Giant walleye spurs talk of record
The wind was whipping out of the east at 10 to 20 miles per hour, enough to raise whitecaps on the open water of Lac Vieux Desert near Phelps.
It was nearing the end of a four-day bender of bad weather; some anglers would have stayed home.
The day was May 17, and Eric Van Dyn Hovel of Kaukauna was well aware of the fishing adage “wind from the east, fishing’s the least.”
But Van Dyn Hovel, 36, has been fishing Lac Vieux Desert since he was a teenager and knew a spot he could effectively target under the conditions.
The Vilas County lake covers 4,017 acres and straddles the Michigan-Wisconsin state line. It’s arguably most famous as the source of the Wisconsin River, which begins as a flow out of the lake’s southwest corner.
But it also holds walleye, northern pike, muskellunge, largemouth and smallmouth bass and panfish.
Venturing out alone in the early evening, Van Dyn Hovel pulled his boat into a partial lee of an island in the lake’s northeastern lobe and let the breeze drift him toward a 10-foot rocky hole.
It didn’t take long to validate his decision to head out.
Casting a big, shallow-diving lure, he had a hit by a solid fish.
“I was targeting northern pike, which my wife and I love to eat,” Van Dyn Hovel said. “I wasn’t sure what I had, but it was plenty big.”
The fish made two strong runs, then Van Dyn Hovel was able to work it to boat side. As he led it into the net, the fish turned and revealed a distinctive white spot on its tail.
“Walleye!” Van Dyn Hovel said. “I was stunned. That spot was as big as a silver dollar.”
Although Van Dyn Hovel has been an avid angler since his youth and has caught many hundreds of walleyes, he had never seen one as big as the one he just landed.
He’s not alone. In fact, only a handful of anglers have ever caught a Wisconsin walleye as large.
The fish was 31.75 inches long and, when weighed the next day on a digital scale, was 16.87 pounds, according to Van Dyn Hovel.
The fish was a female, mostly or completely spent after spawning, and would have been substantially heavier a few weeks earlier when laden with eggs.
Walleyes stripped for spawning typically yield about 85,000 eggs per fish, said Mike Arrowood, chairman of Walleyes For Tomorrow, and about 5,000 eggs per fluid ounce.
It’s not uncommon for an adult walleye to produce 1 pound of eggs.
As such, Van Dyn Hovel’s fish could easily have been heavier than 17 pounds, perhaps even 18, and has turned heads and generated discussion about a near miss on the quest to break the state’s oldest fish record.
The Wisconsin walleye record is an 18-pound fish caught in 1933 on High Lake in Vilas County, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
Like some other old fish records, doubt has been cast on the legitimacy of Wisconsin’s biggest walleye because there is no photo documentation of the fish and its information was presented years after it had been caught, according to the DNR.
Still, it’s on the books and is recognized by state officials.
And it arguably makes big fish like Van Dyn Hovel landed in May all the more captivating.
Walleyes weighing more than 10 pounds are trophies anywhere in North America.
Wisconsin waters such as Green Bay, Lake Superior, Big Green Lake, Lake Geneva and others produce double-digit “gravel lizards” each year.
But fish heavier than 15 pounds are extremely rare.
One such walleye is on display at the Goose Blind Grill and Bar in Green Lake. A plaque attached to the mounted fish reads: Bill Snyder of Green Lake, 17.3 pounds 34 inches, Oct. 2, 1985.
And in 2015, a DNR fisheries crew doing a survey in Lake Wazee landed an even bigger walleye: 17.5 pounds and 32.3 inches long. That fish was released and could still be swimming.
“I think everyone loves to debate where the next state record (walleye) could come from,” Arrowood said. “I don’t doubt there is one over 18 pounds out there somewhere right now.”
Van Dyn Hovel said although he’s a fan of reproduction mounts made from fish that are photographed and released, he decided to keep the big walleye he caught May 17 because he’ll likely never catch one bigger.
After storing the fish overnight in a freezer, the next morning he drove it to the home of Andy Hietpas in Little Chute, where it was weighed on a digital scale.
At the reported weight of 16.87 pounds, it might well be the heaviest caught in Wisconsin this year.
Van Dyn Hovel, who had worked as a coffee maker but has been unemployed since March during the coronavirus pandemic, said he has a string of 67 straight days on which he has fished for at least an hour. The May catch of the walleye has been a highlight of his year.
“Yep, it’s going on the wall,” Van Dyn Hovel said. “I’ll keep at it, though. You never know when another big one will hit.”
Major League Fishing returns to Wisconsin: For the second consecutive year, Major League Fishing will hold a bass fishing tournament in Wisconsin.
Last year Major League Fishing brought its very popular live “catch, weigh and release” format to the Lake Winnebago system and Green Lake in central Wisconsin.
This year it will hold its fifth and final regular-season event, the 2020 Bass Pro Tour Covercraft Stage Five Presented by Abu Garcia, from July 10-15 in Sturgeon Bay.
Eighty anglers are scheduled to compete in the Wisconsin event. Qualifying rounds are held over the first four days, then the top 38 anglers compete in a knockout round on the fifth day and the top 10 fish in the championship round on the sixth day.
The event will offer $500,000 in prize money, including $65,000 for first place. It also will help determine standings for anglers vying for the tour’s championship event.
Daily launch and return will be at Sawyer Park Boat Launch, 36 S. Neenah Avenue, Sturgeon Bay. Anglers are expected to take out about 4 p.m. each day of the competition.
The action will be broadcast on the MLF NOW! live stream beginning at 7:45 a.m July 10-15 on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MLF app or MyOutdoorTV app.