Black Buffalo - Jordan Mitchell
It’s becoming clear that early spring and late fall are prime times to chase massive buffalo. On November 9, 2013 Jordan Mitchell of Arab, Alabama, his wife Amy, and one of their sons, ventured out onto Lake Guntersville for a little family time. Although all of his four children like to bowfish, this night only his youngest son made the trip, even though he wasn’t feeling the greatest.
The trip didn’t start out too well. A miscommunication between Jordan and his wife led to the launch rope being missed and their boat began to float away. Jordan had to strip down and swim out to get it. Undaunted, they fired up the kicker motor and the halogen lights and went looking for some fish to bring to the local turtle farmers.
The water was fantastically clear, allowing them to see in excess of 10 feet and as Jordan worked through a spot he saw a large fish near the bottom. Shooting a recurve that he recently picked up with an AMS Retriever mounted to it he took the estimated 9’ shot and the arrow sunk into the fish.
He fought the giant buffalo to the surface and his wife punched a second arrow into the fish to provide some insurance. Once in the boat,
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World Record Profiles
they stood there admiring the fish only to have Jordan’s son throw up on it. They decided to call it a night.
On their way to the launch they happened upon a game warden who thought they may have a Black Buffalo. Jordan made some calls the next day and was able to track down a biologist out of Decatur that confirmed the identification and they had the fish weighed officially at 63.3 pounds.
As a member of the BAA, Jordan placed a call to former president Joe Nichols and they completed the process of having the fish recognized as the World Record.
In a strange turn of events, the former World Record Bigmouth Buffalo was recently reclassified as a Smallmouth Buffalo. This opened the door for a new record to stand in its place. There are unconfirmed reports that large fish taken in years past may resurface to claim the top spot, but for right now the record belongs to Tony Waltemath of Necedah, WI.
Tony is the current president of the Wisconsin Bowfishing Association. He predominantly fishes lakes in central Wisconsin and spends time there filling barrels with the abundant common carp and other rough fish that call these lakes home.
Tony is no stranger to shooting fish and on April 18, with partners Jason Cichy, Joe Dushek, his cousin Johnny Waltemath and Johnny's son Noah, they cruised into an area known to hold buffalo. They left the area with a new BAA World Record at 65 lbs. 10 oz. on the day he had it officially weighed.
In his own words: "My buddy Jason shot and missed a big one, so I spun the boat around and trolled a straight line back to where he had shot. A big one disappeared under the front of the boat, so I waited for it to swim out from under the corner of and I let it [the arrow] fly. My arrow hit "right in the back meat son" (thanks Chuck Belmore for that saying) and before I knew it my 15 year old cousin Noah had a back-up arrow in it too. It ran out a ways, pulling both our drags. Jason, who originally missed it, shot a 3rd arrow into it too. It was only Noah's 2nd time in a boat at night and quite a thrill for everyone. When we put it on our non-certified scale it was 68 lbs. 15oz.
I threw it out back on the carp pile before I realized it had the weight for the BAA state record (maybe world record since there wasn't one listed?). I gathered the stinky thing up in a couple garbage bags and headed to the meat market where it still officially tipped the scales to 65 lbs. 10oz.
Bigmouth Buffalo - Tony Waltemath
Jordan is no stranger to big fish. In 2013 he won the Backwater Outdoors Big Fish Challenge and proudly serves on the Copperhead Outdoors Pro-Staff
Three arrows finally subdued the new BAA World Record Bigmouth Buffalo