Priest’s record walleye has a catch to it
Bob Von Sternberg, Star Tribune
February 11, 2005 FISH0211
How’s this for a fish story?
A priest known by locals as the Fishing Father was praying the Magnificat as he was ice fishing one cold afternoon last month. He makes a point of praying whenever he fishes, whether he catches anything or not.
On. Jan. 4, it turned out to be quite an intercessory prayer: the Rev. Mariusz Zajac pulled in a world-record walleye, 18.3 pounds.
Delighted with his catch, Zajac promptly posted a photo of him holding the lunker on a fishing enthusiasts’ website, and the Internet was instantly abuzz about his Lake of the Woods haul — nearly 400 miles from the remote lake in Saskatchewan where he actually caught it.
In short order, Zajac’s haul had also become his Lake Mille Lacs haul.
And his Red River haul in Manitoba. Not to mention his Simcoe Lake haul in Ontario.
Rev. Mariusz Zajac’s 18.3-pound walleyeIn the Internet Age, reality doesn’t always stay put.
It turns out that someone — identity unknown — hijacked Zajak’s photo and e-mailed it to friends, fellow anglers and complete strangers, changing the location of the catch, either accidentally or maliciously.
“The story just seems to have percolated out there,” said Zajac, who caught the fish near his home on Tobin Lake. “It’s an unusual story, but this has allowed me to plant a seed.”
With his face and story being seen far and wide, he has decided to use his newfound notoriety to establish and promote a tsunami relief fund at his credit union, in the hopes that people who encounter his fish story on the Internet will donate money to help Indian Ocean fishermen.
Locations of erroneous internet postings”I was blessed by catching that fish, and I want to use that blessing to help these people,” he said. “If I can help just one family replace their fishing boat, I feel like my mission will be done.”
Zajac, 43, has been fishing for 39 of those years (“My family says I was born with a fishing rod in my hand”), but he didn’t try his hand at ice fishing until he moved from his native Poland to Canada a decade ago.
His current parish is in Carrot River, a hamlet of about 1,000 located a few miles south of Tobin Lake, one of North America’s most renowned walleye lakes.
As he recited the Liturgy of the Hours (“… my soul doth magnify the Lord …”) he realized he had landed a whopper of a walleye. It took a few hours and several weighings to determine just how big: a quarter-pound heavier than the previous provincial record of 18.06 pounds.
Even sweeter was the fact that the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, Wis., determined that the fish set a record for a walleye caught while ice fishing.
The local paper, The Nipawin Journal, published a story and a photo eight days after the catch, and the story started growing its Web legs. “We heard it was caught in Manitoba, then in Ontario,” said reporter Brian McLane. “But how it got out there, nobody seems to know.”
The tale quickly began bouncing around resorts ringing Lake of the Woods, on the Minnesota-Ontario border, the lake most often erroneously attributed to the catch.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered one of these Internet rumors,” said Dennis Topp, assistant fisheries supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Baudette. “Somebody decides to play a trick. Up here, most folks know about it, but it’s pretty much dispelled as a myth.”
(For the record, the biggest walleye pulled from Lake of the Woods was under 16 pounds, Tott said; the state walleye record is 17.8 pounds.)
Dave Hoggard, an Owatonna resident who heard both the garbled and true versions, decided last week to have Zajak on his weekly radio show, “Fish-N Line.”
“The father’s such a character,” said Hoggard, who dubbed the priest Father Walleye. “There was a lot of information going around about him, so I wanted to set things straight.”
In Carrot River, Zajac has arranged to have his walleye turned into a trophy for the wall of the cabin he has on the shore of Tobin Lake.
“Fishing is my passion, but for the people in the Indian Ocean, it’s their livelihood,” he said. “I’m hoping fishermen who hear my story will be inspired.”
To that end, he made the initial donation to the fund of $100.
Reflecting on his unsought celebrity, he continues to pray as he fishes. “It’s a special time for me,” he said. “It helps me discern; it’s a spiritual blessing to me. But the past month, what has happened has been amazing.”
Bob von Sternberg is at [email protected]
with prayers
Father Walleye 
