In June of 2025, longtime Wisconsin fishing guide Jeff Van Remortel caught and released a giant muskie in Green Bay that set a new state record. His 56-inch fish replaced a 53-incher and raised the bar in the state’s live release category, which was established in 2017. Speaking with Outdoor Life weeks later, Van Remortel said he and his clients had caught even longer muskies out of Green Bay, and that he expected his own record to fall soon enough.
It turns out he was right. Over the next few months, Van Remortel’s muskie record was broken — not once, but twice, by two different anglers fishing in Green Bay. Both record catches drew little to no fanfare (more on this below), and they might have gone mostly unnoticed if not for recent reporting in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“I think this is just an indication of the quality of fish in Green Bay,” says Karl Scheidegger, a fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources who oversees the agency’s fishing records program. “The spotted muskie strain that’s in there is growing very well, and people are catching a lot of nice fish.”
Scheidegger adds, however, that 2025 is the first year that the muskie catch-and-release record has been broken three times. (The Wisconsin weight record for muskies is a 69 pound, 11 ounce fish that was caught in 1949 and isn’t likely to be replaced anytime soon.)
The second state-record muskie application that Scheidegger received last year was sent in on Sept. 9. He knew the applicant, Greg Matzke, a fellow fisheries biologist who also works for the DNR. The fish measured 56.5 inches, and Sheidegger says Matzke caught it in Green Bay earlier that day. That length was enough to replace Van Remortel’s live release record, since the DNR requires new entries to be at least a quarter-inch longer than existing records.
After verifying Matzke’s record, Scheidegger called to congratulate his co-worker. But within a day or two, and before he could make things official, he received another record muskie application. This one came from Sam Becker, an Illinois-based angler who regularly fishes Green Bay. Becker’s muskie measured 57 inches, which is now the new benchmark in Wisconsin’s live release division.
“There wasn’t any time to officially recognize [Matzke’s fish] because I already had Becker’s application on my desk,” Scheidegger says. “So, I actually sent Greg a certificate with an ‘almost record fish.’ He enjoyed that.”
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Becker had caught his 57-inch fish weeks earlier, on Aug. 26, but he didn’t submit it to the DNR until September — which often happens, Shcheidegger says. He adds that he doesn’t know much about the story behind Becker’s catch, and that Becker specifically asked him not to send out a press release or any other announcement when the record was made official. Becker also didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment from Outdoor Life.
“Muskie anglers, they can be kind of secretive,” says Scheidegger.
After last year’s three-peat, though, it seems Green Bay’s secrets are getting harder and harder to keep.
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