SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- Jakob Mackey of Sioux City can say something that most people can't--he's a world record holder.
Mackey caught a grass carp last August that tipped the scales at more than 71.5 pounds. He says he knew from the minute the fish hit that it was big.
"I started freaking out because I was like 'oh, yeah this is it!' I didn't realize how big it truly was until I got my hands on it. That's when it set in," he says
Mackey's fish is more than 16 pounds heavier that the previous record holder of it's kind.
As for the fish itself? Mackey says...he let it go.
"She was pretty tuckered out from the whole ordeal. I was in the water with it for roughly 30 minutes, and it finally decided to swim away," he says.
He says he's seen his true-to-life fish tale being told in articles in Texas, Illinois, New York, and in the pages of Outdoor Life magazine.