Lake Hiawatha Muskie The 'Fish Of A Lifetime'

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A 21-year-old Minneapolis man says he is still feeling the thrill of what happened to him around 8 p.m. Tuesday night.

Ryan Stoffel caught a "fish of a lifetime" -- a 35- to 40-pound Muskie -- on Lake Hiawatha.

He used a nine-pound line to reel in the fish.

Nearby fishers jumped in to help with a Muskie net.

Stoffel said he regularly fishes the south Minneapolis lake, but this was something he never dreamed of.

"My pole was just bent all the way down, tip just snapped, whole pole just flung up," he said. "The bobber landed on the dock, but it was just amazing to catch a fish that big off a line this small. It just doesn't happen. It was crazy, a fish of a lifetime."

The fish was estimated to be about 20 years old. Stoffel thought about keeping it to mount, but he said he just couldn't kill a fish that's the same age as him.