Imagine journeying nearly 1,000 miles just to get killed. That's exactly what happened to our little humble paddlefish. But whereas it was the fish's misfortune, it was good luck for the eight bowfishermen who hooked the fish.
The group was on a trip to Kentucky earlier this month. Angler Andrew Vest was fishing with friends Cody Mann and Kayla Decker.
"I looked down and there was a nice paddlefish cruising along near the surface just 15 feet away," Vest told Outdoor Life. "I drew my 'Leviathan' DeadWake bow and let my arrow fly. I hit the paddlefish a little back toward the tail. But I was able to wind it in pretty quick and used a hand gaff to get it into my boat."
The bowfishermen couldn't believe the paddlefish came all the way from South Dakota.
"I couldn't believe the fish had come all the way to Kentucky from South Dakota, so I was pretty excited when I got ahold of South Dakota fisheries," said Vest."They were pretty shocked, too. Then I called the Kentucky fisheries department, and they were stunned the fish could have traveled that far, too."
Paddlefish Journeyed To Doom
The paddlefish had been caught in 2023. It then traveled 922 miles to its doom.
"I used an app to trace how far that paddlefish would have traveled, and it was 922 miles," Vest continued. "We didn't weigh it, but we shoot a lot of paddlefish and we believe it was about 30 pounds. It was about double the size of the fish when it was tagged two years earlier in South Dakota, according to a letter I got verifying the tagged fish from the fisheries folks there."
Vest was surprised by the journey of the fish.
"I know my tracing of that paddlefish is not completely accurate, and it could have covered even more miles," Vest said. "But that fish swam down the Missouri River to the Mississippi River, then to the Ohio River and into the Tennessee River."
"We eat all the paddlefish we get during our bowfishing trips," says Vest. "Paddlefish are great tasting when fillets are cut into cubes, soaked for a while in 7-Up, then breaded and fried."
