Garfield resident Mike Schleeper (left) and his fishing buddy Tom Mayberry pose with the new state record paddlefish. Photo AGFC.
ROGERS, Arkansas – An Arkansas striper fishing sportsman had a busy day when he caught a 127-pound paddlefish.
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission officials said Garfield resident Mike Schleeper hooked the 127-pound, 6-ounce behemoth on Beaver Lake in Rogers on Saturday.
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AGFC officials reported that Schleeper said he was striper fishing with his friend Tom Mayberry when he caught the fish. He said he knew right away that this was something different, as everything he had going for him took them on a tour of the lake as part of a 45-minute challenge to catch the big fish.
“I’ve been fishing for stripers here for about 13 years and I’ve had the opportunity to catch some stripers over 30 pounds, but this was different,” Schleeper said. “He didn’t cut the line and stop in waves like the big stripers do, he just put the rod down and kept going. He couldn’t turn it, so we had to follow him with the trolling motor for about 20 minutes.”
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What followed was a 30-minute fight until Schleeper was finally able to bring in the fish.
AGFC officials made the interesting side note that the fish was caught after getting caught in its pectoral fin. Normally hook catches don’t count toward a record, officials said, but because paddlefish don’t bite lures, this was an accepted catching method.
Another snag was that Schleeper and Mayberry brought the big fish to the side of the boat, only to discover their net wasn’t big enough. They told officials they passed a rope through his mouth to lift him aboard.
“As soon as the fish hit the bottom of the boat, the hook came loose,” Schleeper said. “We were very lucky”.
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AGFC Fisheries Supervisor for Northwest Arkansas Jon Stein said the Schleeper fish is the latest in a series of paddlefish that have topped 100 pounds over the past several years in Beaver Lake. They are the product of a series of stockings that took place between 1990 and 2000 to ensure a source of broodstock should local river fisheries begin to experience declines.
“Fortunately, paddlefish continue to thrive in other rivers, and the Beaver Lake fish were never needed,” Stein said. “However, these fish are producing great trophy potential for anglers.”
Officials said the catch surpassed the previous state record of a 118-pound paddlefish set in 2020.
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