<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3mHlGt_1GnUupAc00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3mHlGt_1GnUupAc00" width="990" height="660" ><figcaption>Peninsula Pulse columnist Kevin Naze and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist Logan Sikora flanked Austin Schiefer with the nearly 2-foot-long bass Saturday morning outside the Brussels BP gas station. Photo by MacKenzie May.</figcaption></figure>Wisconsin’s newest state record catch made an appearance in Door County Saturday, but it was solely for inspection.Austin Schiefer of Menasha landed a 9.7-pound smallmouth bass last Friday on Green Bay while fishing out of Oconto with friend Ted Johnson of Waupaca.The anglers caught a lot of 4- and 5-pound-plus fish with a lure Schiefer’s grandfather designed (now sold as the Beast Coast OW Sniper) and a brand that Johnson markets, the Cast Again Tackle Ringer Jig. But the lure that enticed the record-breaker was a soft jerkbait, a Deps Sakamata Shad.On the first cast after tying the bait on, Johnson saw a large blob appear on the forward-facing sonar. It was headed right toward Schiefer’s lure. Bam! He was hooked up.After landing the fish and seeing the digital scale go past 9.7 pounds, Schiefer knew they should get the fish witnessed and certified.“I really wanted to let it go,” Schiefer said. “I got two biologists’ names and phone numbers, and tried calling them multiple times. I left voicemails. I didn’t hear anything, so my buddy stayed with the fish on the water, and I drove to the bait shop to get some information on what to do.”The friends brought the fish to a certified scale at Thompson’s County Market in Oconto, and recorded the weigh-in on a phone video. The football-shaped bass was more than a half-pound heavier than the previous state record of 9 pounds, 1 ounce from Oneida County’s Indian Lake in 1950.Nearly 24 hours later, after being wrapped in a wet towel and buried in ice in his grandpa’s decades-old cooler, the monstrous bronzeback still weighed 9.67 pounds on a certified scale outside of a gas station near Brussels. That’s where Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries biologists Logan Sikora and Jacob Steckmesser of the Sturgeon Bay office examined the fish.I was able to set up the meeting after seeing a post about the fish on Facebook, and I reached out to Schiefer via Messenger. He was told the DNR (on the west shore) wouldn’t be able to see the fish until Monday. Thankfully, Sikora agreed to meet Saturday morning. After inspecting the fish, Sikora said the witnessed weight on the deli scale would be honored. A bump board photo of the catch Friday showed the length at almost 24 inches. After stiffening up on the ice overnight, Sikora measured it at just over 23-1/2 inches, with a 21-inch girth. It was a male, with a basically empty stomach.“I can’t say enough about Green Bay,” said Schiefer, who is originally from Illinois but fished Wisconsin waters while visiting his grandfather as a child. “I believe it’s just going to keep getting better. I’m sure this record is going to get broken at some point. It’s not everywhere you can catch a 7-plus-pound smallmouth, let alone one almost 10.”The world record is 11 pounds, 15 ounces, from Dale Hollow Lake in Tennessee. Several others larger than 10 pounds were reported there, all 40 to 60-plus years ago when fish weren’t required to be inspected by biologists. Meanwhile, the only 10-pound-plus smallmouth from the Great Lakes is thought to be a 23-3/4-inch, 10.15-pound female caught in Lake Erie on the Ontario side in 2022. Biologists determined the fish, which had a 19.38-inch girth, to be 16 years old. The bass was aged by analyzing its otoliths: inner-ear structures that develop annuli, much like the rings on a tree.Before Schiefer’s catch, the closest anyone came to breaking the state record was an 8.78-pound, 22-incher caught during the 2018 Sturgeon Bay Open Bass Tournament. Deer Count ClimbsHunters registered more than 26,000 whitetails between Oct. 20-Nov. 3, a massive hike buoyed by increased deer movement, excellent weather, and more hunters afield as pre-rut activity kicked in and corn came off.The total of 63,917 deer included 36,113 antlered bucks and 27,804 antlerless. Of those, 5,596 (2,812 bucks) were from the youth gun hunt; 22,351 (12,414 bucks) with bow and arrow; and 35,565 (20,771 bucks) with crossbow and bolt.Door County hunters had registered 786 deer in all seasons, including 375 bucks; Brown, 760 (422); and Kewaunee, 515 (310). By area, the Central Farmland Zone had 42,247, including 23,058 bucks; Southern Farmland, 12,033 (7,083); Northern Forest, 8,595 (5,266); and Central Forest, 1,042 (706). That’s more than 54,000 deer taken in the two farmland zones, and fewer than 9,650 in the two forest zones. Turkey TalesThrough Nov. 2, a total of 2,102 wild turkeys were registered in the fall hunt. That includes a state-leading 552 in eastern Wisconsin’s Zone 2, which includes Door and Kewaunee counties.</div></body>

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Wisconsin’s newest state record catch made an appearance in Door County Saturday, but it was solely for inspection. Austin Schiefer of Menasha landed a 9.7-pound smallmouth bass last Friday on Green Bay while fishing out of Oconto with friend Ted Johnson of Waupaca. The anglers caught a lot of...

Wild Things: State Record Bass Hooked in Bay

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Wisconsin’s newest state record catch made an appearance in Door County Saturday, but it was solely for inspection. Austin Schiefer of Menasha landed a 9.7

Wild Things: State Record Bass Hooked in Bay

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