The MeatEater

On Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025, Scott Lennox banked a 64.22-pound common carp from a lake in California, breaking the U.S. record.

It was no accident. Lennox is one of the small, secretive band of individuals who target trophy carp—fish of 40 pounds and upwards—and they’re as obsessive and maniacal in their pursuit as any group of anglers in US fishing.

When Pennsylvania-based carp specialist Yuriy Nesterov identified a small overlooked park lake with high potential, he fished it constantly for a year without a single bite. He was eventually rewarded with the first documented catch of a 30-, 40-, and 50-pounder in one session.

Olivier Gandzadi has spent decades solo-pioneering the carp potential of the massive Columbia River, from the tidal reaches all the way to the Snake River, based on nothing but his own experience.

Fishing bum Al St. Cyr moved house to be closer to Lady Bird Lake in the middle of Austin, Texas, when he heard it was scheduled to host a trophy carp competition and then spent months chumming the water with a specially formulated carp bait imported from England. He was motivated by a huge cash prize put up by The American Carp Society (and naively underwritten by Lloyds of London), for any angler breaking the Texas state record during the tournament. He managed to do it with a fish of over 43 pounds, pocketing a cool $250,000.

Scott Lennox, a 35-year-old ex-international rugby player and transplant to the Bay Area from England, wasn’t even aware carp existed in the U.S. until a few years ago. He’d fished for the species since childhood with his brother, a well-known U.K. carp angler, but it wasn’t until he spotted another fisherman at a local pond with a distinctive European carp setup that he began to get back into the sport.

“Meeting Nico turned out to be one of the luckiest fishing encounters of my life,” Scott said. “After we got talking, he shared the location of a nearby city lake where he’d caught carp up to 20 pounds. On just my second trip there, I was fortunate enough to land a 20-pounder myself. At that point, I was really back into it, and I fished that lake about 40 times, pretty soon getting to know a small, informal group of guys who carp fished locally and shared information.”

There’s very little written content or reliable historical record to go on if you’re serious about tracking down big carp. Many regular fishermen either struggle to properly identify the species, or have no idea how big they can actually grow, so gaining access to informed local knowledge is key. It’s what led Scott to the water that would eventually break the record.

“In the winter of 2024, things really started to come together,” he said. “I’d heard reports of carp being caught in nearby water, which would be the largest lake I’d ever fished. There were rumors of occasional really big fish coming out of it, like an upper 40 or 50. It’s a very fertile water, with lots of invertebrates, snails, crawfish, and forage fish.”

Carp angling is typically done from the shore, and one big downside to the lake is that it has very little foot access. When his first spot didn’t produce after a couple of trips, Scott committed to hiking one and a half hours around the lake to a more promising spot, carrying all the gear he needed for a multiple-day camping and fishing session.

The biggest and wariest carp are often nocturnal feeders, so keen carpers usually fish multiple rods through the night. Some use custom landing nets and cushioned mats to lay the fish on, rod holders with built-in electronic alarms, serious amounts of chum, and a myriad of other customized camping items and tackle. One of the hottest gadgets in European carp angling is, unsurprisingly, a power-assisted wheelbarrow to cart it all around in.

That isn’t Scott’s approach. He’d already pared down his gear to an absolute minimum after a few seasons of using a bike to access local lakes, and he was used to roughing it from days spent hiking into the harsh backcountry of Cyprus, where he lived for a while, in search of quiet fishing spots. In California, he fished through the night close to his rods from a cheap camping chair.

The effort paid off. He landed his first fish from the lake at the new spot: a dark, hard-fighting 23-pounder and went on to catch more than two dozen fish over the summer and fall, up to 36 pounds.

To coincide with his birthday, he planned a four-day return trip beginning Saturday, December 20th, 2025. Two days in, he caught just a single 29-pounder, but unbeknownst to Scott a group of giant fish moved into the water in front of him, attracted by the flavored bait he was using.

Monday morning his bite alarm ripped to life and line began pouring off the spool. After a violent first run, the fight settled into a slow, steady battle before he slipped the net under a huge common carp of just over 50 pounds, smashing his personal best for the species by 14 pounds.

