October 19, 2020 • 26 mins
The catch of a lifetime threatens to upend a North Dakota man's life after witnesses cast doubt on his whopper fish and his character. A Fargo-esque fishing tale with more twists and turns than the Cannonball River, and an ending that will make anglers think twice before going for the big one.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Triggeration, a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
back to the Triggeration Podcast. As always, I'm your host,
Matt and thanks for tuning into the world's number one
rated show about deception and sports. Your weekly celebration of
the cheaters, schemers, pranksters and scammers, all people who played
(00:23):
by their own set of rules. Last week we went
all in on a sketchy w n B A assist record.
The week before that, it was potato pickoffs in the outfield.
Next week we are hot on the trail of the
back story of Mike Tyson's prison contraband. But this week
we've got an all time doozy on the hook for you.
A suspicious state fishing record that lasted for just one day,
(00:45):
and the story of the fisherman who got snagged along
with it. Always in the back of your mind, you're thinking, well,
maybe what if what if I do catch a big fish,
if I do break that record? Next time I catch
a fish that's close to state record, I'm gonna hit
it over the head and a throw it down the whole.
(01:06):
I don't want anything to do with it. Tom Vault
is a forty two year old City councilman in North Dakota.
In his spare time, he's mostly on the river. Fishing
started back when I was about five years old. We
would go with my family to the river and and
we'd fish all day. And you know, it was just
(01:26):
kind of a family thing that we did, and I
loved it. And what do you like about fishing? It's
kind of an escape, to be honest that it truly
is an escape for me. It was somewhere where I
could just be at peace and I didn't have to
think about my responsibilities, my job or anything like that.
Because when I was on the water, all I was
trying to do is figure out how to catch more fish.
And it was addictive to me. Like my wife tells
(01:48):
me all the time that I have an issue because
I do spend a lot of time and a lot
of money on fishing, and UM just love it. In
the state of North Dakota, one type of fish is
coveted more than any other. Our state is very much
all about the walleye, and it's just it seems to
(02:10):
be the fish of choice. People spend thousands and thousands
of dollars to chase these walleye and it's a big
sport for people here, And what's so special about the walleye.
It tastes the best in my mind. The walleye is
tastier than any other fish, and they're finicky at times,
so they're hard to catch. So if you get really
good at it, it's kind of like bragging rights from
(02:34):
the record for the largest walleye caught in North Dakota
remained untouched, but there were whispers that the record fish
was scooped and not hooked. That record held for almost
fifty years, and it was controversial, like people were like, no,
he found a dad that shouldn't count. You should take
that record away. It was something that people wanted to
see broken. And two years ago it was broken when
(02:55):
a man named Neil Lear reeled in a fifteen pound,
thirteen ounced walleye and never and I was like, yeah,
it's broke. We don't have a controversial record. Good for Neil,
you know, And I don't know the guy. Um. I
know from some of the stories that he wasn't an
avid angler, which makes it even better. Like somebody that
doesn't fish a lot goes out and catches a state record.
How how great of a story is that? You know?
(03:18):
It was easter Sunday, and I really had no plans
to go fishing. But my buddy Joe, he was like, Tommy,
I think you should really come out and go go fishing
with me. I was here yesterday catching some fish out
of the spot, and I think it'd be really fun
to try to catch some more fish. So I was
able to convince my wife and the kids to come
fishing with me on the shore of the Heart River
in mandan Um. I wasn't really expecting to catch a
whole lot of fish. I thought maybe one or two
nice fish and maybe something for the frying pan um.
(03:41):
But we started catching fish right away, and we found
that there was a spot about a hundred feet out
and if you threw it into that slack water, these
fish were kind of sitting in the in this slack
water of the current. So we felt that if you
just dragged it along the bottom of the water, that
would give them a lot of time to bite. So
(04:01):
I cast out about hundred feet out there into that
flat water and I just slowly start reeling it in
and I just felt this to what that really means
is the fish picked it up in its mouth, and
I'm like, Holy cow. Is that a walleye? Is that gosh?
I hope that's a walleye. And I set the hook
and I'm like, oh man, that feels heavy, you know.
And I start reeling it in and it's not really moving.
