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Fishing

Wisconsin Angler Lands One of the Biggest Muskies Ever Caught on Green Bay

Muskies

"Fishing is a tough job, but you can tale it."

It takes a committed angler to get out on the frigid waters of Green Bay in December. But seasoned Sturgeon Bay locals Ron Hedsand and John Vieau took advantage of the mid-30s temps on Dec. 7 and headed out to chase bass and muskie on one of the best muskellunge fisheries in a state.

muskies

One of the biggest muskies caught on Green Bay.

 It's a good thing the longtime fishing partners decided to brave the chilly weather. Just a few hours later, Hedsand reeled in what the Door County Pulse is reporting as one of the biggest muskies ever caught in Green Bay.

Muskies

All things are difficult before they become easy.

 The fish measured 55 inches in length, about 10 inches longer than the upper end of the range for average muskellunge. Dedicated muskie anglers start drooling once a "Fish of 10,000 Casts" reaches the 50-inch mark, making this one a dream come true. But it wasn't just the length that shocked Hedsand and Vieau.

The girth on the this fish measured an impressive 29.5 inches, putting the estimated weight of the fish at around 60 pounds.

In a 2021 Outdoor Life story, Green Bay muskie guide Doug Wegner said the biggest muskie he knows about coming from Green Bay is a 58.25-inch fish with an estimated weight of 54 pounds (it was caught by his muskie fishing mentor Luke Ronnestrand, a Minnesota guide).

The dimensions on Hedsand's fish were so big they don't even come close to fitting on this muskie weight chart from the Missouri Department of Conservation. That's because muskies in the northern states of Wisconsin and Minnesota grow to epic proportions.

muskies

The reward of being patience and committed.

For context, one angler recently broke the West Virginia state record with a 51-pound muskie, which was the same length as Hedsand's. Add nine pounds of weight to the fish you see here and you have an idea of the size fish that Hedsand pulled out of Green Bay's waters.

Infamous muskie angler Louis Spray still holds the Wisconsin record with his 69-pound, 11-ounce catch from October 1949. His fish also holds the All-Tackle record in the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame, even with two bullet holes in its head, put there by one of Spray's partners while Spray had the fish right next to the boat.

Those two holes prevent Spray from holding the International Game Fishing Association record, which doesn't consider a gunshot as a legal method of landing record fish. The validity of Spray's muskie record is still questioned by many to this day.