Keith Lusher 08.05.26
A South Dakota angler targeting walleye instead landed a state-record pumpkinseed sunfish, breaking a record that had stood for 56 years.
Jack Backman of Harrisburg caught the 1-pound pumpkinseed on June 18 while fishing Wall Lake near the town of Wall. The fish surpassed the previous state record of 12 ounces, which was set by Pat McCart at Lake Carthage in 1970.
Backman and his friend, Garrett Johnson, launched Backman’s 18-foot Lund aluminum boat on the 220-acre lake around 3 p.m. About two and a half hours into the trip, Backman spotted what appeared to be a promising fish suspended about two feet below the surface over 14 feet of water using forward-facing sonar.
Believing it was likely a crappie, he cast a 1/4-ounce black Northland tungsten jig tipped with a full nightcrawler. The fish struck immediately.
“I thought for sure it was a good crappie,” Backman said. “When I saw it and its colors I knew it was a pumpkinseed.”
Johnson slipped a net under the fish, and the pair quickly realized it might be large enough to challenge the state record. Without a scale in the boat, they relied on memory, knowing the existing record weighed just 12 ounces.
They met up with a friend who owned a portable scale, which registered the fish at just over a pound. From there, they headed to a nearby grocery store, where an employee weighed the fish on a certified scale. The official weight came in at exactly 1 pound, easily eclipsing the previous record.
Backman later completed the required paperwork, and the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department officially recognized the catch as the new state-record pumpkinseed.
Pumpkinseed sunfish are among North America’s most colorful freshwater fish, displaying bright orange, blue, and green markings. Although they are found throughout much of the northern United States, they rarely grow large enough to challenge state records, making Backman’s catch an exceptionally uncommon fish.
His pumpkinseed also came within a half-pound of the International Game Fish Association‘s all-tackle world record. That fish, caught by New York angler Robert Warne in 2016, weighed 1 pound, 8 ounces.
Backman said he had caught pumpkinseed in other states before but didn’t realize they inhabited Wall Lake.
“I’ve fished Wall Lake previously and never knew or saw a pumpkinseed in it,” he said.
The record fish is currently in his freezer, but not for long. Backman plans to have the colorful panfish mounted by a taxidermist, preserving the unexpected catch that turned an ordinary walleye trip into a place in South Dakota fishing history.