It's like solid, and I'm like, okay, this is a
(04:23):
big one, you know. So my wife was recording me.
Hold on, say let's get let's get this fish for Dad. Here.
That's got a gigantic fish. So I'm fighting it for
about two minutes and it's staying under water and I
don't know what this thing is, and I'm like, Jesus,
is a big fish. You know? It's a big fish.
And then all of a sudden, you know, it kind
(04:43):
of broke the surface. So at that point when it
breaks the surface, I could see my string is coming
from the head of the walleye, not from anywhere else. Walleye,
big wallete, ready to get And at that point I
think what she did is she she rolled. And I
(05:03):
believe then that my string somehow got looped around the
fish because it just changed the way it fought. So
for the first two and a half minutes, you can
see the head shakes, you can see where the fish
is literally, you know, shaking its head underwater, and you
can see that that rod bounce just like a typical
wall I does, right, typical Um, no concerns whatsoever. But
then after about two and a half minutes, you can
(05:24):
see that kind of stopped. And that's what makes me
think absolutely that this thing just rolled and got tangled
in the string, because at that point it just changed
the way that it was fighting. And at this point,
it's about fifty ft out in front of me, and
I'm just really reeling this fish and just horsing it
because I'm like, God, I don't want to lose this
in the current. I'm trying to get it into the shore,
and uh, I'm not making much ground on this thing.
(05:45):
His fishing buddy, Joe Gibbs, is standing by poised with
a net. You know, I'm telling Gibbs, I'm like, you
better get down there, you know, better get down to
that spot where we're gonna have to net this fish.
And he runs out to the peninsula and he gets
way out there and he can't see the fish. He's
like looking all over for this fish is where hell
is that? Where the hell is it? And all of
a sudden, you know, it gets down close to him
and you next this fish and I'm like, thank god,
(06:07):
we got it in the net. And I see this
fish and then net and I start swearing ship, let's go, dude,
that's the record. Then everybody's out there just like giving
high fives and and and it's like cheering, and uh
it was. It was true joy. Like again, I've been
(06:29):
fishing for thirty five years, thirty six years at the time,
and I'd never seen a walleye that big. It is
something that dreams are made of. When Volt pulls the
fish from the net, he shocked by what he sees.
When I pull her out for the first time, she's
got this massive belly on her, like it just hangs down.
And at that time, you know they're spawning in April,
(06:49):
and she was full of eggs, Like, she was absolutely
full of eggs. And what people need to know is
that she's most likely on the end of her life
cycle and that once she were to spawn out those eggs,
she was pretty much going to be done for most
likely because because she was pretty old. So I have
no problem keeping a fish like that, just because we
have no shortage of wallefe population in the river that
I'm fishing. As per custom, Volt gathers his family around
(07:11):
and holds high the prized fish for the snapshot he
can only assume will echo in time long after he's gone. Here,
guys take a pictures, and then I think somebody goes
put it on the scale. Man put it on the scale,
and I'm like, oh, okay, that sounds good. I didn't
know if somebody had a digital scale there, and Joe goes,
I got one, and he whips out his digital scale
(07:33):
and we put it on there and I'm just yelling
these numbers out and there. At that point, I knew
it had potentially a state record, because I knew that
the current state record is fifteen pounds. That's when I
kind of figured this has potential. So I'm trying to
(07:55):
call everybody I know to try to get ahold of
game and fish, and on an Easter Sunday, that's kind
of hard do. And finally I call Burly County Dispatch
and I'm like, okay, I have a big wall. I hear, guys,
I think it's a state record, and I need some
officers to come verify this fish for me. And you know,
they show up at the gas station where the certified
scale is, and at that time it had been are
(08:17):
you starting to dry out? And the owner of the
gas station let me put in the big minnow tank
so I was able to keep it alive. And we
put it on the scale and it weighs seventeen pounds
on the scale, and the and the guy goes, it's
it's official. He goes that slider bar is right at
seventeen pounds zero ounces, and the other officer goes, oh,
it's not showing you the ounces very well, you know,
(08:38):
because it has this old slider bar on it. And
I go, well, we can go somewhere else too. I
was like, I want this to be legit. I want
you guys to feel comfortable with the weight, you know,
and I wanted to be a legit record. So the
next step is to get it to the next gas station.
