SAGINAW, MI — A “monster” walleye netted on the Tittabawassee River Tuesday, April 2, weighed in at 16 pounds, just shy of the state record.

Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials shared a photo of Dave Fielder, a fisheries research biologist out of Alpena, holding the whopper on the DNR’s Facebook page Tuesday afternoon. Fielder was working with DNR crews on an annual jaw-tagging study when some of his colleagues netted it.

“We could see right away that it was an exceptionally large fish,” Fielder said.

Fielder said they don’t routinely weigh fish as part of that study, but they put it on a scale just out of curiosity.

He said a typical walleye weighs one to two pounds, but they routinely see 10- to 12-pound walleye as well. This one was even bigger.

“We collected it as part of our annual jaw-tagging study. We put tags on these fish and they get reported by the anglers and that helps us understand how the fishery is operating,” Fielder explained.

To capture the walleye, researchers use a technique called “electrofishing” to temporarily stun the fish, which are then netted, tagged and released back into the water.

According to the DNR’s website, the largest walleye caught in Michigan, on record, weighed 17.19 pounds, and measured 35 inches long. It was caught with live minnow for bait in 1951 in Manistee County’s Pine River.

The fish just shy of the record was netted on the Tittabawassee, a few miles downstream from Dow Dam, Fielder said. Dow Dam is just southeast of Midland.

“That fish was tagged as part of our operation and we released it back in the river, so she’s still out there somewhere," Fielder said. “If she survives and grows another year, she might be close to that state record or past it."

Michigan Department of Natural Resources release a 16-pound walleye back into the Tittabawassee River after netting and tagging it Tuesday, April 2, 2019.Courtesy | Dave Fielder

Fielder said anglers are encouraged to report tagged fish when they catch them, about 10 percent of which come with a $100 cash prize. Marked and tagged fish can be reported to the DNR here.

“We’ve been working for several decades to restore the walleye population,” Fielder said, noting that officials met their walleye recovery target in 2009. “It collapsed back in the middle part of the 20th century due to a variety of reasons."

Fielder said a walleye fingerling stocking program, water quality laws and the absence of invasive alewives all contributed to the walleye comeback, which he called a "big (fisheries) management success story.”