A border lake in western Minnesota has done something no other water in the state has managed this year: it has surrendered the bluegill record twice.
On July 7, Dale Hoffman of Ramsey landed a 2.21-pound bluegill from Big Stone Lake, the shallow, fertile reservoir that straddles the Minnesota–South Dakota line near Ortonville. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has since certified the fish, which measured 11.6 inches, as the new state record.
Hoffman was fishing a slip-bobber rig baited with red worms in about 10 feet of water around 11 a.m. when the giant panfish took hold. The strike nearly cost him the catch, and the rod — a retirement gift — almost went over the side before he could grab it. He had the fish weighed on certified scales at a grocery store meat department that afternoon.
What makes the catch remarkable is not just the size but the timing. The record Hoffman broke was only six weeks old. On May 29, Chris Mulcahey of Waterville had pulled a 2-pound, 11.75-inch bluegill from the same lake to claim the mark. In the space of a single early summer, Big Stone had gone from unremarkable to the most productive trophy-panfish water in Minnesota.
"I can tell you, we sure don't see many bluegills like that one," said Kyle Anderson, an assistant supervisor with the Minnesota DNR.
Anderson said the fish's sex and age set it apart. "It's very unusual for a male bluegill to be such a large size," he said. He estimated it was at least seven years old — a lifespan that let it reach a weight most bluegills never approach.
The back-to-back records at Big Stone cap a year that has been extraordinary for Minnesota's fisheries. The DNR certified nine new state records over the spring alone, spanning species as different as black crappie, lake sturgeon, lake trout, rainbow trout, shortnose gar, bigmouth buffalo and blue sucker.
Some of those catches carried their own stories. Travis Keating's lake sturgeon from the Rainy River stretched roughly 80 inches. Twelve-year-old Sadie Spatafore set the rainbow trout mark on the Stewart River. And Lake Superior gave up the lake trout record twice in a matter of weeks, first to Matthew Hammer at 44 inches, then to Joe Bouta at 45.5.
"It's fantastic to see these great fish and really shows what amazing fishing opportunities we have in Minnesota," said Mandy Erickson of the DNR.
David Selle, who set the black crappie record with a 4.1-pound fish from Cedar Lake, described the kind of feeding frenzy anglers dream about. "The fish were so turned on coming up to feed on the flies they were like sharks," he said.
Whether Big Stone Lake has more surprises left is anyone's guess. Bluegills of Hoffman's size take the better part of a decade to grow, and two of them turning up in the same season on the same lake is the sort of coincidence fisheries managers can rarely explain. For now the record book reads 2.21 pounds — until the next Big Stone angler decides otherwise.
