PORTLAND - While fishing for crappie, Chuck Piker of Hamburg entered into the state fishing record books with a catch he made July 11. “All I ever fish for is crappie or bass, whatever bites minnows,” he said. “I had no idea what I had.”

Piker caught a 45.6-pound fresh water drum on Lake Wilson Brake near Portland in southeast Arkansas. He landed the giant fish on a graphite jig pole with a live minnow on a six-pound test line. The fish was 37½ inches long. The fish was weighed at the U.S. Post Office in Hamburg and identified by Diana Andrews, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission assistant district fisheries biologist.

The previous state record was a 35.2-pound fish caught on DeGray Lake by W.B. Castleberry of Hot Springs on April 11, 2000.

Piker said it took him 15 to 20 minutes to bring the fish in. “I was a little worried it might get caught in the tress,” he said.

Piker’s friend, Dennis King, missed netting the drum the first time it came close to the boat. “I told him, ‘You can’t be doing that, we don’t get many chances at doing something like this,’” Piker said.

While Piker fishes mostly for crappie, this would not be the first big fish he has caught. He said he caught a 35-pound spoonbill two years ago on four-pound test line.

AGFC