Photos: New KY State Record Set For 9.05lb Saugeye Fish

Bullock Pen Lake / Facebook

Wolfgang Kratzenberg from Verona, Kentucky just reeled in the new state record for catching a saugeye fish. It weighed a whopping 9.05 pounds.

It was caught on Bullock Pen Lake in Grant County while Wolfgang was out bonding with this son Geoffrey on the lake. He said they were fishing for crappie and using red and green tube jig for bait when the saugeye pulled on the line.

Wolfgang’s line began to pull so hard that he thought it was a big catfish or a carp on the other end. Once he got the fish a little closer to the boat, though, he noticed the dark mottled splotches across its back and at that point, knew it was a colossal saugeye.

“We didn’t have a net and I have this big fish on a crappie jig with hooks designed to straighten out when hung up,” KY.gov reported Wolfgang saying. “Geoffrey tried to cradle it with a PFD (personal flotation device), but that didn’t work. I finally just wrestled it in and slung it in the boat. It was a fiasco situation for a bit.”

They measured it and it was 27 inches long with a girth of 17.5 inches. 

“Geoffrey looked it up on his phone and saw the record was 8 pounds, 8 ounces,” Wolfgang said. “He told me, we might have a shot (at the record), this might be close.”

They called 10 different stores trying to find certified scales to weigh the fish on and finally, Costco said they were willing to weigh the fish. An employee brought the scales out to the parking lot and weighed it, confirming that it was 9.05 pounds and beating the previous record of 8 pounds, 8.8 ounces caught in 2019 in the Cumberland River.

Congratulations Wolfgang!