North Dakota Bow Fisherman Shoots Record Bigmouth Buffalo

Mitch Eastabrook has been a devoted bowfisherman for 13 years, and he repeatedly shoots large tough fish on his house waters in North Dakota. However on Could 16 he shot the largest fish of his life—it’s additionally a fish that might break the state report.

“The wind had dropped to lower than 10 mph [that morning], and I made a decision to take a trip day without work work,” stated the  31-year previous electrician for the Dakota Gasification Co. “I wished to get my boat out for the primary time of the 12 months and shoot some fish to get the rust off my archery gear from a protracted winter.”

He bought his bow deal with and boat, then trailered it to three,400-acre Coronary heart Butte Reservoir. He launched solo into the lake, then ran his boat upriver into the Coronary heart River and began searching for spring-run, spawning buffalo fish.

“I bought on the water and very quickly noticed some fish,” he says. “Then I went to a few my honey holes. Subsequent factor I do know I see a faculty of males surrounding a big feminine and I knew then that the spawn was on and I hit the water at the most effective time.”

Eastabrook shot two massive fish along with his bow, a 38-pound buffalo and a 44-pounder. Each big archery fish, however he knew greater ones have been round.

“I used to be being very choosy at what I shot,” he says. “I noticed a pair hundred fish and was within the boat for about two hours after which noticed an actual large fish about midday.”

The bigmouth buffalo was in about 10 ft of clear water, six ft down, when Eastabrook took his shot with an Oneida Osprey bow.

When the arrow hit, the struggle was on, and it took Eastabrook about quarter-hour to battle the brute to the boat.

“I’d get her to the boat, and he or she would sink and swim again to the underside once more,” he says. “I bought her to the aspect of the boat and hauled her in with a gaff. I knew she was massive, so I grabbed my scale and it flew as much as 65-pounds.

“My coronary heart began pumping and I had one thought in my thoughts – I have to get off the water and to a licensed scale.”

He raced again to shore with the heavyweight fish within the boat dwell nicely.

On the boat ramp he made a video of weighing the fish at 61-pounds, 4.8-ounches. He did this earlier than the fish misplaced weight, and is adequate for a Bowfishing Affiliation of America (BAA) state report.

Subsequent, he drove to Bismarck the place the final state report buffalo was weighed at a Pony Categorical station. There, his fish formally weighed 60-pounds, 8-ounces. That’s nicely above the present 57-pound, 8-ounce bigmouth buffalo arrowed from Coronary heart Butte Reservoir in Could 2017 by Derek Larson of Mandan, North Dakota.

“I had a Sport and Fish officer verify the fish and it’s now the North Dakota state report. Simply ready on an official information launch from them,” says Eastabrook.

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Greg Energy, chief of the North Dakota Sport and Fish Fisheries Division, stated he’s conscious of Estabrook’s fish and stated it was more likely to be a state report.

BAA has accepted the video proof of the fish being weighed, and has licensed it because the North Dakota bowfishing report for the species at 61-pounds, 4.8-ounces, having a 43-inch size and a 39-inch girth.