How a dentist from Saukville landed a monster musky

“I just wanted to catch a musky,” Dave Grisar said. “Not the musky.”

It turns out this was the record fish that didn’t get away, and Grisar has the certification to prove it.

Grisar, a dentist who lives in the Town of Saukville and practices in the dental clinic he and his son Tyler run in Grafton, snagged the longest muskellunge in state history on a day off on Oct. 7 in Green Bay.

Grisar went out with his friend, Nolan Koepp, owner of Nolan’s Top Gun Charters in Port Washington.

“He’s my dentist. I’ve taken him walleye fishing before,” Koepp said. “He wanted to catch a musky.”

The first five hours of trolling didn’t garner a bite. Koepp moved to another spot and they quickly found success in water about eight feet deep.

A rod began to rattle, Grisar grabbed it as Koepp cleared the others out of the way.

In less than 10 minutes, Grisar had the fish to the side of the boat. He first thought it was a sturgeon since it was so big.

“I knew it was a musky right away,” Koepp said.

They both knew it was huge.

“I thought, oh my God, that’s a big one,” Grisar said. “What really tipped me off is how excited the captain got.” 

Koepp hefted the fish aboard the boat to measure it. It was 57.5 inches.

Grisar held it for a quick picture and Koepp guided the fish back into the water.

“He was very dedicated to making sure that fish was OK,” Grisar said.

He was ready to leave, but Grisar said Koepp “got really excited” and told him, “Let’s get the rods back out. They’re biting now.”

After 45 minutes of no luck, they went home.

That fish was the only one they caught that day, but quality topped quantity.

Grisar sent the photos of the fish to the state Department of Natural Resources. Fisheries biologist Karl Scheidegger confirmed that it beat the record for a musky by a quarter of an inch.

“I’d have been happy catching a 35-incher,” Grisar said.

Once the record went public, so did Grisar. Friends from 30 years ago contacted him, as did fishing publications and other news organizations.

“I learned a lot about social media,” Grisar said.

Koepp said muskies are difficult to catch, but he netted 16 in 15 trips this fall.

“Usually, one or two is a good day. The DNR only stocks a couple of thousand of them per year,” he said. “You’re lucky to troll over five to 10 a day, and you’ve got to troll over them at the right time.”

While Koepp has won fishing tournaments before, this is the first record fish.

“I was a small part of it,” Grisar said. “Nolan was amazing.”

Grisar nearly caught a musky when he was young, and it was on his bucket list.

“It’s not an easy fish to catch. Guys who do it call it the fish of 10,000 casts,” he said.

Fishing isn’t even his forte. He only does it a few times a year.

Hunting is his passion, with both gunbow and gun, and he has a number of animals displayed in a room of his house from multiple continents.

“If I’m not hunting on a weekend, I’m thinking about hunting,” he said. “I’m very fortunate to do what I do.”

He has rules for his kills.

“We eat everything, even the mountain lion,” he said. “I don’t kill anything unless we’re going to eat it. That’s just part of the deal.”

In South Africa, his kill was donated to an orphanage and the village in which the animal was shot.

“Every scrap and piece of bone was used,” he said.

He has hunted in Poland with an interpreter, although Grisar said hunting is a “universal language” communicated through hand signs.

Grisar loves learning how different cultures respect animals that are hunted.

Wild boar, he said, tend to be some of the most dangerous game.

“They’ll come right after you,” he said.

One of his most memorable hunts was when he got an elk with a bow in Colorado. Grisar was on public land during a self-guided tour, making success a challenge.

Grisar grew up in Saukville hunting with his father David. Even his mother Bunnie has hunted. He has passed the expertise and passion on to his two sons and daughter, all in their 20s, and continues to inspire the next generation.

Grisar is a mentor in the National Wild Turkey Federation North Shore Chapter’s Learn to Hunt program, which teaches ethics and the other most vital part of hunting.

“Safety is the biggest part of that program,” Grisar said.

Grisar has killed a number of dangerous animals but has avoided trouble. A curious bear once climbed up to Grisar in a tree stand. A tap on the nose with an arrow shooed it away.

Grisar’s next out-of-state excursion is in January when he heads to the Chesapeake Bay area to hunt sika deer. The animal was once held as a symbol of prestige on Brownsea Island in England, but during times of low water and low tide, the deer walked and swam to the mainland. Some were later brought to the U.S. by ship.

Closer to home, Grisar is going duck hunting in a couple of weeks but he doesn’t expect to bring home a record bird.

“I don’t know if there is such a thing,” he said.