State, world record river redhorse

Eleven-year old Maverick Yoakum of Dixon, shown here with his dad, Bennett Yoakum,  became the most recent record-breaking angler in Missouri when he hooked a river redhorse March 4 on Tavern Creek using a rod and reel. The new “pole and line” record river redhorse weighed 10 pounds, 3 ounces. The new record breaks the previous state record and world record pole-and-line river redhorse of 9-pound, 13-ounces caught at Tavern Creek in 2016. Maverick was using worms when he caught the fish. Missouri Department of Conservation staff verified the record-weight fish using a certified scale in Brinktown. River redhorse fish, part of the sucker family, are a moderately chubby, coarse-scaled fish with a dorsal fin containing 12 or 13 rays. They can be found throughout the Ozarks, according to MDC. 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, IGFA 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,” said MDC fisheries programs specialist Andrew Branson. For more information on state-record fish, visit the MDC website at http://bit.ly/2efq1vl.