep separate records for fish caught with conventional tackle and unconventional methods such as bowfishing. Responding to online criticism, Carlson says the distinction isn’t important.
“I’m frankly tired of hearing bowfishing isn’t hard or it’s not fishing,” Carlson told the Detroit Free Press. “It is as much fishing as rod and reel or noodling. One may be harder than the other, but they should all still be respected as a part of the sport… It was like a lottery ticket [to see such a big fish swimming] 18 feet from shore.”
Another wrinkle to this story is that Carlson’s fish may have been captured once before; Buszkiewicz said that he thinks it may be the same fish that he and his crew caught during a scientific survey they conducted in 2020 on Plum Creek. That fish weighed 55 pounds and was 43 inches long—which still would have broken a state record, though not by as many pounds as Carlson’s catch eventually did.
Feature image via Michigan DNR.
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