Wisconsin Fishing Records: 86 Species and a Muskie Unbeaten Since 1949

Wisconsin’s record book holds 86 official hook-and-line records, and the headline entries are remarkably old. The state record muskellunge was caught in 1949, the walleye in 1933, the largemouth bass in 1940, and the tiger muskellunge in 1919. These are not fish that fell last season — they are fish that have outlasted three generations of anglers trying to beat them. For a full picture of the state’s water, see our complete Wisconsin fishing guide.

The records span Lake Superior to the Mississippi, from 170-pound lake sturgeon down to a blackstripe topminnow weighing a third of an ounce. All are maintained by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Records That Stand Out

Muskellunge — 69 lbs 11 oz, Chippewa Flowage, 1949

The most famous fish in Wisconsin and the reason Hayward is on the map. At 69 lbs 11 oz and 63.5 inches, the Chippewa Flowage muskie has stood for over seventy-five years, and it is the record that defines Wisconsin’s state fish. The Chippewa Flowage still produces genuine trophy muskellunge, and the northern lakes around Hayward and Boulder Junction remain the densest muskie water in the country. Beating this fish is the long-standing ambition of Wisconsin musky anglers, and nobody has done it yet.

Lake Sturgeon — 170 lbs 10 oz, Yellow Lake, 1979

The heaviest fish in Wisconsin’s record book by a wide margin — 170 lbs 10 oz and 79 inches from Yellow Lake in Burnett County. Lake sturgeon are living fossils that can exceed a century in age, and Wisconsin manages one of the healthiest populations in North America, centred on the Lake Winnebago system. The Winnebago sturgeon spearing season each February is one of the most distinctive fisheries in the United States, drawing thousands onto the ice for a fish most states lost long ago.

Bigmouth Buffalo — 76 lbs 8 oz, Petenwell Flowage, 2013

At 76 lbs 8 oz and 49.5 inches, the Petenwell Flowage bigmouth buffalo is the second-heaviest fish in the Wisconsin book and one of the more recent big-fish records. Buffalo are a native sucker species that grow to enormous size in the Wisconsin River flowages, and recent research has found individuals living well past a hundred years — making them among the longest-lived freshwater fish anywhere.

Flathead Catfish — 74 lbs 5.1 oz, Mississippi River, 2001

The Mississippi River along Wisconsin’s western border is serious catfish water, and this 53-inch flathead from Vernon County is the proof. The pools below the lock and dam system hold flatheads and channel catfish in numbers most anglers driving over the river never suspect. The Mississippi also produced the state record shovelnose sturgeon, mooneye, golden redhorse and white bass — more species records than any other single water in Wisconsin.

Brown Trout — 41 lbs 8 oz, Lake Michigan, 2010

Wisconsin keeps separate records for inland and outlying (Great Lakes) waters, and the gap between them is startling. The inland brown trout record is 18 lbs 6 oz from Lake Geneva; the Lake Michigan fish is 41 lbs 8 oz — more than double. Lake Michigan’s alewife forage base grows trout and salmon to sizes inland water cannot support, which is why Racine, Kewaunee and Algoma fill with boats through the summer.

Lake Trout — 47 lbs, Lake Superior, 1946

The Lake Superior lake trout record has stood since 1946 at 47 lbs. Superior’s cold, deep, astonishingly clear water holds the state’s largest lake trout and its most remote fishing, with the Apostle Islands offering both. It is the coldest and least forgiving water Wisconsin has, and it produces fish accordingly.

Chinook Salmon — 44 lbs 15 oz, Lake Michigan, 1994

Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan salmon fishery is entirely the product of a stocking programme begun in the 1960s, and it now anchors the economies of half a dozen port towns. The 44 lb 15 oz Door County chinook leads a Great Lakes list that also includes coho at 26 lbs, Atlantic salmon at nearly 24 lbs, and a rainbow trout of 27 lbs 2 oz from Kewaunee.

Walleye — 18 lbs, High Lake, 1933

The oldest gamefish record on the Wisconsin list, and arguably the most surprising. Walleye are the state’s most widely pursued fish, worked hard on thousands of lakes for over ninety years, and an 18-pound fish from High Lake in Vilas County has never been beaten. The northern lakes, the Winnebago system, and the Mississippi backwaters all produce quality walleye — but not one over eighteen pounds.

Northern Pike — 38 lbs, Lake Puckaway, 1952

Another record from the mid-century era, this time from Lake Puckaway in Green Lake County. At 38 lbs and 45.5 inches it is a genuinely enormous northern, the kind of fish that turns up in Canadian trophy water rather than a shallow south-central Wisconsin lake. Pike remain one of the most accessible gamefish in the state, available in most of its lakes and rivers year-round.

Bighead Carp — 67 lbs 3.2 oz, Wisconsin River, 2022

A record that tells a less welcome story. Bighead carp are an invasive species working up the Mississippi drainage, and a 67-pound fish from the Wisconsin River in Sauk County shows how well established they have become. Wisconsin’s record book increasingly documents species nobody wanted — bighead carp, round goby, European rudd — alongside its native fish.

Where the Records Come From

Wisconsin’s record water divides into four distinct regions. The Great Lakes — Lake Michigan, Green Bay and Lake Superior — hold every salmon record and the outsized trout, thanks to a forage base no inland lake can match. The Mississippi River along the western border produces the big catfish, sturgeon and rough fish records, with Vernon and La Crosse counties appearing repeatedly.

The northern lakes — Vilas, Oneida, Sawyer and Burnett counties — own the muskellunge, walleye, smallmouth and lake sturgeon records. This is the classic Northwoods fishery, and it produced the state’s two most celebrated fish, the Chippewa Flowage muskie and the Lac Vieux Desert tiger muskie. The southern lakes and flowages round out the book, with Lake Winnebago, the Madison chain, and the Wisconsin River flowages contributing the perch, buffalo and bighead carp records.

The timeline splits just as sharply. Wisconsin’s gamefish records are old — muskie 1949, walleye 1933, largemouth 1940, northern pike 1952, brook trout 1944, lake trout 1946. Almost every record set since 2015 is a non-game species: shiners, darters, chubs, redhorse, suckers and topminnows. That reflects a DNR programme that has expanded to recognise the state’s full fish diversity rather than any decline in the big-fish water. The gamefish records are simply very, very hard to beat.

A valid Wisconsin fishing license is required to fish state waters, and all records are certified by the Wisconsin DNR.

Complete Wisconsin Fishing Records

Wisconsin maintains separate records for inland and outlying (Great Lakes) waters for several trout species. Records for additional non-game species are recognised by the DNR beyond those listed above.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: Wisconsin DNR — Hook and Line Record Fish.