JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - State conservation officials say a western Missouri man has snagged a state-record bighead carp.
The Department of Conservation says Gene Swope, of Excelsior Springs, took the 106-pound fish last month at the Lake of the Ozarks. It was 26 pounds heavier than the previous Missouri-record bighead carp caught by snagging, which is hooking a fish in any part of its body other than the mouth.
It also was 16 pounds heavier than the world record bighead, but Swope's lunker does not qualify because it was snagged.
Snagging is allowed in Missouri for nongame fish such as bighead carp.
Missouri conservation officials are pleased the big fish is out of the lake. Bighead carp are an invasive species that interfere with the state's ecology.