Jarrett Knize caught the apparent Illinois-record bighead carp Saturday from Humboldt Park.
He was fishing a 13 Fishing Magic Man, a lipless crankbait, about 4 p.m. Saturday when he latched into the big fish.
“I was fishing for bass,” Knize said. “It started running and it was running clearly faster than a big turtle. So I thought it might be a 50-pound catfish.”
Good thing Knize was using 25-pound Seaguar Abrazx line.
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After landing it, he took the bighead to Park Bait at Montrose Harbor, where it was too heavy to be weighed on their certified scale. So Cory Gecht weighed it on their bigger uncertified scale, where it came to 74 pounds.
With that, the story moved south to Bridgeport. Tom Palmisano of Henry’s Sports and Bait opened up their shop after hours and Knize weighed it on Henry’s biggest certified scale at 72 pounds, 8 ounces.
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Jack Bailey holds the Illinois hook-and-line record for bighead carp for one of 69 pounds caught May 4, 2010 from the Kaskaskia River below the Carlyle Dam.
Knize’s record will not be official until Michael McClelland, chief of fisheries for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, signs off on the paperwork after it is completed and submitted.
Randy Koronkiewicz and Palmisano witnessed the weighing of Knize’s bighead, which was 52 inches long with a girth of 34 1⁄2 inches.
Kevin Irons, assistant chief of fisheries for the IDNR, asked that at least the head be kept for the IDNR. Palmisano said the bighead will be kept at Henry’s until IDNR staff come.
The IDNR and others will do follow up on the fish and Humboldt Park. Bigheads are one of the dreaded invasive carp.
