State-of-the-art shooting range opens to the public at Tuttle Creek State Park
7 June 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – A Topeka man now has his name etched into the state history books with a new record-breaking catch out of a local reservoir.
Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks spokeswoman Nadia Marji said in a press release that Thayne Miller, of Topeka, caught a smallmouth buffalo weighing in at 64.75 pounds, measuring 45.25 inches long and with a girth of 35 inches. Miller caught the monster fish out of Clinton Reservoir near Lawrence using bowfishing equipment.
Marji said the last state record in Kansas for smallmouth buffalo was set in 1979 by Scott Butler, of Lawrence, when he pulled in a 51-pound, 41-inch smallmouth buffalo from a private farm in Douglas County.
A fish can end up as a new Kansas state record if it meets the following requirements:
The fish is caught by a licensed angler using legal means
The fish is identified by a Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks district fisheries biologist or regional fisheries supervisor
The fish is weighed on a certified scale prior to being frozen
The fish is photographed, in color, and a state record application is filled out
The mandatory 30-day waiting period has passed.
You can see a list of current Kansas state records by clicking here. Another state record was broken recently when Bobby Parkhurst, of Topeka, shattered a 60-year-old record for white crappie earlier this year.
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