{"id":502085,"date":"2026-03-03T23:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/502085\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T23:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:13:09","slug":"our-jaws-just-dropped-jumbo-perch-caught-through-the-ice-should-break-a-44-year-old-state-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/502085\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our Jaws Just Dropped.\u2019 Jumbo Perch Caught Through the Ice Should Break a 44-Year-Old State Record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wisconsinite Alan Hintz has been ice fishing for more than 50 years, and he\u2019s fished a lot of places in that time: from small ponds in the Midwest to Canadian rivers to the famed waters of Lake Erie. Over the weekend, Alan and his brother Dale traveled to North Dakota, where they booked a trip on Devil\u2019s Lake with Perch Patrol Guide Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of a slow day to be honest,\u201d Hintz tells Outdoor Life. \u201cWe were fishing Pelican Bay for most of the morning and only had three fish in the bucket by noon.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when their guide, Tyler Elshaug, decided it was time to make a change. Before he moved the two brothers, Elshaug drilled a couple prospect holes and tested them out himself.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Alan Hintz (right) alongside his guide, Tyler Elshaug. Photo courtesy Alan Hintz<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spot we were fishing is known for quality over quantity,\u201d says Elshaug, who\u2019s been guiding on Devil\u2019s Lake for 10 years. \u201cI went out and drilled a couple holes and dropped my LiveScope down to look around. I saw a few fish and caught one almost immediately, so I went back and shifted the guys over to the new spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using Buck-Shot Rattle Spoons<\/a> tipped with minnow heads, Dale and Alan dropped their lines into the water. Within a few minutes, Dale\u2019s spoon was bitten off by a pike. Dale called Elshaug into the shanty, and the guide was taking the rod back to his truck to re-rig when Alan noticed a large shape on the transducer. The fish was moving towards his own bait, and at first, he thought it was the same pike.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in fishing you never know,\u201d Alan says. \u201cSo, I left my spoon down there and started working the fish. It struck hard and I missed it the first time, but as soon as I dropped back down, it hit again, and the fight was on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Another look at the jumbo perch from inside the ice shanty. Photo courtesy Alan Hintz<\/p>\n

Mayhem ensued as the fish made several hard runs. It tangled Alan\u2019s line with the transducer, then wrapped around the second dead-stick line that was between the two brothers. Dale leapt down and started untangling the mess, making plenty of noise in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could hear the guys yelling from where I was sitting in my truck,\u201d Elshaug says. \u201cSo, with Dale\u2019s rod still in my hand, I walked over and poked my head into the shanty, and it was just chaos. I asked Alan if he had a good one on, but he said he thought it was just a pike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still convinced he was hooked up to a northern, Alan calmed down and fought the fish while Dale cleared his line. Then he brought the fish up near the bottom of the hole, where all three men saw it was a giant yellow perch.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur jaws just dropped,\u201d Alan says. \u201cTyler dropped Dale\u2019s rod and dove for the hole and grabbed the fish, and then all three of us lost our minds. Tyler got his tape and measured it at sixteen and a half inches and said, \u2018Man we have to weigh this thing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rounding up to the nearest ounce, the perch weighed 3 pounds even. Photo courtesy Alan Hintz<\/p>\n

The three broke down their setup and headed for a local bait shop with a certified scale. Knowing the perch was a potential record, Tyler called a game warden, who met them at the shop to weigh and certify the fish.<\/p>\n

Alan\u2019s yellow perch tipped the scales at 2.99 pounds, which should just top the current North Dakota record: a 2-pound 15-ounce perch caught from Devil\u2019s Lake in 1982. According to the state\u2019s rules<\/a> around fishing records, \u201call weights must be rounded to the nearest ounce.\u201d This would put Alan\u2019s perch at 2 pounds 16 ounces, or 3 pounds even. That should be enough to replace the 44-year-old state record, as there is no minimum weight for replacing a standing record in North Dakota, as there is in other record books. (The International Game Fish Association<\/a>, for example, requires a new record fish to outweigh the current record by at least two ounces.)<\/p>\n

Read Next: Tips for Catching Jumbo Yellow Perch Through the Ice<\/a><\/p>\n

The Hintz brothers will have to wait, however, before anything is made official. The North Dakota Game and Fish Department requires a waiting period of at least four weeks before recognizing a new state record. <\/p>\n

\u201cI still have to wait a few weeks for all the paperwork to go through,\u201d says Alan, who has long dreamed of pulling a record through the ice. \u201cRegardless, it\u2019s still the biggest perch I\u2019ve ever caught, and one heck of a memory.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wisconsinite Alan Hintz has been ice fishing for more than 50 years, and he\u2019s fished a lot of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[228802,228804,228805,2807,99871,79,228803,201],"class_list":["post-502085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-alan-hintz","tag-brother-dale","tag-devil39s-lake","tag-north-dakota","tag-photo-courtesy","tag-science","tag-tyler-elshaug","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}