Probably fewer than 20 people have caught a carp over 50 pounds in the U.S., so Scott was understandably ecstatic, viewing the rest of the session as a victory lap:

“My fishing buddy Andrii Anpilogov came out the next day with his teenage son Mark, and I said to him: ‘How do I prove it wasn’t luck?’ He replied, ‘You just have to catch another one,’ and we both laughed, knowing the chances were almost zero.”

About 30 minutes after that conversation, he got another screaming run. Though it felt like a very substantial fish, he thought maybe it had picked up some weed during the fight.

“I actually said to Andrii, ‘Don’t worry, I don’t think it’s very big.’ There aren’t a lot of snags or things to worry about in this spot, so I just gave it room to run around and tire itself out for what felt like about 15 minutes.”

Andrii helped out with the netting and weighing and probably recalls the moment more clearly than Scott:

“It actually took three or so attempts to get the fish into the net. It just didn't want to fit: that was the moment when it became clear that we'd got a monster. And that was also the moment when Scott finally showed some emotion. Once we got the fish onto the unhooking mat, we both just started laughing like crazy.”

The fish weighed 64.22 pounds on a scale that was later certified by the IGFA (actually testing a few ounces light consistently across test weights between 12 and 100 pounds) and beat the old widely accepted U.S. record by more than two pounds.

There are admittedly a few problems with establishing “official” carp records in the U.S., including the reliability and proper documentation of legacy state records. Some states do not record any carp records, while others do not differentiate between fish caught on rod-and-reel and bow or spear. There is also an extreme reluctance among keen carp anglers to tip off the bowfishing community about specific locations, so some claims are difficult to verify. (Scott’s lake is deliberately not named for that reason.)

But in the near 150-year history of the species being introduced to America, his fish stands as the biggest deliberately angled-for and documented common carp in the U.S. to date.

Randall Williams guest hosts MeatEater Trivia with Brody Henderson, Seth Morris, Max Barta, Sarah Delany, Nate Mason, and Alyssa Smith.

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Host Clay Newcomb continues his personal exploration of the Civil War with historian J.D. Huitt of The History Underground YouTube channel. J.D. surprises Clay with historical documentation of his own third-great-grandfather, Thomas Newcomb, a Confederate soldier from southwest Arkansas. As they continue through the history of the war, Clay attempts to answer one of the most challenging questions in American history: Why did ordinary people choose to fight?

The search for answers leads Clay and J.D. to the Fayetteville National Cemetery and the graves of Union soldiers who were scalped after the Battle of Pea Ridge. From there, they dive into the overlooked story of Native Americans in the Civil War, exploring why thousands of Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole soldiers sided with the Confederacy and the remarkable story of Stand Watie, the last Confederate general to surrender.

Thank you to our sponsor, Tecovas.

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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) held its latest oil and gas lease sale for Alaska's Coastal Plain on June 5, offering 58 tracts within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The sale comes as federal agencies move forward with new directives and legislative requirements aimed at expanding oil and gas leasing opportunities in Alaska.

The results marked a notable change from the previous Coastal Plain lease sale in 2025, which received no bids. This year, two entities submitted bids on a total of five tracts totaling 72,490 acres out of the 688,829 offered.

The answer largely comes down to a series of recent executive and legislative actions directing federal agencies to expand energy development opportunities in Alaska. According to the BLM, the agency is “implementing direction to unlock Alaska’s energy potential through Executive Order 14153 and Secretary's Order 3422 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21).”

Federal leasing efforts in Alaska are also unlikely to end with this sale. Under Section 50104 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Congress directed the Department of the Interior to conduct at least four lease sales within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's Coastal Plain over the next 10 years. The legislation also establishes how revenues generated from those sales are divided between the federal government and the State of Alaska.

According to BLM's sale summary, only two entities participated in the sale: the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), a state-owned economic development corporation, and Hex Energy LLC, a small independent Alaska-based energy company. No major international oil companies submitted bids during the auction.

