To say that the rules and regulations to qualify for a genuine Guinness World Record are extreme is an understatement of epic proportions. Just ask the Marathon Man himself, Frabill’s Jeff “Kolo” Kolodzinski. “Well let me see… We had to have two individual fish counters with unique tally sheets. Literally, a trained timekeeper had to be on hand. There needed to be two minutes of video evidence for each hour during the 24 hours. Sworn affidavits were required. We even brought in a witness from the Minnesota DNR to check my p’s and q’s.” Whew…
Fortunately, the blood, sweat, tears and microscopic attention to detail paid off. For Kolo not only bested his previous mark – set two summers ago – but made the standing total of 1,628 fish landed and released in 24 hours look like chicken feed compared to his new number, a jaw-dropping 2,160 fish! Holy fish-heads, Batman…
Once again, he pulled off the stunt from the docks of Maynard’s in Excelsior Bay on Minnesota’s Lake Minnetonka. Adding to the hoopla, the crowd and coverage was way up, and so were donations to Fishing For Life, the event sponsor.
Further entertaining the masses, Kolo pulled a few tricks out of the tackle box. For one, there were no less than eight muskie insurrections during the event. In fact, one particularly mercurial muskie clipped the posterior two-thirds from a respectably sized bluegill. (Various sunfish species end up accounting for well over 90% of the catch.)
Weather was in Kolo’s favor, too, which wasn’t the case last year when key sundown hours were stolen by lightning storms. “Rain and storms were forecasted on and off, but thank God, the meteorologists were wrong,” said Kolo. Daytime temps ranged in the mid 70’s and were coupled with consistently overcast skies. “I’m confident the cloudy skies kept fish closer to shore and more active throughout the day.”
As a man possessed to give back to the sport of fishing, and a wee bit competitively natured too, Kolo will take another whack at it next year. “It’s a big number, but it’s beatable,” he said with confidence hidden beneath that trademark grin.
Oh, and to the rest of the world…bring it on! Lets see whatcha got. And don’t come to the table with a cloud of fishbowl-sized, nipping gobies, roach, or sculpin, either. (Okay, just kidding around.) Challengers are welcomed.
