Can a fish catch be a record-breaker even if it’s small enough to get lost in your hands? Emphatically yes! Angler Joe Johnson set a new Kentucky state record for his river chub caught on Oct. 13. Johnson landed the 7.9-inch, 0.16-pound chub from the Middle Fork Red River in Powell County using fly fishing tackle and a zebra midge that morning. For scale, that chub is lighter than your average beer brat headed for the grill.
If you’re not familiar with river chub (Nocomis micropogon), they’re not a species the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) tracks records of, likely because of its diminutive size and limited distribution. In fact, the river chub grows to about 32 centimeters and is only available in Atlantic drainages from the Susquehanna to James River, Great Lakes Basin, Ohio River Basin, and northern Georgia and Alabama, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
But Johnson highlighted a fact that many anglers miss — a state or world record catch doesn’t have to be so large that it risks breaking heavy line or blowing up reel drags. Johnson also held the state record for striped shiner (Luxilus chrysocephalus) — a fish that grows to 24 centimeters — until October 2021, according to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.
Dive into Micro Fishing
If Johnson is or isn’t aware of what he’s doing, it’s called “micro fishing.” (That’s different from micro-lure fishing, which is when anglers cast small baits that still catch fish of average or giant sizes — elephants eat peanuts.) The appeal of micro fishing isn’t about taking down giants from Jurassic Park. Instead, it’s gaining traction from some anglers by targeting species that no one else does, adding new species to your list of catches, utilizing minimalist fishing gear, potentially getting your name in the record books, and fishing in spots that many anglers think have no fish.
Growing up on a brackish water creek in the south, I’d sometimes target finger-long fish using chunks of shrimp on tiny hooks when the tide died. At the time, I didn’t realize I was catching a striking goby species that I still can’t identify to this day. It was my first foray into micro fishing.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Fishing and Boating Services conducted a survey of Maryland freshwater fishing license holders in May 2025. Anglers were asked questions about their personal experience with micro fishing, such as how often they participate.
While the majority of respondents do not intentionally target small-bodied fish, 25 percent stated that they actively micro fish. Among that group, 18 percent of the anglers indicated that they prefer to target small-bodied fish over larger gamefish.
The state’s micro fishermen often focused on diversity rather than size. Then, there was the “life-lists.” These lists of fish caught over a lifetime can sometimes contain upward of a hundred species and reflect the keen skill required to accurately identify fish. Have you ever considered just how many fish species you’ve caught?
IGFA Open Season on Small Fish
No angler that I’ve read about has mastered catching world records of oddball and unique fish species better than Steve Wozniak. I’m not talking about the co-founder of Apple Computer with Steve Jobs, but instead an IGFA representative with an obsession for fishing. In all, Wozniak has 250 total records, 126 current records, 177 number of species, and records from 31 countries.
If you happen upon his IGFA page, Wozniak’s record catches are full of fish weighing less than 2 pounds — and they’re mostly all-tackle records. In fact, his heaviest IGFA record catch is a 24-pound, 8-ounce California butterfly ray. He simply doesn’t discriminate in what he targets. Where he excels is pursuing fish that no one’s even heard of, such as sicklefish (1 lb, 8 oz) from Singapore, volga zander (1 lb, 0 oz) from Hungary, king soldier bream (2 lb, 12 oz) from Dubai, or streaked spinefoot (1 lb, 8 oz) from Thailand.
So take a page out of Steve Wozniak’s or Joe Johnson’s playbook and target something different. It doesn’t have to be bass, catfish and crappie all the time. Just in Johnson’s state of Kentucky, the creek chub (0.59 lb), northern hog sucker (1.75 lb), yellow bass (1.40 lb), white sucker (1.63 lb), and golden Shiner (0.45 lb) all seem like beatable state records.
On a worldwide scale, you’re only limited by where you can travel. But in the US, for example, the Alabama bass has vacant spots ready for the taking in different line classes. Some anglers would be absolutely gobsmacked to learn how manageable it is to land a state or world record by thinking outside the box, targeting unique species, and willingly taking a photo with a fish that some catfishermen might call bait.
