Minnesota has a new record lake trout, and behind it is a now-familiar name — not the angler who caught it, but the guide who keeps putting people on giants.
The record fish, a 45.5-inch laker, was landed on Lake Superior on May 9 by Joe Bouta of Benson, Minnesota, and certified by the state Department of Natural Resources on June 4. The twist: it was one of the very first lake trout Bouta had ever hooked.
His guide that day was Ethan Waytashek of the Lake Superior Jigging Guide Service, based in Two Harbors, who chases trophy lakers by vertical jigging. Conditions had forced a change of plan. "I was supposed to be guiding them in Michigan waters part of Lake Superior because of the winds [...] they were blowing a sustained 10 to 20 mph, and gusting 35 mph out of the north," Waytashek said.
He shifted the trip to sheltered Minnesota water, and the payoff was immediate. "I turned around to those guys and said, 'I guess we just caught a new state record,'" Waytashek said.
Andrew Bouta, the angler's son, put the weight at more than 30 pounds and pointed to the guide's adaptability. "We were supposed to fish the Michigan side of the lake that morning, but the wind was just too bad, so Ethan came up with an alternate game plan," he said.
What makes the catch stand out is the pattern around it. Minnesota introduced its catch-and-release record category for lake trout in 2024, measuring length instead of weight so trophy fish can be documented and returned alive. Every record set since has come aboard Waytashek's boat: 42.5 inches (Kelsey Vanderyheyden, April 2024), 43.25 inches (Isaiah Bartlett, March 2025), 44 inches (Matthew Hammer, April 2026) and now Bouta's 45.5-incher.
Waytashek puts the streak down to his method — hunting fish he estimates at 30 to 40 years old and releasing every trophy rather than running them to a scale, where the biggest often die. The DNR is paying attention. After signing off on the latest record, fisheries staffer Mandy Erickson sent the guide a half-joking target by email: "Your new target is 46\" — good luck!"
Bouta, meanwhile, walked away with a story few anglers ever tell — a state record on one of his earliest outings for the species, pulled from roughly 100 feet of choppy, white-capped water. He will be recognised at the Minnesota State Fair later this year.