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DNR biologists may have boated a world-record muskie

The team, from the Mille Lacs Band DNR Fishery Department, boated the fish, measured it and snapped photos, and then released it.
Credit: Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
DNR Aquaculture Biologist Keith Wiggins-Kegg and his team boated this potentially world-record-breaking muskie on Mille Lacs Lake.

DNR biologists may have found a muskie that would beat a world record set 70 years ago.

This past spring, DNR biologists were doing electrofishing activities for walleye in Mille Lacs Lake, when they found a giant muskie within the shockwaves.

The team, from the Mille Lacs Band DNR Fishery Department, boated the fish, measured it and snapped photos, and then released it.

The giant muskie was 61 1/2 inches long. The world record for a hooked muskie is 60 1/4 inches, from Hayward, Wisconsin in 1949. The state record is slightly smaller - 56 7/8 inches - on Pelican Lake in 2016.

Credit: Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
DNR Aquaculture Biologist Keith Wiggins-Kegg holds a 61 1/2-inch muskie on Mille Lacs Lake.

The team speculated that the muskie was a female. They didn't have a large enough scale to weigh her, but estimated between 55 and 75 pounds.

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe reminded anglers in its press release Monday that the giant muskie "is still out there. Somewhere."

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