Thought it was worth the read so I posted it.
By BOB LAMB / Tribune Outdoors Editor
If I told you that a fisherman caught a 15-pound fish on six-pound test line, you would say, “well… maybe.” Advertisement
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If I told you another angler pulled in a 15-pound fish on two-pound test line, you would probably say, “impossible.”
That’s exactly what happened in the La Crosse area last Wednesday.
Dennis Luck, of Onalaska, Wis., decided to go fishing for perch off the northeast tip of French Island, a spot called Camp 22 on the Black River. Luck, 30, had never fished in that area before.
Later that day, Dennis Seekamp, 55, of La Crosse, left work and headed for one of his favorite ice fishing spots below the Dresbach Lock and Dam on the Mississippi River.
Neither man knew what they would catch.
Luck, who works at Great Lakes Cheese in Onalaska, caught a 15-pound carp with his small ice fishing pole.
Seekamp somehow managed to get a 15-pound sheepshead out of the bottom of the Mighty Mississippi.
Needless to say, both men relied on other anglers to help them pull in the rough fish, often called the garbage of the river. However, each angler could be in line for Wisconsin fishing records, especially Luck.
“I was only there for about 10 minutes,” said Luck, who was dangling a pink and white Rat Finky jig off the bottom in about 6½ feet of water.
Luck felt a tug on his line. He thought a northern grabbed his bait and hook. Why not? Minutes earlier, another angler caught a 12-pound northern pike less than 30 yards away.
Yet, Luck faced a bigger problem. How would he get a big fish, whatever it was, out of a four-inch round hole in the ice? Luckily, a couple of other fishermen came to his rescue. One tried to get his power auger started while Gary Vance used his hand spud to chisel a larger hole.
Meanwhile, Luck was trying to keep his line away from the sharp spud. Luck said Vance eventually gaffed the carp. As Luck held the gaffed fish in one hand, Vance cut the hole larger so they could pull it out.
“It’s the first time I ever caught a carp though the ice,” said Luck, who weighed the fish on a certified scale at a local grocery store.
Luck said it weighed exactly 15 pounds and was 31 inches long.
On Monday, Luck said he talked with a woman at the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, Wis. She told Luck there are no world classifications for ice fishing, although the world two-pound line class record is an 18-pound carp caught by a man in Guttenberg, Iowa.
“She then went on to say that this could still be a Wisconsin state record as the previous best she had on record was 10 pounds, 3 ounces,” said Luck, who also contacted the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
As the word spreads about Luck’s possible record fish, the practical jokes have also started.
“I recently opened my locker at work to find a sweet corn label,” Luck said. “I also have received numerous phone calls regarding inquiries on a guide service to get big carp.
“But the one I like the most is that my so-called fishing buddy, Bob Jorde, now refers to me as Carp Luck. His seat in the boat may be up for rent,” Luck said.
Meanwhile, Seekamp hopes he may have a world line-class record for sheepshead, although he may never know as he failed to weigh it right away.
Seekamp, who works at Metallics in Onalaska, was fishing through the ice for walleyes with a jig and Rapala below the Dresbach dam just before dark on Wednesday.
“I thought I hooked a log, and then it started to move,” said Seekamp, who was fishing through a six-inch hole.
“It was just a good thing that there were some other guys there to chop the hole bigger,” Seekamp said. ‘The fish was longer than the 2-foot-long pole I was using.”
The 31½-inch sheepshead also weighed considerably more than the light fishing rod, tipping the scale at 14.971 pounds at another local grocery store one day later. The sheepshead also had a 24-inch girth.
“I probably shouldn’t have waited a day to weigh it, but I had to work,” said Seekamp, who kept the fish in a cooler. “Actually, I was going to throw it back, but another guy said I should keep it and see if it was some sort of line class record.”
Bob Lamb can be reached at (608) 791-8228, or at [email protected]