LANSING, Mich. – For the second time this year, there is a new record-sized fish in the state of Michigan.
The state Department of Natural Resources confirmed Wednesday that Michael Lemanski of Florence, Wisconsin caught a 6.36 pound, 21.8 inch cisco, which is formerly known as a lake herring, in June.
“Although this fish was caught in June, we only recently verified it as a state record,” said Gary Whelan, the DNR’s fisheries research manager in a press release. “The reason for the delay stemmed from the fact we wanted to ensure this fish was not a hybrid between a cisco and a lake whitefish. These fish look extremely similar so we gathered DNA from the fish to test its compatibility with what we know about cisco. That test, done by Michigan State University, proved to be a match.”
Lemanski caught the fish on Lake Ottawa in Iron County in the western Upper Peninsula. He was still-fishing with a homemade jig. ‘
The previous record cisco was caught in the East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay in 1992.
To view a current list of Michigan state-record fish, visit michigan.gov/staterecordfish.
