An 11-year-old boy from Dixon became the most recent record-breaking angler in Missouri when he hooked a river redhorse on Tavern Creek near St. Elizabeth, according to a news release from the Missouri Department of Conservation.
The new "pole and line" record fish caught by Maverick Yoakum on March 4 weighed 10 pounds, 3 ounces. That breaks the previous state record and world record pole-and-line river redhorse of 9 pounds, 13 ounces, caught at Tavern Creek in 2016.
Yoakum was using worms as bait when he caught the fish. MDC staff verified the record-weight fish using a certified scale in Brinktown.
"I fought the fish for about two to three minutes before I got it to the bank," Yoakum said in the news release. "I thought I caught a pretty big fish, but I didn't know it was a state record until my dad told me to look it up online. I'm super excited to hold a state record!"
River redhorse fish are part of the sucker family. They are a moderately chubby, coarse-scaled fish with a dorsal fin containing 12 or 13 rays, according to MDC. These fish can be found mostly throughout the Ozarks.
Yoakum's fish also beats the current world record, pending verification by the International Game Fish Association. While the river redhorse does get much larger, IFGA only recognizes fish taken by pole and line.
"Larger river redhorses are usually taken by gigging and do not qualify for the IGFA world record," MDC Fisheries Programs Specialist Andrew Branson said in the release. "This fish could possibly be the largest river redhorse ever taken with a pole and line."
"I have never thought about holding a record, and now I may be a world-record holder - I can't believe it," Yoakum said. "I want to thank my dad for always taking me fishing, because if it wasn't for him taking me fishing I wouldn't have caught a fish like I did."