SC angler lands state record walleye

The Lake Tugalo fish walleye weighed 10 pounds, 1.44 ounces

Chris Edlund of  Spartanburg, S.C. was fishing with his friend Dave Starzek of Greer when Edlund hooked a 10-pound, 1.44-ounce walleye in Lake Tugalo on May 29. Starzek netted the fish.

The walleye now shares the South Carolina state record, tied with a slightly lighter-weight, 10-pound walleye due to a technicality in the state’s record keeping system. Any fish weighing less than 25 pounds must beat the previous record by at least 2 ounces, or it’s counted as a tie.

The two anglers were on the water at 6:30 a.m. and trolled lures from their 13-foot Lowe aluminum boat for about 2 hours when the big fish hit.

“When it surfaced, we got excited. We knew if that wasn’t a record, it was going to be close,” said Edlund.

The 597-acre Lake Tugalo sits on the South Carolina/Georgia border. A small reproducing population of walleye make their home in the lake, which has also been stocked with walleye numerous times by the Georgia DNR.