Hayward, Wisconsin: Controversial World's Largest Real Muskie

Come see, mounted on the wall, the biggest muskie fish ever caught. Maybe.

The muskie on display here, the only 70-pounder ever caught, will forever have an asterisk next to its name because the scale that was used to weigh it was not officially certified. This 70-pound, 4-ounce record-holder, caught by Bob Malo on June 6, 1954, bests the muskie in the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame by a full ten ounces, enough of a lead, we'd think, to override any scale error. But freshwater fishing is a sport of rules and verification, and this suspect muskie must therefore be banished to the back pages of the record books.

It's some small compensation that it's displayed in a clean, bright, sportsman's lodge, unlike its other rival, a 67-pound, 6-ouncer, in the dark and smoky Moccasin Bar.