Kansas City, Mo. — Bryan Chapman will be telling stories for years about the big one that almost got away.
Fishing at Lake Taneycomo with his 15-year-old son, Blake, Chapman had a huge brown trout hooked and to the edge of the boat. But then the giant took one last lunge and snapped the 4-pound-test line.
Seeing the fish paused after getting free, Chapman quickly got a landing net and scooped the fish up. And in the process, he netted a Missouri state record.
The brown trout weighed 27 pounds, 8.8 ounces, topping the former mark of 26 pounds, 13 ounces, caught in 1997 at Bull Shoals Lake.
"When my line broke, the fish just laid there on its side, like it was tired from the fight," said Chapman, 47, who lives in the St. Louis area. "I told my son to get me the net, and he handed me our trout net. I said, 'No, the big net.'
"I just couldn't believe the size of that fish. I had never seen a trout like that one."
To Chapman's dismay, the incident turned controversial. Once word of his catch hit the rumor mill, some fishermen accused Chapman of illegally netting the fish. Regulations prohibit fishermen from netting free-swimming gamefish.
But the Missouri Department of Conservation investigated and backed Chapman. Fisheries officials said the fisherman was justified in netting a fish that had been hooked and just escaped.
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