Sioux City Man Reels In Massive Grass Carp, Breaks World Record

We’ve all heard a few “fish stories” in our time, right? The kind where the fish somehow gets bigger every time the story gets told. One minute, it’s a respectable walleye, and by the third retelling, the person is reeling in the shark from the motion picture Jaws.

Every group of anglers seems to have at least one storyteller who swears the fish they caught back in the summer of 1994 was this big…while their arms stretch farther apart with each version of the story told.

But in the case of a Sioux City, Iowa, man last August, there’s no exaggeration needed. His fish story is the real deal, and now it’s officially record-breaking.

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Meet Jakob Mackey, the angler who managed to land an absolute monster of a fish while casting a line at Bacon Creek in Sioux City. Mackey reeled in a 71-pound, 8-ounce Grass Carp, and that catch has now earned him a spot in the record books.

According to Dakota News Now, Mackey spent more than 20 hours fishing over three days, using homemade bait in hopes of hooking something big. It ended up being mission accomplished.

The International Game Fish Association (IGFA) recently confirmed that Mackey’s catch is now the world record in the 30-pound line class. His massive carp didn’t just edge past the previous record; it blew it out of the proverbial water. The former record holder was a 55-pound, 1-ounce fish caught in Japan in 2019, meaning Mackey’s catch topped it by more than 16 pounds!

If you’ve ever done battle with a decent-sized fish, you know even a few pounds can feel like a tug-of-war with a submarine.

Mackey reportedly spent roughly 15 minutes reeling in the giant carp, which must have felt like he had the Loch Ness Monster on the line.

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Mackey's fish also now ranks #3 all-time by weight on the IGFA’s Grass Carp world record list.

Bacon Creek is the only place Mackey says he likes to fish, and after hauling in a world-record catch like that, I think it's safe to say he’s not going to be looking for a new fishing hole anytime soon.