Woman out bowfishing in the dark lands record-breaker on Oklahoma lake

A woman fishing in the dark with a bow and arrow just broke a state record in Oklahoma.

Jaci NeKoda was on Fort Cobb Lake on Sunday when she caught the 9-pound, 7-ounce river carpsucker, according to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. That’s about half an ounce bigger than the previous record set in 2015, Game & Fish reports.

NeKoda told McClatchy News she and two friends were an hour into their bowfishing trip when the boat’s spotlight revealed a school of diverse fish “swimming in all directions as fast as they could swim.”

She took aim at one and fired, igniting a tug-of-war that pulled her off the deck and along the boat’s side railing.

“I ended up having to reach into the water to grab my arrow with the fish still on. There was no way I could reel it all the way in up over the side of the boat,” she said.

The trio, which included NeKoda’s fiancé Dustin Statton, continued fishing for hours, not realizing they had caught something extraordinary. The average for carpsuckers is about 4 pounds, the state says.

“It wasn’t until the night was over that we realized just how big this fish really was,” she said. “All together we probably shot five apiece that night. There was a storm rolling in and it started sprinkling, so our trip was cut short.”

She donated the fish to the Oklahoma Fisheries Research Lab in Norman, state officials posted.

Bowfishing is a cross between traditional fishing and bow hunting, using a bow and arrow rather than a rod and reel, according to The Fisheries Blog.

“You spot a fish lurking in the shallows, carefully move in closer, draw back your specially equipped bow and arrow, take aim, then let it fly,” the blog says. “If your aim is true and your barb-tipped arrow hits the mark, you reel your fish in by the line attached to your arrow.”

NeKoda says she began bowfishing six years ago, when “someone handed me a bow and said ‘Here, fish’.” Her targets are typically invasive fish, known to harm the state’s waterways, she says. Sunday was her first time on Fort Cobb Lake, she said.

“I absolutely love the sport, but more importantly I love the fish,” she said. “The bowfishing sport is high energy and challenging.”

This story was originally published June 4, 2021 at 12:16 PM with the headline "Woman out bowfishing in the dark lands record-breaker on Oklahoma lake."