CRANE LAKE – David Ramm and his dad, Gary, hadn’t been back to Crane Lake since 2008.

“We used to come up every year for awhile,” said Ramm. “We really like it up there.”

Ramm now has another reason to return to Crane Lake, after he landed a potential state record muskie while fishing there on Sept. 11.

“I knew I had a big fish on the line immediately,” said Ramm, 36, of Blue Grass, Iowa. “I told my dad to take a look at her in case she gets off. I wanted him to see how big the fish was.”

His dad caught a glimpse of the fish as it swam past the side of the boat, turned to his son and said, “Don’t lose it.”

Ramm said he was able to boat the big muskie. “It didn’t fight too much as I reeled it in and it swam right into the net that my dad had ready in the water.”

The fish measured 58-1/2 inches long with a 28-inch girth, Ramm said. That would put the fish’s weight at 57 to 58 pounds. The Minnesota state-record muskie, caught on Lake Winnibigoshish in 1957, weighed 54 pounds. That fish was 56 inches long with a 27-3/4-inch girth, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Ramm’s dad snapped a few photos of his son with the monster muskie before they released the fish back into the lake.

A die-hard angler, Ramm said he has never had a fish mounted in his life. “I just enjoy the thrill of catching a big fish,” he said. “Although I may get a replica made of this one.”

Ramm said he’s had a productive season fishing for muskie this year. “I stopped keeping count after I broke 30 this year,” he said, noting that he had some additional time to fish when he was temporarily laid off from his job. “Sometimes, I fished five times a week,” he said.

He used a Double Cowgirl bucktail spinner in about five feet of water to land the big muskie. Ramm was fishing with a St. Croix muskie rod with 80-pound-test PowerPro line and a 130-pound-test fluorocarbon leader.

Ramm said he and his dad had been fishing at Lake Vermilion the day before, where they had some success going after muskies.

“I lost a nice big one,” he said. “It got twisted around the motor so I had to cut the line,” he recalled with a laugh.

Crane Lake is known more for its walleyes, crappies and northern pike but reports of big muskies have been increasing on Crane Lake in recent years.

DNR officials believe some of Lake Vermilion’s muskies slip over the spillway at the Lake Vermilion dam and make the 40-mile trip down the Vermilion River to Crane Lake.

Tom Burri, assistant area fisheries supervisor at International Falls, said reports of muskies in the lake prompted a survey of muskies in 2008 and 2009. DNR crews caught and released just four muskies up to 50-1/2-inches long.

Ramm said a worker at the Vermilion Dam Lodge suggested that if he was fishing for muskies, he could try Crane Lake.

“We were staying at Norway Lodge on Crane Lake, so we decided to give it a try,” said Ramm.

David also caught a 46-incher on Crane Lake while his dad, Gary, landed one about 38 inches long on Sept. 11.

Sarah Tufte, co-owner of Norway Lodge, said the Ramms are real sportsmen and just enjoy catching big fish. She has no doubt their story of the big muskie is true. “They’re really honest people.”

Ramm said they measured the fish against a “bump board” on the floor of the boat and used a string wrapped around the fish’s midsection to determine its girth. The next morning, just to double-check, Ramm measured the width of the boat floor, which was 59 inches.

“The fish was a half-inch short of going across the floor of the boat when I pinched the tail,” he said.

Mammoth muskies are becoming more common in the region, according to Duane Williams, DNR large lake specialist at Tower.

“The biggest we’ve ever measured on Lake Vermilion is 55.6 inches,” said Williams, who added that he’s heard reports of muskies as large as 56 to 57 inches on Lake Vermilion. Given Ramm’s catch, Williams said, those reports seem farily credible.