Angler spears world-record-size paddlefish in ‘trip to remember’

On the final dive of the day in Beaver Lake, Chris Cantrell was hoping for a striped bass but instead speared a potential spearfishing world-record paddlefish in what he described as “a trip to remember.”

Cantrell shot the 90-pound, 12-ounce paddlefish in the Arkansas lake while spearfishing with a friend and his brother-in-law Kalvin Cackler near the dam last weekend, according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Cantrell was in 15 to 20 feet of water when he saw a large shape and thought it was a gar, but as he got closer, he saw it was a huge paddlefish and took the shot.

“I dropped the gun after the shot because the fish made a strong dive when it was hit,” Cantrell told the AGFC. “With a big fish, you drop the gun so that it doesn’t pull you down. The float line will keep it pinned. By the time I was back at the surface, the fish had already pulled the line from the gun and the 50 feet of float line. It was pulling against the float at the surface.

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