For the second time in three weeks a state record fish is recorded. On May 5, Derek Larson of Mandan used a bow and arrow to bring in this 45 inch long, 57 pound, 8 ounce buffalo fish from Heart Butte reservoir. The old record was 54 pounds by Keith Huschka of Dickinson in 2011 from the Heart River. The North Dakota Game and Fish department says the fish is the largest fish ever weighed in the state that’s not a paddlefish or pallid sturgeon.
His record came just two weeks after Derek Barnick, of Tappen, took a 31 pound, 9 ounce common carp from Lake Etta-Alkaline with a bow and arrow. That broke the record of 31 pounds set by Thompson resident Austin Loberg, who caught his whopper in the Sheyenne River in 2003.
