Billings (MT) Gazette reported first: Joshua Boyer, 7, of Billings caught a record walleye for his age group, 10 and younger, as judged by the International Game Fish Association. He caught the fish on the Missouri River downstream from the Fred Robinson Bridge. If you think fishing is just a sport or pastime, then meet Joshua Boyer. Fishing has changed his life.
Lean, lanky and with a clean-shaven head, Joshua sprawled his 46-pound, barefoot frame across a camouflage bean bag couch for his first interview. The couch was the only furniture in a basement room that has “The Man Cave” painted on the wall between two bull elk silhouettes. His grandfather, Jim Boyer, has loaned two black bear hides and a collection of deer antlers and antelope horns to decorate the walls and add to the man cave mood.
Joshua is 7 years old, and some of the details of his exciting fish story were filled in by his mother, Laura. She’s not supposed to be in the man cave, Joshua pointed out, but he was allowing it this one time. Jim also helped out with a telephone interview.
Missouri monster
Joshua was fishing out of his grandfather’s 18-foot jet boat on the Missouri River about 15 to 20 miles downstream of the Fred Robinson Bridge on Nov. 6, along with his mother and little brother, Sammy, who is 3.
“We were tossing jigs with big minnows on them,” Jim said. “He did everything. He’s a good little fisherman.”
Well, almost everything. Joshua acknowledged that his mom had to impale the minnow on the hook for him.
As Joshua was casting away, he hooked something heavy. At first, Laura thought he’d gotten tangled up in more moss, which they’d caught a lot of that day. But Joshua said he knew better.
“I thought I had a sailfish,” he said. “And I thought it was going to pull me out of the boat. But I’m heavier than the fish. But it seemed heavier.”
Jim was on the other side of the boat when he noticed that Laura had picked up the landing net. Then he saw the sharp arc in Joshua’s fishing rod.
“I didn’t even know he had a big fish on until he got it up to the boat,” Jim said. “As soon as I saw the flash of that fish, I grabbed the net from his mother and almost knocked his brother into the water.”
Jim has caught his share of big fish, so he knew Joshua was onto something larger than normal. But he was still very excited.
“He wrenched that net out of my hand so fast,” Laura said.
One for the record book
When Jim netted the fish, Joshua was surprised by the size of it.
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