Fishing guide snags 100-plus pound bighead carp, breaking own Oklahoma record

Already with his name in the Oklahoma record books, Bryan Lee Baker has just upped the ante.

The fishing guide from northeast Oklahoma previously snagged a state-record catch in May 2023 with a “massive” 118-pound, 3-ounce bighead carp, according to the Oklahoma Department of Conservation.

Now, Baker has made it even more difficult for his record to be broken.

On April 26 on the Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees, Baker was up to it again. He snagged a 118-pound, 10-ounce carp to break his own state record, officials said.

Baker touted the carp as being a possible word record. But, as Outdoor Life reported, it cannot be classified as an International Game Fish Association world record because he snagged it instead of catching it in the traditional method.

Conservation officers were more than thrilled for Baker’s help in removing the giant fish from the water.

Officials say the invasive species causes devastation to native species by eating so much plankton that there is not enough left over.

“Because of their feeding habits, bighead carp are a direct competitor with our native species like paddlefish, and bigmouth buffalo; as well as all larval and juvenile fishes and native mussels,” officials said.

Baker told Wired2Fish he locates carp by utilizing sonar technology, often finding them 20 feet deep.

“There’s not that many carp, so I gotta search a good bit to find them,” Baker told the publication. “But they’re huge, so (they) show up well.”

The Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees is about an 80-mile drive northeast from Tulsa.

This story was originally published April 30, 2025 at 9:11 AM with the headline "Fishing guide snags 100-plus pound bighead carp, breaking own Oklahoma record."