Of the 58 tracts offered, bids were received on just five tracts totaling 72,049 acres. AIDEA submitted the winning bids on three tracts, while Hex Energy LLC secured two tracts. Together, the winning bids generated $3,741,528 in revenue.

The largest bid of the sale was submitted by Hex Energy LLC for Tract 112, a 23,446-acre parcel that received a winning bid of $1,705,697. Hex Energy also secured tract 82, an 11,438-acre parcel for $477,537. The remaining three tracts were awarded to AIDEA with winning bids ranging from roughly $399,490 to $646,254.

Under the Coastal Plain leasing program, 50% of the revenue generated from the sale is allocated to the State of Alaska. According to the BLM sale summary, Alaska's share of the June 2026 lease sale is expected to total roughly $1.87 million.

While the June 2026 sale attracted more interest than the previous Coastal Plain lease sale, which received no bids, most of the acreage offered by the Bureau of Land Management ultimately went unleased.

For hunters, anglers, and conservationists, the sale represents another chapter in the ongoing debate over the future of Alaska's Arctic Wildlife Refuge. The Coastal Plain provides habitat for a variety of wildlife species, including caribou, migratory birds, muskoxen, and polar bears, while also containing oil and gas resources that federal policymakers have increasingly sought to develop. Although leases have now been issued on five tracts, additional permitting, environmental review, and exploration activities would be required before any future development could occur.

Feature images via US Fish and Wildlife Service and BLM.

I funded my extended stay in college by working at a local gunshop on weekends and semester breaks. For five or so years I saw thousands of guns come through those doors. I had the privilege of shouldering a handful of rifles I knew I’d never own. Some of them lived behind bars or velvet-lined cases. Before leaving for my first “real” job, I managed to walk away with a few good ones: a slick Winchester Model 70 featherweight in Jack O’Connor’s beloved .270 Win. and, my personal favorite, a Savage Model 99F in .308.

There were plenty others I would have loved to have taken home, and there were several you couldn’t have paid me to take. In a world of sub-MOA obsession, it actually requires a lot less to make a good hunting rifle. Unfortunately, the same goes for bad ones. Sporadic groups, failures, and misfires aren’t something you want in a hunting rifle, but there are some guns that deliver those tangibles reliably.

While compiling this list, I consulted with a few old coworkers, now good buddies, from that gunshop. These are the rifles we all agreed earned a reputation for being some of the worst hunting rifles of all time. You might own one of these dreaded firearms or even have one that functions and shoots properly. Just remember, there are always exceptions to the rule.

If we had awarded a prize at that gun shop for the hunting rifle sold most when labeled “as-is,” the 742 “jam-o-matic” would have won unanimously. It doesn’t matter whether you own the 742, 740, 7400, Model Four, or 750, they’re all basically the same rifle in a lineage of unreliable autoloaders. They’re kind of like the villain in a slasher movie franchise that just won’t die.

To be fair, the Remington autoloaders I saw come through those shop doors hardly showed signs of routine maintenance, if any at all. Those gas-operated guns didn’t require much to slow them down. The chambers were rust-prone, and the actions were notorious for failing under the slightest powder fouling. It didn’t help that they spent all of deer season in the cabs of deer-dog hunters’ pickups.

Excuses aside, they aren’t exactly the easiest rifles to clean. For better or worse, they’re always compared to the highly coveted and reliable 760/7600, Remington’s famous slide or pump-action rifle. Whereas the 760/7600 always functioned, the 740/742 failed reliably.

It pains me to include this rifle for sentimental reasons alone. My grandfather bought a Savage 170 in .30-30 from one of his hunting buddies, which he gifted to me when I turned 13. It was my first deer rifle, and I killed my first deer with it later that year.

In fact, I dropped that deer, thanks to a rogue shot that severed that basket rack’s spine. My father chalked it up to my nervousness, but a follow-up session at the range and several boxes of ammo revealed the rifle’s inability to group consistently. So much so that my father loaned me a Marlin 336 and told me to forget about the 170.

