65-pound bighead carp caught by Kentucky man makes him state-record holder

A last-minute bait switch on his final cast of the day paid off big time for Eddie Young.

The Woodford County resident used that quick thinking to put his name in the Kentucky record books. The 65-pound bighead carp he caught Friday on the Kentucky River is the largest in state history, according to Fishing Kentucky Lakes, Rivers and Creeks.

It beat the former record, set in 2010, by 1 pound, the fishing publication said.

Young told Kentucky Outdoors his wife called him to come home as his final cast was in the water Friday.

“My bait of choice wasn’t working so I decided to switch to a bobber and a night crawler,” he told the website. “It was my last ditch effort to catch a fish. I saw it move about four minutes after I threw it out. It seemed like a gar at first, but the bobber dove and I set the hook and immediately it started pulling drag.”

It took him 45 minutes to haul in the fish, he told Kentucky Outdoors. The Fishing Kentucky publication described the carp as a “beast.”

Showing off his state-record haul on Facebook, he encouraged others to go fishing as well.

“Get out there, go fishing. (You) never know what you’ll catch,” he wrote.

A Facebook friend said Young caught a bighead carp the same size or larger last year but had issues certifying it. That fish was shown off by Fishing Kentucky in August 2019.

With his recent haul certified, Young compared it to “winning a state football championship, but a little better.”

“It’s a once in a lifetime thing that can happen,” he told Kentucky Outdoors. “I am truly blessed, but now it’s time to break it again.”

Bighead carp — considered to be “large, narrow fish with eyes that project downward” — are found in at least 18 states, according to the United States Geological Survey.

This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 9:50 AM.