“It was right about noon. Dead calm, flat conditions. It was just starting to get hot. It was a beautiful day. Not the kind of day that a fisherman wants, but it was a great time as it turned out,” Fundingsland said.

Fundingland explained he could see the fish coming in as he worked figure eights with a homemade spinner lure when he almost immediately had a hit.

“I took one more look at the fish and I couldn’t see my lure. It had it in its mouth the whole time it was coming to the boat. I never felt a thing. But when I couldn’t see my lure I set my hook, and then we had a pretty good fight,” Fundingsland said. “It came out of the water twice, and it came up on its tail, which is just wild. My daughter was running the net, and she was shaking after she saw how big that fish was. I was afraid she was going to lose her composure before we got it in the net, but she did a great job.”

Fundingland said they were understandably emotional and euphoric, but were able to take photos and measure his catch, at 45 1/4 inches.

Submitted Photo Kelli Fundingsland reeled in a whopper of her own at Lake Audubon on Sept. 20 while fishing with her father Kim Fundingsland. The fish measured 43 1/4 inches.

“The picture looks photoshopped, and it’s not. That’s probably the 17th muskie I’ve had in that net, and I’ve never had one that size,” Fundingsland said.

It wasn’t until later that day his daughter checked the records and determined Kim’s catch had apparently edged out the state record set in 1975 on Gravel Lake by a quarter inch. That said, Fundingsland said it’s up in the air if his catch will reset the record books.

“It’s bigger than the state record, but we’ve got to go through Game and Fish. I don’t know that it will be the more that I look at it,” Fundingsland said. “Muskies, the problem is it’s illegal to keep a fish below 48 inches. The state record says you’ve got to take it to a weigh station to get it weighed. You can’t do those things together. It’s quite the honor system, but it’s weird that way.”

Fundingsland said “the coolest program” the state has come up with was stocking muskies at various lakes, including Lake Audubon. Fundingsland speculated their big catches were likely tiger muskies from the initial stockings of Lake Audubon which began in 2010. Audubon is stocked with both tiger muskies and pure muskies.

Official state record or not, Fundingsland said the joys and thrills of the catch were all the reward required.

“It was really, really. really rewarding. It’s been a tough year of muskie fishing and that was a real prize,” Fundingsland said.

The duo’s success continued shortly after they returned to the water, and targeted a similar spot to the location Kim had his success.

“Within 10 minutes, she had one that was 43 1/4 inches, her biggest muskie ever. We had father-daughter muskies, both personal bests on two lures I made, within two hours of each other. It was just crazy,” Fundingsland said. “It takes some will power to stay with that stuff, because you go all day or all weekend and nothing happens.”