Using a 20-pound test line and a 6-inch chub minnow, Dillman caught the giant striped bass weighing in at 65 pounds and 2 ounces, 49 3/4 inches in length and a girth of 36 inches, on Bull Shoals Lake near the Arkansas border on May 21, according to a statement released Tuesday, 26 May by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).
Dillman struggled with his monster catch for more than 45 minutes before he could reel it in, and after reeling it in, he had to “bear hug” it out of water to the bank.
He said, “I fought the giant for over 45 minutes until I got him to shallow water. I then bear-hugged the fish and got it out of the water onto the bank.”
Dillman’s catch broke the previous pole-and-line state record of 60 pounds, 9 ounces for a striped bass caught on Bull Shoals in 2011.
According to the International Game Fish Association, the world striped bass record is 81 pounds, 14 ounces, caught in 2011, off Westbrook, Connecticut.
The freshwater record is 69 pounds, 9 ounces, caught in Alabama in 2013.
Dillman’s fish was weighed on certified scales at the MDC’s Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery in Taney County and staff from the Missouri Department of Conservation confirmed the new record , according to ABC News.
According to Dillman, the specimen was a female full of eggs.
State-record for fishing is recognized in two categories, namely, pole-and-line and alternative methods, according to USA Today.
“Alternative methods include: throwlines, trotlines, limb lines, bank lines, jug lines, spearfishing, snagging, snaring, gigging, grabbing, archery, and atlatl.”
“Once the fish was on the line, I knew I had a decent one, but I didn’t at all think it was a striped bass. I thought it was a spoonbill or something else. But when I got him to the bank I knew I had something amazing,” Dillman said.
The fisherman said he is getting the fish mounted at the Bass Pro Shops in Springfield.
“I’ve caught bigger fish in the ocean, but this fish is the biggest fresh-water fish I have ever caught,” he said.
The striped bass, a silvery fish with an elongated body and horizontal dark stripes on the sides, is native to the Atlantic Coast of North America. They are stocked in many reservoirs in the U.S., and were unintentionally stocked in Bull Shoals Lake by game officials in the 1990s, according to USA Today.
The Missouri Department of Conservation recently restocked Bull Shoals Lake with 16,000 striped bass. But some anglers oppose restocking the lake with striped bass out of fear that it could threaten other species of game fish