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“Then I got home the next day and I got a call from Jeff City. And they said, ‘George, not only do you have the state record, you have the world record.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me?!’
FESTUS, Mo. — It’s easy to see what George Chance is passionate about. From the fish decal on his truck to the impressive bass mouth mounted outside his garage, you’ll know this guy is at home near the water.
And Chance’s passion for fishing is genetic.
“My first memory was fishing with my dad, and I’ve loved fishing ever since I can remember,” Chance said. “We fished until it got dark and we went a quarter mile down the creek. He carried me on his shoulders and carried me home after dark so I could wade through the weeds and stay dry. Sho.”
Fishing is almost religious for Chance, as his custom paddle clearly shows.
And, believe it or not, there were times during his active career when he, now 78 years old, was unable to work due to fishing.
“(I was) fired for fishing,” Chance laughed. “I fished a stream during lunch. There were other issues, but I got fired from fishing. My wife expected that.”
On March 19th, all the jigs were made, all the crank baits were tied, and all the casters really made it big for the Festus residents.
It was a normal day fishing the Mississippi River. That was until Chance felt a pull that seemed just a little stronger than the others.
“You can almost hear the line going through the water. I got the rod up here, butt in my belly, and I had the reel…and he dragged it like an ultralight. And I had a 50-pound spider wire and I had set the drag to maybe 30 or 40 pounds, and he was stripping it. And I was like, ‘This Watch the spool go down.” He probably ran 40 yards,” Chance said.
He didn’t know it yet, but Chance had caught a big head carp weighing 97 pounds. After a 20-minute struggle, the angler brought the fish ashore.
“By the time we got to the bank he was completely exhausted. He was just about to curl up on his side. I hooked him and dragged him up to shore. I sat there catching my breath. “I’m holding him so he doesn’t fall backwards as I exhale,” Chance said.
Chance took it to a recycling center, weighed it, called a conservation group, and was told some interesting news.
“He said to me right then and there, ‘You have the state record.’ ‘You’re kidding,’ I said. He said, “No, I have a state record.” The next day I got home and Jeff City called me and said, “George, not only do you have the state record, you have the world record.” So I said, “Are you kidding me? What does that have to do with anything?”
Chance didn’t just break the rod-and-reel big head carp world record. He crushed it at 7 pounds. The fish was even bigger than his wife.
“I have a bigger girth and heavier weight than her,” Chance laughed. “When I sent the photo to her friend, she said it had been Photoshopped.”
Now the angler has a lifelong story and a world record to prove it.
“My wife said, “My head is going to get big.” I said, “Baby, even if I win the lottery, my head will never get this big.” “But I can’t stop grinning. It’s really cool. I can’t believe it. Out of all the thousands of casts I’ve made,” Chance said.
And what will be the fate of the fish? Well, it’s an invasive species in Missouri. But the fish found a purpose: fertilizing Chance’s vegetable garden.
And the lifelong angler is already planning his next world record.
“The problem, I said, is that there’s nothing left in my ‘to-do’ bucket. Life needs a goal, so I put another kind of fish in there (to go for a world record). You’ll have to put it in,” Chance said.
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