2nd Largest Walleye In SD Caught on Monday

fish it out Said:
It is sad when someone posts a pic like this and tells the location were it was caught. I like how the guy that posted the picture has different home waters and doesnt realize that Francis Case is over fished and a dying walleye fishery. The local sd anglers cant even get a parking spot at the boat ramp all spring. Hopefully your good idea by posting this pic will bring more anglers to Francis Case this spring and we can  deplete the walleye resource  and start fishing for skipjack or something.

Some areas of the country this would be fine but in this case it is not.           Thanks  sdfisher you are my hero.                                   

hey sdfisher, why don't you let the angler that caught the fish post the pic himself. Maybe let him tell his own fish story. He cant now since you were first to plaster it all over the web. tell your own fish stories not someone elses. and by the way if this monster was caught in capitol lake in pierre , would capitol lake be a great fishery?
                                 do all your serious fishing buddies let you post thier fishing report on the web? i dont think so.  so why post someone elses info?                                                                     

fish it out Said:

hey sdfisher, why don't you let the angler that caught the fish post the pic himself. Maybe let him tell his own fish story. He cant now since you were first to plaster it all over the web. tell your own fish stories not someone elses. and by the way if this monster was caught in capitol lake in pierre , would capitol lake be a great fishery?
                                 do all your serious fishing buddies let you post thier fishing report on the web? i dont think so.  so why post someone elses info?                                                                     

fish it out Said:
sdwaxoffman, yes this fish is awsome let the guy that caught it have his own glory. you bite followers are stealing his moment maybe you should catch your own fish.  im not the idiot that posted someone else's fish 

Because in a world that worships its gold medalists, its top dogs, Klucas still managed to do something that very few South Dakotans can ever claim.

On March 21, the Pierre resident hauled in a 15-pound, 8-ounce walleye from Lake Francis Case on the Missouri River.

That's 10 ounces shy of Georgine Chytka's state-record fish that was taken from the Fort Randall Dam tailwaters in 2002.

Or about the difference in weight of one regular-sized baked potato, minus the butter and sour cream.

"I'm more than OK with that fish," Klucas said. "That's an excitable fish, to be sure."

Not a bad haul for Klucas, considering it was his first time on the water this season.

"Well, Charlie put us on some pretty good fish," said Klucas, who was fishing with buddies Charlie Peterman of Miller and Jeff Danburg of Pierre. "We were fishing like we have a thousand times before."

Peterman had anchored in the flats below Fort Thompson. The trio were casting jigs in about 12 feet of water at around 10 a.m.

"When it hit, I sure knew it was a big fish," Klucas said. "Maybe a catfish, because it just didn't want to come up off the bottom. It just stayed down."

This is probably the best time of year to target those bigger walleye, guides say.

"They're moving up on the spawn," said Karl Palmer of Fort Pierre, owner of Dakota Walleye guide service. "Now and in November when the water cools is when you'll see those big fish. But a fish like that - that's a .0001 kind of fish. It's just so rare."

The walleye message boards have been burning up with rumors of a new-record walleye. And while Klucas' isn't that record, it's still a heck of a fish.

"It's the talk of the fishing world right now," Palmer said. "I guess there are 100 boats at Fort Thompson every day."

An avowed catch-and-release angler, Klucas nearly slipped the fish back into Francis Case.

"You know, I don't take too many fish home, unless someone wants to eat some, and then just the little ones," he said.

His fishing buddies would have none of that.

After a 10-minute tussle, Danburg grabbed the net, according to Shaun Johnson, who chronicled the fight for the South Dakota Walleye Classic & Festival website.

"When I tried to net her, she was too big to fit in the net and ended up lying across the top of it," Danburg told Johnson. "We didn't have a ruler long enough to measure how long she was."

The scale on the boat read 15 pounds, but to be considered for a state record, a fish has to be weighed on a certified scale. The buddies called back to a friend in Pierre, who told them where they could find a proper scale.

"Within a couple of hours, we were told that the story was already being told in Afghanistan," Danburg told Johnson.

The fish measured nearly 33 inches long, or three inches short of a yard.

"Like I said, a really nice fish," Klucas said. "I'll take it."

And since he kept the fish, Klucas said he plans to get it mounted.

"I tried to donate it to Cabela's for the troops, but I haven't heard back from them," he said. "So I guess I'll just have to take care of it myself."

And while this walleye has taken Klucas to center stage in South Dakota fishing circles, he admits it's not his favorite species.

"My favorite fish is the smallmouth," he said. "But then again, I'm not all that particular. I just like to fish - I get out as much as possible, at least once a week."

If all goes right, Klucas said he's probably eight to nine months away from retirement from his job with the railroad.

Then he plans on fishing a little more than once a week.

"That's going to be mighty high on the agenda," Klucas said. "That's the beauty of living in Pierre this way."