Boredom leads to state record skipjack for Ozark teen

OZARK — Jeared Barnett was growing bored with trying to catch catfish in the Arkansas River on a Wednesday in early April. He was fishing below Lock and Dam 12, the Ozark Pool. He loves catfishing, he says, but he decided enough of that after only a couple of blue catfish. What he landed instead put the 17-year-old’s name in the Arkansas State Record Fish listing. Barnett landed an 18¼-inch, 2-pound, 14-ounce skipjack herring.

Barnett had switched to his crappie rod and attached a curly tail grub with black and red flake on a one-sixteenth-ounce jighead, a setup that, he says, works well in April for white bass as they’re beginning their spring run on the river.

“As soon as I pulled it in, I knew exactly what it was, but that was a big one,” Barnett said. “I’ve caught a few others, and most of them haven’t been more than a half-pound. I usually use them for bait. I’m always trying to catch a big catfish.”

The fish was officially weighed April 9 at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Russellville district office by Chelsea Gilliland, the AGFC’s Large Rivers Biologist. The previous record skipjack was caught two months earlier (Feb. 7) by Gary Brandon Miller of Russellville — a 2-pound, 12-ounce fish hooked at Lake Dardanelle. Before that, the record of 2 pounds, 10 ounces had held for 22 years. That fish was also caught at Lake Dardanelle.

Barnett recalls catching another skipjack herring that might have topped this one’s record size, but that day he handed it off to a friend, and they weren’t thinking it was a record. This time, though, he knew this catch was worth measuring.

“Jeared was such a delight,” Gilliland said, noting Barnett’s passion for fishing and his general demeanor. “Meeting him and his family is a high point of my career, and I’m so thankful I had the opportunity to be a part of their certification process. It is refreshing to see a young man so actively engaged in the Arkansas outdoors. His passion for fishing really shines through alongside his skills as an angler. Given his track record, I imagine we will be hearing from him again soon for another state record certification.”

Barnett’s smaller skipjack catches come in handy for catching blue and channel catfish in the Ozark pool, he said. Live bait helped him last week to pull in a 51-pound flathead catfish.

“I fish there a lot,” he said of the nearby locale. “I also caught a (shovelnose) sturgeon down there about a week after I caught that skipjack. That thing was cool. I pulled that thing in and said, ‘Wow, that’s cool. I threw it back. I had never seen one before.”
Barnett does his fishing from the bank, though he has fished from kayaks with friends for bass and other species.

“I’ve wanted to fish from a boat, but I haven’t gotten the opportunity,” Barnett said. “I go for any kind of catfish, crappie, white bass … I will catch a few spoonbills (paddlefish) every once in a while.”

Gilliland said, “Below the Ozark Lock and Dam on the Arkansas River is a great bank-angling location for anglers interested in targeting a diversity of species. Anglers can target anything from your typical sport fish like bass and crappie, to the more elusive sauger, and it can be a great location to snag for large fish like catfish, carp and even paddlefish.”

Barnett has attended Ozark schools but is being homeschooled this year. He wants to study wildlife biology in college, and working for an agency such as the AGFC is certainly on his mind for the future. “Oh yeah, I’ve always wanted to since I was a little one. I’ve always loved the outdoors, and I want to stay working in it.”

Gilliland notes that for anglers to submit a state record fish application, the fish must be weighed on any certified scale (even one at a grocery store is fine, but someone from the AGFC or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must be present). A fisheries professional must also identify and measure the fish, and “then we complete the official application available on the AGFC website,” she said. “You can find all the rules there for the entire process.”

Barnett’s smaller skipjack catches come in handy for catching blue and channel catfish in the Ozark pool, he said. Live bait helped him last week to pull in a 51-pound flathead catfish.

“I fish there a lot,” he said of the nearby locale. “I also caught a (shovelnose) sturgeon down there about a week after I caught that skipjack. That thing was cool. I pulled that thing in and said, ‘Wow, that’s cool. I threw it back. I had never seen one before.”
Barnett does his fishing from the bank, though he has fished from kayaks with friends for bass and other species.

“I’ve wanted to fish from a boat, but I haven’t gotten the opportunity,” Barnett said. “I go for any kind of catfish, crappie, white bass … I will catch a few spoonbills (paddlefish) every once in a while.”

Gilliland said, “Below the Ozark Lock and Dam on the Arkansas River is a great bank-angling location for anglers interested in targeting a diversity of species. Anglers can target anything from your typical sport fish like bass and crappie, to the more elusive sauger, and it can be a great location to snag for large fish like catfish, carp and even paddlefish.”

Barnett has attended Ozark schools but is being homeschooled this year. He wants to study wildlife biology in college, and working for an agency such as the AGFC is certainly on his mind for the future. “Oh yeah, I’ve always wanted to since I was a little one. I’ve always loved the outdoors, and I want to stay working in it.”

Gilliland notes that for anglers to submit a state record fish application, the fish must be weighed on any certified scale (even one at a grocery store is fine, but someone from the AGFC or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must be present). A fisheries professional must also identify and measure the fish, and “then we complete the official application available on the AGFC website,” she said. “You can find all the rules there for the entire process.”

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CUTLINES:

Jeared Barnett, 17, caught the record skipjack herring in the Ozark Pool of the Arkansas River on April 9. 

Jeared Barnett followed up his record skipjack catch in early April with a massive, 51-pound flathead catfish haul from the Ozark Pool a month later.