Jefferson County Woman Catches State Record Breaking Fish

(Cedar Hill) Missouri has a new fishing record-holder and it’s a Jefferson County woman.

Sharon Christopher of Cedar Hill caught the new state record yellow perch on March 7th.

She was fishing at Bull Shoals Lake when she caught the 2-pound, 7-ounce fish.

“I got lucky because I am not an avid fisherman” laughed Christopher.

“My husband and I were out crappie fishing with some friends when I reeled in this big fish. I wasn’t quite sure what it was but luckily our friends immediately recognized it as a yellow perch. The funny thing is, they were in a separate boat pretty far away from us and could tell how big it was.”

Later that evening, Christopher said her husband was cleaning the crappie they caught and saved the perch for last.

“My friend stopped him just in time and said, ‘Don’t touch that fish!’ she recalled. “That perch was about to go under the knife but my friend just said ‘I think she’s got something.’

And sure enough we put the fish on our scale and saw that it beat the current record.

It’s the first state-record fish of 2021.

The previous record was 2-pounds and 3-ounces, also caught on Bull Shoals Lake in 2020.

The nurse from Cedar Hill says she will have her fish mounted by a neighbor who is a taxidermist.

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