Ortonville resident William Ludwick, recently established a freshwater sport fishing world record as certified by the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame.
On July 25, Ludwick, 44, was fishing on Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota when he hooked a 51-inch, 50-pound muskellunge on a 9-foot, 10-weight fly rod using 20-pound Tippet line. The old record was 49 inches.
‘The fish looked like a log coming up off the bottom of the lake when it hit my fly,? said Ludwick. ‘It was my first cast and the second pull on the 12-inch homemade streamer. It broke the surface of the water, then dove back down.?
Ludwick spent the next 20 minutes battling the monster before he pulled it in the boat.
‘I did not realize the size of the fish until we measured it,? he said. ‘It seemed like a lifetime.?
Earlier this month, the Hall World Record Committee completed the process of qualifying the muskellunge in the catch and release category.
The rest of the weeklong fishing trip turned out successful for Ludwick as he scored a Grand Slam, with a muskellunge, northern pike, walleye and small mouth bass, all caught with the same homemade fly.
The Hall of Fame does maintain a record book of both world record fish and line-class records for all of the freshwater species in North America.