State-record fish caught 15 minutes into Missouri brothers’ outing. ‘Extremely lucky’

A Missouri man quickly canceled his fishing trip with his brother when he reeled in a 3-pound fish on the Missouri River.

It wasn’t just any fish, it was a state record. The 3-pound skipjack herring caught by Anthony Rozniak on Dec. 6 tied the Missouri pole-and-line records that were set in 2017 and 2019.

He caught the record fish on a day he and his brother were on the hunt for catfish, the Missouri Department of Conservation said in a news release.

“We had only been out fishing for 15 minutes by the time I caught it,” Rozniak said, according to the news release. “I looked at my brother and said, ‘I hate to cancel our fishing trip, but we got a state record! We got to go!’”

The fish was certified at the Missouri Department of Conservation’s office in St. Louis, making it the fifth record catch of the year.

Rozniak, of St. Peters, said he was looking at the state records with his brother five months ago.

“(I) said to my brother, if we did break one, it would be a skipjack,” he said. “I honestly never thought it would happen, but I feel extremely lucky.”

Skipjack herrings can reach up to 21 inches long and weigh up to 3 ½ pounds, officials say, with their name stemming from how “they often leap from the water when pursuing the minnows and other small fishes that make up the bulk of their diet.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2023 at 12:37 PM with the headline "State-record fish caught 15 minutes into Missouri brothers’ outing. ‘Extremely lucky’."