Nathan “Shags” McLeod holds up a paddlefish he caught with Brandon Butler and guide Jason Smith.
Submitted photo
We have dinosaurs swimming in the Midwest.
Paddlefish fossils date from 65 million years ago. They’re native to North America and once flourished in the Mississippi and Missouri watersheds. Today, they are doing well in many areas and are a popular game fish. One such destination is Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, where the world record paddlefish was snagged this spring.
Lake of the Ozarks has an abundance of prehistoric paddlefish, as does neighboring Truman Lake. Each spring anglers pursue them with snagging equipment. Numerous guide services offer paddlefish trips. One lucky group of anglers picked the right guide the day they hired Jason Smith. They never imagined they would break a world record that day, but that’s exactly what happened when they boated a massive 164-pound, 13-ounce paddlefish.
Smith, the owner and operator of Smith’s Fishing Adventures, was trolling for paddlefish. This means he was dragging lines affixed with treble hooks and a large sinker to a heavy braided line behind the slowly moving boat. When the rod went down, the group told Chad Williams to grab it. After all, he’d never caught a paddlefish before. This was his first time ever on a snagging expedition.
Nathan “Shags” McLeod, co-host of the Driftwood Outdoors Podcast, and I were invited to join Smith on a snagging trip a couple of weeks later to see if we could put a couple in the boat and record a conversation about catching the world record for the podcast. Hearing him tell the story in person, about how this guy, who didn’t even know what a paddlefish was, caught the world record on his first fish was a ton a fun. He said Williams was super humble about the experience.
Smith showed me and Shags the exact spot where the record was caught. You can tell he’s proud of the accomplishment coming on one of his guide trips, but he’s also playing it pretty cool. The guide and the angler in this story both add to the feel-good aspect of this inexperienced angler landing the fish of a million lifetimes.
Smith did express he is proud to have brought the record back to Missouri, where it had once been, before Oklahoma broke it numerous times. The record was certified by MDC officials.
Shags knew what a paddlefish was, but he also had never caught one when we stepped into Smith’s boat. The thought of “Could it happen again?” ran through both of our minds. Could there be a 165-pounder out there waiting for us? Likely there is, but we didn’t run into it that evening. Shags did boat his first paddlefish — honestly, on what was called out to be his last cast of the day.
The wildest part of this trip was using LiveScope. This is super advanced fish finding technology. You watch a screen and see fish in real time and can use horizontal and vertical axes to calculate how far away from the boat the fish is and how deep. This determines the angle of your cast. (See kids, geometry is used after you graduate. Who would have thought on a paddle fishing trip?) It very much has a video game feel to it, and I feel kind of guilty for liking it.
Lake of the Ozarks is such a crazy place, in all the best ways. There is so much to do there. The fishing is astounding. Largemouth bass dominate the scene, with tournaments taking place all year. Crappie are close behind. A ton of brush is sunk on this lake to build crappie habitat. The bluegill fishing is overlooked but excellent, and the blue catfish fishery, which is what Smith spends most of his time chasing, is world class. There are also great walleye in the lake that many people don’t know about. Smith guides for them, too.
Neither Shags nor I caught the next world record on this trip, but we did boat one with only a couple of hours to do it. We re-booked with Smith for next year, and plan to spend the day experiencing one of his signature catfish and paddlefish combination trips. The Missouri paddlefish fishing season ends April 30.
See you down the trail …
Brandon Butler writes a weekly outdoors column for the Daily Journal. For more Driftwood Outdoors, check out the podcast on www.driftwoodoutdoors.com or anywhere podcasts are streamed. Send comments to [email protected].
