25 lbs., but Justin urged him to shoot anyway. Crae’s long shot found the mark and the fish came over the side after a short battle.
They agreed to weigh the fish after the night was over and just continued fishing. They put some more suckers in the boat before the night was over, but nothing that compared to the big fish in the barrel. When they got home Crae scrounged up a fishing scale and they weighed the fish for the first time. After a quick check on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) website under Alternate Methods they realized that this sucker could be a new state record.
The fish was put on ice for the night and the next day Crae decided to skip school and, with the help of his mother and grand-father, seek out the necessary resources to certify his catch. Their first stop was (of all places) his school, where Crae wanted to show the fish to his science teacher, who is also an avid angler. Then, following the directions found on the WDNR website they headed to a local
market to have the fish weighed
on a certified scale, where it officially weighed 10 lbs. 15 oz. Next, they tracked down a state fish biologist who happened to be checking anglers during the spring walleye run in the Shaw-ano area. The biologist verified the catch as a Silver Red-horse, which is one of the few legal redhorse species that can be taken with a bow and arrow in Wisconsin. The biologist provided them with an app-lication to fill out to send into the state, but it had to be notarized, so the last stop was at a local bank for that service.
Crae dropped the app-lication in the mail the next day and the state of Wisconsin sent him an official certificate recognizing his catch a couple of months later. In the meantime Justin, who had started dabbling in taxidermy, decided to mount the fish for his brother. The fish now hangs proudly in Crae’s home.
The Weyauwega Mill Pond was controversially drained in June, 2011 and refilled in April, 2013 in an effort to remove some of the aquatic vegetation because it made the water virtually unusable
by recreational boaters during the summer months. However, locals now claim the draining has severely hampered a great fishery, especially for largemouth bass. Crae and Justin have only fished there a couple of times since the record was taken and reports are that the fish populations aren’t nearly what they were prior to the drawdown.
Nearly 5 years later, the brothers still fish together quite often and have taken their bowfishing to new levels. Justin started Carpzilla Bow-fishing Charters and for the past few years has been taking people out on guided trips to introduce them to the sport. Additionally, Justin and Crae have hit the tournament trail and captured the attention of sponsors like: Bowhunting.com, Woody-Wire, Kory Barnes Photography, Xcel Outdoors, Old 45 Archery, Dale Gas and Oil, ODA Cam and Wausau Archery. This year they plan to travel to tourna-ments throughout Wisconsin, as well as some out-of-state tournaments to help promote their sponsors and hopefully win some great money and prizes.
14
Redhorse (continued from page 13)
Crae continues to bowfish with his brother Justin. Here Crae poses with a white bowfin taken in September, 2014.
January, 2015
Crae poses with the silver redhorse that put his name in the
Wisconsin record book
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