THE NEW STATE RECORD COMMON CARP 55#   1 oz taken by Tim Dernosek,  Of Blue Springs, Missouri at Lake Lotawana Many fishing and hunting records are broken by chance.  Maybe they are all broken by chance, a lucky break, being in the right place at the right time.  I reciently heard of a Tanecomo Lake record for rainbow trout that was broken by a kid that stuck a french fry on their hook and threw it in.  Stories like these make some of us crazy, those of us who dream of and pursue the biggest and best.  How can chance favor the the kid without a clue when we work so hard at catching the lunker of  life time or bagging the biggest buck in the forest? For those of us who believe the true definition of luck is when preparation and effort meet opportunity this is a story for you. The night of May 28th 2002, three men headed into the darkness to do a little bow fishing and test their new bowfishing lighting system.  The boat held two state bowfishing record holders when they left the dock and three state record holders when they returned.   The three men were Dave Williams, three time state record holder, Jeff Burnett, who holds the Missouri record for Grass Carp, and Tim Dernosek, avid tournament bowfisherman.  When it comes to bowfishing these guys are serious.

The Lake
Lake Lotawana, is the same lake that gave up the former record carp for Dave Williams in 1999.  The lake is a private residential area so access is not open to the general public.  The lake is around 200 acres, the south arm runs about 2 miles from the dam and the west arm streatches out about a mile and a half.  The lake has a good number of knooks and cranies and coves.  It is probably not the lake that has any special ability to grow large fish rather the fact that Dave Williams lives on this lake and bow fishes it frequently that made it turn out two state records in a row.

The Night
Bowfishing legend says there is one night a year when the really big carp come into the shallows to spawn.  One night.  When Tim and the guys got out that night and started seeing a lot of big fish they made up their mind they were only after the biggest.  The fish they normally see in a night are more plentifull 5-15 pound fish.  This night the big ones were up and the smaller fish were not.  If we look at the date this record fish was taken and the moon phase on that date we will see that the moon was full just two days earlier.  Is this the night of the monster carp?  On or around the full moon of May or early June?  Maybe if we ask real nice Horntagger will work up a moon chart on these bow fishing records.  You can see his new moon chart for this falls hunting season click here.

The Record
For all we know this fish could be the world record common carp taken with a bow.  The Missouri record includes more than just bowfishing.  This is actually an "alternate methods" record for the state of Missouri.  This record system includes all legal means other than rod and reel so it is not specific to bowfishing.   There is no real comprehensive records kept on fish taken with a bow and few other states that keep records of alternate method fish taken.  I did find bow fishing records specifically in texas though an their record comon carp is 46.4 pounds and their record grass carp is 65.25, now their aligator gar record makes ours look like a dink the texas bow fishing record for aligator gar is 290 pounds.  I contacted a couple national bow fishing organizations and their record books are only open to members and they had a record common carp of 39 pounds.  I did find a record of a common carp record for the state of Mississippi of 74 pounds but this was probably not a bow fishing record and their grass carp record was only 35 pounds.  Kinda sounds like they might have those two records transposed.

More to come

FOR INFORMATION ON THESE AND OTHER BOW FISHING TOURNAMENTS CONTACT: Dave Williams, 816-578-4966 Rt. 4 V-69 Lake Lotawana, MO 64086