The Davis family has spent summer vacations in Wisconsin for years and Dillon Davis grew up fishing the Eagle River area from the family cottage. And that’s a tradition he was able to share with his 12-year-old daughter Madilyn — in record-breaking fashion.
Dillon, his wife Audrey and Madilyn were enjoying fishing the Northwoods of Wisconsin over the Fourth of July. Madilyn was determined to catch a big muskie, with her dad as her guide, and she hoped it might be big enough for an International Game Fish Association junior world record.
“We were fishing on Long Lake the last afternoon of our trip, which was July 4,” Dillon tells Outdoor Life. “Madilyn said she wanted to catch a world record something. And we were ready for her to catch a record muskie.”
Dillon is savvy with IGFA regulations and had brought along a special certified IGFA fish measuring board.
“We almost didn’t bring the IGFA ‘bump board’ for measuring fish, but I’m sure glad we did,” says Dillon, 41, of Gilbert, Arizona.
Dillon says Madilyn had hooked a big fish on another day earlier in their trip, but she lost it. They never saw the fish, but they think it could have been a nice muskie.
On the morning of July 4, Madilyn made a cast with spinning gear and hooked a fish near their 16-foot Starcraft boat. They saw the fish, and Dillon recognized it right away as a muskie. But Madilyn’s Mepps spinner came loose, and she lost the fish.
“She was really disappointed, because that fish very well may have been an IGFA junior world muskie record that she was hoping to catch,” Dillon says.
Madilyn was discouraged, but undeterred and she kept casting.
Shortly thereafter, and just minutes before the family had to leave the Wisconsin lake for home, Madilyn pitched her Mepps spinner out again.
“It was my last cast, and I thought I got hooked in some weeds,” says the seventh-grader. “I felt a tug, but my dad saw my rod was bent in half, and said to reel, reel, reel.
“It was a lot stronger than other fish I’ve caught like bass and trout. The fish got under our boat a couple times. But about 5 minutes later I got it close and dad netted it. It was the biggest fish I’d ever caught.”
They readied their IGFA measuring board, while they kept Madilyn’s muskie in the water in their landing net.
Once the board was ready, Dillon lifted the fish from his net, unhooked it and measured the muskie at 31.10 inches. They made photos of the fish on the board, then released the muskie back into the lake.
“We didn’t have the fish out of the water for more than a minute, and when we released the muskie it swam away strong and lively,” says Dillon.
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Photos and documentation were submitted to IGFA headquarters in Florida, and the record keeping organization has officially recognized Madilyn’s catch as the “All-Tackle Junior Length Muskie Record.” It is the first such world youth IGFA record for muskies.
“It feels great accomplishing one of my goals I had for this year,” says Madilyn. “I think I can also catch a world record carp here in Arizona. And I love to hunt doves, too.”
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