Released North Dakota Muskie Could Have Been a Record

Who knew North Dakota has muskies this big? 

If you chase muskies, odds are good you follow some muskie fishing social media pages. In that case, odds are probably better that you have seen these recent photos of a massive North Dakota muskie. Joshua Kelly was the lucky angler who boated this fish. Now, the details of this near-state record fish are starting to emerge.

Thanks to photos shared by Bigtooth Tackle Company on their page, we can see this is one big fish. 

At 53 inches long, this fish very well could have rivaled the current North Dakota muskie record, but instead of keeping the fish and finding out for sure, it was released. According to other sources, it was said this fish most likely weighed somewhere in the mid 40 pound range. If that is the case, then it would have been close.

As it stands today, the current North Dakota record muskie is 54-inches and just over 46 pounds. Thankfully, due to outstanding catch and release efforts on behalf of Kelly, we'll never know one way or the other.

NEXT: NICE SIZED FOLLOWING MUSKIE STOLEN BY PARTNER IN BACK OF BOAT