George Chance is fishing’s version of a dumpster diver. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for lures, he takes a frugal approach. When he is fishing, he is constantly scanning the trees overhanging the water for baits that were launched there by errant casts. Then he goes to great lengths to cut them down and add new lures to his tackle box.
“I haven’t bought a lure in 30 years or more,” said Chance, 78, who lives in Festus in eastern Missouri. “I guess I’m pretty tight. Why spend a lot of money on something when I don’t have to?”
One of those lures—a Big O crankbait that he found hanging from a tree—stands out. That’s the one that earned him a Missouri state record and a pending world record. Fishing with that lure on March 19 in a slough off the Mississippi River in eastern Missouri, he landed a 97-pound bighead carp. The catch was noteworthy in many regards.
RECORD BIGHEAD CARP
First, bighead carp are filter feeders and don’t normally strike bait or lures. But the hooks on Chance’s fish were firmly entrenched in the corner of its mouth when he brought it in. Second, it was proof that the invasive species carp can grow to huge sizes in the Mississippi River. Third, it came on a bait that few anglers would consider when targeting big catfish or carp. It wasn’t a total surprise for Chance, though. He has long been fishing with the crankbaits he finds to catch everything from flathead catfish to bass.
“I modify them by taking the front treble hook off,” he said. “I want to have that crankbait digging into the bottom, and that’s where you usually get snagged. So, I take that front hook off and just let that bill dig into the bottom. I’ll try to cast parallel to the bank and make a long cast. Then I’ll point my rod tip toward the water and just retrieve it as slowly as I can once I get it down.”
Chance has caught dozens of big flatheads that way, including a 40- and a 30-pounder the week before his record-setting trip. But he knew he had something far bigger when the bighead carp hit. The fish stripped off 30 yards of line on its first run, and continued to fight for almost 20 minutes. When Chance finally worked the carp to the bank, it was one of those “Now what?” moments.
He didn’t have a net big enough to land the fish and there was no one around to help him. But he was carrying an antique hay hook that a friend of his who passed away gave him. He dragged the monstrous fish out of the water, then huffed and puffed to drag it to his truck. “I took a breather about halfway up and I thought, “This is one huge fish,’“ Chance said.
After struggling just as mightily to get the fish into the bed of his truck, he headed off to a nearby recycling plant to get it weighed on certified scales. A conservation agent for the Missouri Department of Conservation witnessed the weigh-in and a fisheries biologist verified that it was indeed a bighead carp. Because it was caught and not snagged, it was deemed a state record. Now the International Game Fish Association is waiting to test the line it was caught on before awarding Chance a world record as well.
RECORD FERTILIZER?
So, did the memorable catch wind up on Chance’s wall? No, he cut it up and used it as fertilizer for his vegetable garden. Meanwhile, Chance continues to fish and keeps his eyes open for more lures decorating the trees hanging over the water.
“I went to a new lake the other day and it was like Christmas,” he said. “I couldn’t believe the number of corks and lures hanging in the trees. I used a 25-foot-long cane pole with a big hook I taped to it and got six good lures and 28 corks.”