Chambered only in .30-30 Win. and .35 Rem., the Savage 170 offered a more affordable alternative to the Remington 760. In fact, Savage used the same footprint from their model 67 shotgun to keep costs down, and that same breech system limited the cartridge offerings. Unfortunately, the 170 failed to deliver the same performance and cartridge offerings as the 760 and earned a reputation for jamming, something never associated with the Remington 760.

The trigger is long and mushy, and the single, as opposed to a double, slide action bar gives the forend its classic rattle. That’s also why it doesn’t feel nearly as tight as the 760. There’s a reason its run lasted just over a decade. Still, it’s a cool conversation piece and a quietly (albeit deservedly) forgotten rifle.

Under its prior ownership, Remington rolled out the economy line Model 770 as a cheaper alternative to the 700 (which had plenty of problems of its own during this time). Beyond the price, there was nothing remotely likeable about these guns. The cheap and obnoxiously plastic stocks, finicky box magazines, and sticky bolts made it one of the worst-handling and shooting rifles. The long-action 770s were notorious for feeding issues or failing to eject a spent casing.

Compared to Savage’s Axis, then Remington-owned Marlin XT (how ironic), and soon to follow Ruger American line of rifles, it flopped at the time. Every time someone walked through the shop doors looking to sell or trade a 770, my coworkers and I let out a collective sigh. Eventually, we stopped accepting them, especially after a pile of them in .300 Win. Mag. or 7mm Rem. Mag. occupied most of the used rack.

As someone who owned a decently accurate Remington 710, predecessor to the 770, I can attest that not all of them are complete boat paddles. It’s likely that you’ll come across forums where 770 owners staunchly defend their beloved rifles. Then again, you’ll come across more of the rifles themselves, collecting dust on some used gun rack.

It’s a shame that this rifle landed here, given its one-piece stock design, detachable box magazine, and overall sleek design.

Like the Remington 742/740, Winchester’s Model 100 earned a reputation for jamming, something its biggest fans will readily admit. It also had serious firing pin issues that often led to accidental discharges, which forced Winchester to launch a recall in 1990.

I saw a few Model 100s come through the shop during my time there, and they certainly had a niche clientele, mostly collectors. While the stocks are streamlined, they’re beefy. If you thought the 740/742 had plenty of creep, the Model 100 gave you ample time to flinch or rethink your purchase.

This isn’t a Remington hate article. For every gun listed on here, I can give you another Remington rifle that I adore. The Remington 760/7600, Model Seven, 700, and Nylon 66 are some of the best hunting rifles, but that doesn’t mean big green didn’t get it wrong a few times. And boy did they with the 597 .22 LR.

Released to compete with the Ruger 10/22, the 597 never came close. Feed, magazine, and jamming issues doomed this rifle. In college, I received a 597 in a trade. My buddy wanted to sweeten the deal, and that should have been a dead giveaway.

It produced wildly sporadic groups when you could find ammo that it would actually cycle. Sometimes the magazine would just fall out. Like my buddy, I tried to throw this rifle in a couple of trades. I think it’s dying a slow death in the corner of my dad’s closet.

When we give whitetail bucks too much credit, we tend to shoot for perfection in our hunts. Not only is that unattainable, it's unnecessary. Learn to live with good enough in your setups, and you'll actually be better off in the deer woods.

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Calling on the photographic record made of the American West from 150 to 100 years ago, modern photographers have repeated many of the same scenes and found remarkable differences in the ecology and look of western landscapes. The question is, why such change?

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Check out more MeatEater's American History audio originals "The Long Hunters" and "Mountain Men"

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Steven Rinella and the MeatEater crew discuss: Steve's foray into spearing for walleye; the sketchy science behind pouring soda on fish; eating animals that eat rotten meat; an update on the NRA's legal troubles; an "outbreak" of mushroom poisonings in California; the first mule deer harvested in Alaska; Randall's experience collaring fawns in Wyoming; and more.

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From high-profile poaching cases involving giant bucks, to our personal failures during encounters with good deer, the reality is that giant whitetails have the ability to melt our brains and make us all dumb in the moment.

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