The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reports that Mitchell Dering, of Fairdealing, shot the third state record fish recorded in 2023 – a 4-pound brown bullhead.
Dering shot the fish while bowfishing at Duck Creek Ditch #105 on March 14.
The previous state record brown bullhead was a 2-pound, 7-ounce fish caught in 1994 from Wappapello Lake.
“I got off work that day and went out to one of the ditches in Duck Creek and just got lucky, honestly,” Dering said.
“We shoot a lot of smaller fish. I knew it was a bullhead, but didn’t know if was a brown bullhead. But I knew it was large for its size.”
