The 55-pound, 14-ounce musky caught on Mille Lacs Lake on Nov. 22 by a Twin Cities angler has been certified as officially the Minnesota state record, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources confirmed Monday.
The previous record was a 54-pound musky caught from Lake Winnibigoshish in 1957.
Nolan Sprengeler caught the musky Nov. 22 while in a boat with friends Kevin Kray and Zack Skoglund. Their plan was to fish in the afternoon until after moonrise, which was about 8 p.m. After some delay due to low water and frozen water at accesses, they eventually broke some ice to get Sprengeler’s boat in the water after sunset.
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“On our last spot of the evening at about 9 p.m., I felt a tap on the end of my line. I fought the fish to the boat and Kevin Kray netted it for me. The fish measured 57.75 inches by 29 inches,” Sprengeler said. “After trying to revive the fish for about an hour, we realized she wasn’t going to make it. We made the decision to bring the fish in to get weighed on a certified scale.”
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Sprengeler brought the fish to be weighed on a certified scale with witnesses the next morning, had it identified at a DNR Fisheries office, and then dropped off his catch with a taxidermist.
The DNR confirmed the record after the scale was checked and witnesses confirmed. Find current records and guidelines for each type of state record at mndnr.gov/recordfish.
