New North Dakota record walleye doesn’t stand up to probe

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota doesn’t have a new state record walleye after all.

Lincoln angler Tom Volk on April 21 was shore-fishing the Heart River in Mandan when he hauled in a 16-pound, 9-ounce walleye. The state Game and Fish Department initially said it was a record.

The agency now says an investigation has concluded that the fish was not legally hooked and can’t be recognized as a record.

That means the state record continues to be a 15-pound, 13-ounce walleye that Bismarck angler Neal Leier caught in the Missouri River in May 2018.

Before Leier’s fish, North Dakota’s walleye record had stood for nearly six decades.