GALENA, ALASKA — A 3-year-old girl fishing with a piece of hot dog and a Barbie rod has landed a 21-foot sturgeon on the Yukon River, a catch officials are calling a world record and, quite possibly, the largest freshwater fish ever pulled from Alaskan water by anyone, including toddlers.
Little Annie Jokic had been targeting catfish — in the sense that a 3-year-old can target anything — when she lobbed a chunk of hot dog into the river and, moments later, found herself attached to something prehistoric.
The night before, she and her mother had spooled extra braided line onto the Barbie pole “just in case” they tangled with a big catfish, maybe in the ten-pound range. They had not planned for 200 pounds. Or 200 years!
The fight lasted 15 hours. Fortunately, Alaska is currently under 24-hour daylight, so Annie was spared the indignity of a nap or a bedtime. She took two breaks: Chick-fil-A for lunch, delivered by a new pilot program called Boat DoorDash — whose driver was under strict instructions not to cut off the fish on the way in — and fresh moose jerky for dinner. Between bites, she held the rod.
When the fish finally surfaced, it took two tape measures laid end to end to record it: 21 feet, 3 inches. The entire village turned out to watch, and several longtime residents confirmed they had seen 15-footers before but “nothing like this.” Old-timers pegged the animal at roughly 200 years old, “give or take a century.”
Heredity may help explain it. Annie’s uncle is NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, meaning freakish, load-bearing strength apparently runs in the family.
After a few photographs and official measurements for the Sturgeon Hall of Fame, the prehistoric monster was released back into the Yukon, seemingly unbothered by the whole affair.
