Montana Walleye record

[Mark]

I recently heard the Montana walleye record was broken last year on Fort Peck. how do I go about getting more info on this? I have been useing all the different search engines & keep coming up with zilch....

[2Fish]

I was wondering about this myself as I am going to be spending a few days on Fort Peck coming up next week. A quick search of the Billings Gazette turned up the story. If you go to the archives and search their Outdoor Magazine section for the date of Jan 27 2000 you will get the complete story with a picture. I am including the text as follows....

from the Billings Gazette January 27th 2000
State record walleye
Bozeman angler pulls out a giant from Fort Peck

Dan Spence walked calmly over to the tip-up, its flag flying over the ice of Fort Peck Reservoir. Somewhere beneath the ice, a fish had taken his five-inch live minnow. Biting on that minnow had tripped the flag, and set the tip-up's spool free, so the fish could pull out line. Spence, 44, of Bozeman, was walking - rather than running - to give the fish some time to eat its meal - just a little time before he reached down, took the line in hand, then tugged to set the hook. "As soon as I felt it, I knew it was big," Spence said. "You can tell when they're big. It didn't fight hard, but it definitely had a pull to it." The ensuing fight took about five minutes. "It made one good run. The rest of the time, it was just shaking," he said. "I was fighting it in a froze-up eight-inch hole. I didn't think it was going to fit through." But the Spider Wire line didn't break. The single No. 6 hook held. "It was hooked pretty good," Spence said. "It did fit through." The time was about 1 p.m. last Friday. The place was somewhere near Crooked Creek Recreation Area, on the far west end of Fort Peck Reservoir. The end result would turn out to be a new Montana state record walleye - 16 pounds, 10 ounces. Fishing with a group of friends and workers from Dagostino Concrete, of Belgrade, Spence had been on the ice since Thursday. "When I walked back to camp, I had a pretty good idea it would be the state record. They had a scale there," Spence said. But he wouldn't know for sure for about 24 more hours.
The big fish was added to the live well that the group had built in the ice.
"We caught quite a few walleyes," he said. "We had four-wheelers and ran all over the place. There was about 14 inches of ice.
"I caught another walleye that was 12 pounds, three ounces, on Thursday," Spence added. "Tom Dagostino caught a 12-pounder on Saturday. We only caught two northern pike, a five-pounder and a 15-pounder." It wasn't until Saturday afternoon that Spence decided to take the time to have the big walleye officially weighed. The closest certified scale was in Winnett, more than 50 miles away on gravel roads. On the drive out of Crooked Creek, he ran into Montana state game warden Bob Barber, of Lewistown. "I met them as I was going to the lake to check fishermen," Barber said. "I asked them if they had caught anything. They said, 'We just caught the state record.' When I saw it, I said, 'That is a dandy.'" Barber told them about the procedure they'd need to follow if it was, indeed, a state record. He said he'd be interested in seeing the results of the official weighing when they got back on the ice. That official weight was recorded at Olson's Grocery in Winnett. In front of witnesses, it was 16-10, nearly a half-pound over the previous state record. "When they got back and told me what the weight was, I took a picture of it," Barber said. "I verified the species. I measured it. I gave them a note verifying the information and told them to take the note to the Bozeman FWP headquarters when they got home and they'd do the rest of the paperwork." For a walleye that heavy, the fish wasn't very long - just 31.5 inches. Its official girth, however, was considerable - 21.25 inches - according to Bruce Rich, regional fisheries manager at Bozeman, who completed the paperwork Monday. The identity of the fish was unmistakable - the white markings on the tail, the black blotch on the dorsal fin. "I confirmed its length and girth. It's a walleye, which concurred with the findings of Bob Barber, the game warden," Rich wrote in his official report.
That identification was important because walleye, sauger and a hybrid of those two species - saugeye - all swim in Fort Peck. In fact, the world record saugeye, at 15.66 pounds caught by Myron Kibler of Sand Springs in 1995, came out of Fort Peck. And so did a sauger that weighed 8.805 pounds, caught by Gene Moore in 1994, which is tied for the world record. Spence's new state record walleye breaks the old standard of 16.38 pounds, caught by Steven McMorris from Cooney Reservoir in the summer of 1996. It's interesting to note that Spence's giant walleye came on his first ice fishing trip to Fort Peck, though he also has fished walleyes at Nelson Reservoir and Canyon Ferry Reservoir in the past. With his catch safely at the taxidermist by Tuesday, he was asked what his next goal might be. "I'm going to try to catch a bigger one," he said. And where exactly was the spot, somewhere east of Crooked Creek, where he caught this fish and might be heading to try for his next, even bigger walleye? Speaking like a true fisherman, Spence said, "I'm not going to exactly say where it was. After all, you've got to have some secrets."

Mark Henckel is the outdoor editor of The Billings Gazette. His columns appear Thursdays and Sundays. He can be contacted by phone at: (406) 657-1395

[WAeyes]

That fish is huge for its length! I have a 31.5" on my wall but it's only 11-9. I'm extremely jealous! Good luck, you may want to keep your children out of that water, there seems to be some big appetites swimmin around.

[KToms]

Does anyone have an e-mail address or regular address for Bruce Rich the Regional Fisheries Manager in Bozeman who verified the new Montana record. Bruce and I went to college together at Ohio State and I've lost track of him. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Kevin Toms

[henckel]

Can't guarantee this is going to work, but most Montana FWP employees can be reached by first initial and last name, then the state server. Give this a try: brich@state.mt.us

And yes, Spence's fish had to be the shortest, fattest walleye I've ever heard of. You should note that the Montana state -- and world -- record saugeye was caught through the ice at Fort Peck, too. It was 15.66 pounds.

A complete list of Montana fishing records is available at: www.montanaoutdoor.com. Just click on the Fishing Conditions page and you can link to the records list. -- mark