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ALEXANDRIA - Russ Chapek and four of his grandchildren, Tyler Chapek (age 13), Chase Lindeman (age 15), Porter Lindeman (age 13), and Cambrie Bartel (age 10), had quite the catch on Lake Darling on the evening of Sunday, July 16, 2023.

This group of five is from the Mankato area and near the Twin Cities. They were on vacation in Alexandria last weekend.

The group set out to fish Sunday evening on Lake Darling in the northwest part of Alexandria. The group had set out to fish for some bluegill sunfish and had found some success.

But then came the catch of the day for the group — or rather, the catch of a lifetime.

Tyler Chapek's line hauled in a 51-inch muskie that day, which is a rare fish species to catch on Lake Darling.

"We were just fishing for bluegill, and then all of a sudden, I had this big hit on the line. And all I saw was a head shake. So I thought it was like a bass or something. And then it jumped out of the water, and my stomach just dropped. After that, I kept trying to get it in the net, and it kept running away and taking drag. We finally got close to the net, and only the head fit. So we couldn't net it. So after another 10 minutes of trying to get it in, and we finally ended up getting it in," Tyler said in an interview with the Echo Press on Monday, July 17, 2023.

"When I saw that they first had it on, I thought, 'There's no way this is going to come in,'" Russ said. "So I told Porter, 'Film this so that way somebody believes that we had a muskie. It was quite a deal."

Russ said the muskie was 51 inches long with a girth of 24 inches, which weighs out to be approximately 42 pounds.

The muskie was caught and released back into the lake.

A local group on a pontoon nearby immediately pointed out the rarity of the feat.

"There was a pontoon that pulled up by us, and they were natives on the lake, and they just made a comment, 'You've got to show this (the photo and video) because there's not supposed to be muskies on Lake Darling. When we came in, we showed people the photo and video. People, they were like, 'You got to take this to the paper, so that's why we're here."

The group said they were out on the water for approximately an hour to an hour and a half before they caught the muskie. The muskie was caught just before 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 16, 2023.

"Before then, we caught and released 10 rock bass and five bluegills and stuff like that," Chase Lindeman said.

Reeling in this fish was the highlight of a trip for the family vacation.

"This trip is a big family vacation," Russ said. "I have four kids, and we've got 11 grandkids, and we try to do something every year with them. And this was the year that we came to Arrowwood [Resort] as a group, and I brought my boat, my son brought him, and we just took the grandkids out and let them fish. We tried to help them catch something, but we never really thought that we would catch something like that."

"I don't think any of us thought that we'd catch anything like that," Cambrie said.

Russ says Cambrie, Tyler, Chase, and Porter have taken an interest in fishing at a young age.

"Tyler's grandpa and grandma on his mom's side own a cabin up by Deer River, and they fish quite a bit. Chase and Porter probably go fishing every week or every other week near Mankato. Cambrie maybe doesn't get out as much, but we just try and get out. I know the kids love to fish, so we just tried to get out."

And get out they did as they reeled in a fish that they'll remember for the rest of their lives.

"I'll probably never catch one like that again," Russ said.

"I'm still in shock," Porter said.

"It's the biggest fish I've ever caught, and it's pretty cool," Tyler said.