Monster Pumpkinseed

Hello Everyone,
I was on our annual Ice fishing trip to Northern Minnesota last week with My dad, father-in-law and buddy and we were fishing a lake in Itasca county on 2-17-15 when I caught this Big Pumpkinseed. We were fishing for bluegill, sunnys, and crappies when this one bit on my jig with a waxie… it got tangled up in my transducer cord but I was able to get him, he even took out some drag on the reel.. I thought I had a small northern on but was very happy when I saw this beauty on the end of my line! He was 11.25″ long and weighed 1.7# It was a great day fishing!

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Whoaaaa! Huge fish and a punkin’ at that!

Joel

wow, what a beast. tought to get that thru a 6″ hole

Congrats that’s a slab

Awesome fish! congrats!

Current MN state record pumpkinseed is 1lb 5.6 ounces.

You still have it in freezer?

Wow nice fish. Get it certified. Looks like you might have record in your hands.

Congrats thats a gorgeous fish. You might have to change your username now

A dandy ‘seed!

I have whole fish packed in the freezer now still, I am not sure about how to go about getting it certified and such? I plan on having it mounted.

you catch a fish that you think could be a record, follow these steps:
◾Weigh the fish on a state-certified scale (found at most bait shops and butcher shops), witnessed by two observers.
◾Take the fish to a DNR fisheries office for positive identification and a state record fish application.
◾Complete the State Record Fish submission form Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to download this file. and send it along with a clear, full-length photo of your fish to the address listed on the form.
◾Learn about becoming a Master Angler

Thanks Timmy,

I’ll check into, I don’t know how it would work now after its been frozen for a week now and that I live here in Wisconsin and if Minnesota would honor what a certified scale says here in Wisconsin with witness’s at a Wisconsin Dnr office. I’ll also check into the Master angler program.
Either way I was thrilled to catch the fish and will have him on my wall some day to share with everybody!

Maybe call the MN DNR and get instruction. It would be really cool to have a state record holder on here

AWESOME!

Very cool! Nice fish indeed!

What a monster! Congrats!!

By any chance was this the Grand Rapids area?

-mplspug,

It wasn’t caught in the Grand Rapids area it was Northwest of there by aways.

What a beast!!!

I caught a 10.5″ tuesday; hard to imagine another 1″!!!!

Are we sure that’s not a cross with a bluegill ? Wouldn’t the gill be red?

I took the picture to my local Dnr office and he said it was a pumpkinseed, but maybe he was wrong, hard for me to tell the differences, this fish does have some red right on the outer edge of the gill, hard to see in the pick though.

I would call it a Green Sunfish but I could be wrong.

GREAT fish, thanks for posting!

Looks like a pumkpkinseed all the way.

Wow, and I thought the 8.5″ pumpkinseed my buddy caught today was a tank.

Awesome fish Perch Hunter!! congrats man

Nice Fish!! Congrats!

Thanks for all the nice posts everyone, I sure enjoyed catch’n him. I cant wait to get back up there in Gods country next winter and try my luck again!

wow, great job!

Terrific panfish,
my first thought was also Green Sunfish.
the only difference of have it in a freezer for a little
while would be it will probably be slightly lighter in
weight than when fresh.
I’d use a certified scale at your grocery store meat market.
Have at least 2 witnesses and get their phone numbers and addresses.
Let us know what you find out about it.
Being WI resident would not matter at all, you just might
have to show your current non-res licence.
A Mn fish is a Mn fish.
Good Luck,
Jack

Just an update for everyone, I got ahold of Mr. Michael Kurre the Minnesota Dnr State Record Fish Program Coordinator with one of my emails. He says in order to verify the fishs weight & size I would have to bring the fish back to Minnesota and it would need to be unthawed, weighed and verified by two Minnesota Dnr agents only, it cannot be done here in Wisconsin. He says a Minnesota fish must be done there only. Well I don’t plan on going back up there till next winter so I guess I’ll just have to be happy with putting it on the wall and telling story’s about what could have been a record if I would have went thru the all the mumblejumble to get it verified. I’m still happy either way, it’ll always be a trophy in my book.