{"id":35835,"date":"2022-03-22T13:47:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T17:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=35835"},"modified":"2022-03-22T14:00:29","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T18:00:29","slug":"washington-county-angler-catches-record-muskellunge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2022\/03\/22\/washington-county-angler-catches-record-muskellunge\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington County Angler Catches Record Muskellunge"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 33 Pounds, Muskie Beats 2017 Record<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"Photo

Photo courtesy Kyle Mullenix, submitted to Maryland DNR<\/p><\/div>\n

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) confirmed a Washington County man has set a new nontidal state record for muskellunge. Kyle Mullenix of Hagerstown caught the 33-pound, 49-inch long record muskie on March 2 along the banks of the upper Potomac River.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarded as the \u201cfish of ten thousand casts,\u201d muskies are the largest freshwater fish in Maryland and among the most difficult to catch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mullenix is credited with the first Maryland state fishing record of 2022. The 32-year-old lifelong angler said he has spent decades trying to catch a muskie. Using a 7-foot spinning rod and live bait, his luck finally changed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe put up a good fight, but we didn\u2019t think it was that big until it was on the bank,\u201d <\/span>Mullenix said. \u201cThings don\u2019t always go as planned, but now life has gotten a lot better.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The catch surpassed the previous Maryland state record held also by a Washington County resident, <\/span>Tessa Cosens<\/span><\/a>, whose catch tipped the scales at 32.5 pounds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The catch was weighed on a certified scale by George Rowe of Ernst Country Market in Clear Spring and verified as a muskellunge \u2013 Esox masquinongy \u2013 by a DNR biologist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To help determine the age of the fish, a sample of the muskie\u2019s scales and cleithrum \u2013 a large bone above the gills \u2013 was requested by biologists from the taxidermists for further analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n

The department maintains <\/span>state records for sport fish<\/span><\/a> in four divisions \u2013 Atlantic, Chesapeake, Nontidal and Invasive \u2013 and awards plaques to anglers who achieve record catches. Fish caught from privately-owned, fee-fishing waters are not eligible for record consideration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anglers reporting a potential record catch should call 443-569-1381 or 410-260-8325. The fish should be immersed in ice water to preserve its weight until it can be checked, confirmed and certified by the department.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At 33 Pounds, Muskie Beats 2017 Record The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) confirmed a Washington County man has set a new nontidal state record for muskellunge. Kyle Mullenix of Hagerstown caught the 33-pound, 49-inch long record muskie on March 2 along the banks of the upper Potomac River. Regarded as the \u201cfish of  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957],"tags":[3294,2926,3069,2909],"class_list":["post-35835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","tag-muskellunge","tag-potomac-river","tag-state-fishing-record","tag-washington-county"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35835"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35838,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35835\/revisions\/35838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}