Scientists catch possible world record muskie on Lake Mille Lacs

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A possible world record muskie caught and released by scientists with the Mille Lacs Band Department of Natural Resources. (Photo credit: Mille Lacs Band DNR)

MILLE LACS LAKE, Minn. (FOX 9) - Coming in at over 5 feet long and possibly weighing between 55 and 75 lbs, a feasible world record muskie could be again lurking the waters of Mille Lacs Lake.

The Mille Lacs Band Department of Natural Resources caught the giant fish while engaged in electrofishing activities for walleye this past spring.

“We were not looking for the muskie,” DNR Aquaculture Biologist Keith Wiggins-Kegg said in a news release. “That wasn’t our objective.”

When the team noticed the muskie within the shock waves, they quickly got the fish into the boat, took a length measurement and snapped a couple photographs before releasing it back into Mille Lacs.

The DNR team said the muskie measured in at 61.5 inches. The world record for a hooked muskie is 60.25 for a catch in Hayward, Wisconsin in 1949.

The teams said they didn’t have a scale big enough to weight the giant, so they had to guess at a weight of between 55 and 75 pounds.

The Mille Lacs Band DNR warned anglers “the fish of 10,000 casts” is still out there.