Angler Breaks 64-Year Minnesota Record in Giant Nighttime Muskie Catch
In late November, a young angler caught a Minnesota state record muskie. But the catch still falls short of the world record by more than 10 pounds!
They call the muskellunge, or muskie, the fish of 10,000 casts. But one Minnesota angler’s muskie catch last month was one in a million.
Nolan Sprengeler, 27, of Minnetonka, caught the new Minnesota state record muskie, a 55-pound, 14.8-ounce muskellunge, out of Mille Lacs Lake on Nov. 22. He submitted his record application on Nov. 23 to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. After an investigation, the DNR announced the new state record on Wednesday.
The lucky angler shared the news in a Facebook post:
Minnesota State Record Muskie
The new Minnesota weight-based state record now sits at 55 pounds, 14.8 ounces. An angler caught the previous record, a 54-pound muskie, from Lake Winnibigoshish in 1957.
Sprengeler said he’d intended to release the muskie and had planned to submit it for the catch-and-release record, but the fish was unresponsive after an hour of attempted revival. So they took it to a certified scale to “crush the Minnesota State Record.” Sprengeler’s catch measured 57.75 inches long. The Minnesota catch-and-release record sits at 57.25 inches.
Both these records pale in comparison to the current world-record muskie. That fish came out of Wisconsin’s Lake Court Oreilles in 1949 and weighed an incredible 67 pounds, 8 ounces.
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