44 inches
 and 24 pounds
2005: We wait years to finally get the trophy of a lifetime and it happened to me today.
After not seeing any fish for 4 days in the Darkhouse, I moved from shallow water 8' to 20'. I could just see the bottom. It is a deep channel entering into a bay.
Well, I guess that was the place I had been looking for. I had two around 30" chase my decoys around, but held off for a bigger fish. The third fish was a fat, 34" one.
I had the decoy down about 10' and hit her right behind the head.
Over the next two hours, I saw 7
more fish in the 30" category, but I would only take one bigger than the one I had already harvested.
Wow, what a day to remember!
Then it happened!! I was using my 5" blue shiner decoy and in she came! My heart was pounding
so hard I could feel it beating when I let the spear go.
I hit her right at the base of the head using my Dave Pawlak
spear. The middle tine broke her back and she never moved or thrashed.
I lowered her to the bottom, cleaned out the Darkhouse, and raised her up slowly.
When she was near the top, I gaffed her and pulled her out of the shack. I
 had to lean against my fourwheeler for a minute to compose myself!!

2001: Mike Holmes of Iron Mountain MI- pike