And at that point it's kind of drying out, and
I know that it's gonna lose weight drying out, but
at this point it was seventeen pounds, and I knew
(08:58):
it could dry out a lot before I would ever
lose the record. And by the time I got to
the second scale, the scale was jumping around from sixteen
pound twelve ounces to a little over seventeen pounds. It
was because the fish was so big she didn't fit
on the scale, and like she would flop her tail
and that would kind of throw off the scale a
little bit. And I said, we can easily go to
somewhere else. I have no problems with that, and they go, yeah,
(09:19):
I think I know a place. And we got to
the third scale, and at that point it was sixteen
pounds nine ounces. But that one showed consistently every time,
and I was comfortable with that. The officers were comfortable,
and at that point they were taking pictures and video
and they were sending them to people and laughing and saying,
I think we gotta we got a new record, you know.
(09:39):
And they were excited to be there and to witness
this fish. And what are your emotions when it becomes
apparent at this point that you have cut the record?
While for your state, I would say as a fisherman,
it was the greatest moment in my life. It was
like the angels opened up in the clouds and started
singing to me. It was for great I was at
(10:02):
a loss for words, but I was calling people as
I was driving, stay record record, verify my game and
fish sixteen pounds and nine and a half pounds? Do
we have to go to three different scales just to
get an accurate weight on it? And I'm going to
do an interview right now. The New States wants to
(10:24):
get old Mere's this crazy? I'm like a celebrity for
a day. What kind of stature would it be to
have the record for this fish? Like? How important is that? Okay,
So here's the misperception. So a lot of people believe
that there's royalties and that you'll get pictures everywhere and
that you will get all this money, and that is
absolutely not true. But I think even I was under
(10:47):
the perception that, oh my gosh, I could get some
royalties if I let people make replicas of this and
they can put it in their stores, just to find
out later that no, that doesn't happen. Big box stores
and everybody else just takes your measurements and to make
their own replicas. I think there's this false perception that
you you get all this money and you get all
this fame, and it's really not true. But it is
(11:07):
just excitement and bragging rights. That's really what it's forced
to say, I got the biggest ball in the state.
Nana nana booboo. You know, alright, time for a quick break.
On the other side, witnesses come forward casting doubt on
the catch, as well as Tom's character. If somebody had
a concern, fine, great, I don't care. Why wouldn't they
have just talked to me about it? Why did they
(11:28):
just let me leave? When I left the shore, everybody
was excited. Nobody brought up any concerns, not one person.
So I left that shore thinking that everybody was as
(11:51):
excited as I was that they just got to witness
this awesome, huge fish um being caught. When do you
realize that there's controversy with this catch? Well it was
really the next day, okay. So Game and Fish came
out with their announcement at nine o'clock in the morning
(12:13):
and said, hey, we got a new record. You know,
Tom Volkes walleye sixteen pound, nine ounces walleye is the
new state record. And I'm getting flooded with calls from
the media asking me to tell my story. But the
gut punch came when they called Gibbs, the guy who
netted the fish, and they they called him and said,
we want you to provide a statement. The fish is
(12:35):
under investigation in your witness to the violation. And Gibbs
called me and said did you know that? And I'm like,
I didn't know, you know what, Like, what would they
be investigating? Why would they wanted what? What? I was like,
I had no idea what was going on at that point.
Game and Fish launched a full scale investigation into whether
Tom volts Walleye was caught legally in the mouth or
(12:58):
was foul hooked me in The hook entered the fish
somewhere behind the gill plate. So we get to the
fish that everybody is interested in, of course, So let's
go through that. So you needed the fish. You you're
saying you didn't know where it was king at that time,
(13:19):
just say attention. I was just trying to get a
big fish on then. So like Joe was telling him
that this fish was flopping in the net, and he goes,
I never looked for the hook or the string fish
flop around in the net at all, Okay, because in
the video it doesn't move at all. I feel a
flying on my neck. So the bit once in the
video is wrong. And the officer says to him, you're lying.
(13:44):
Why are you lying? Are you lying to protect Tom?
I said, it was Joe, this is I've had an
offense behind my back. You need to tell the truth
I'm telling. I mean at the time the video, the
fish didn't even move. I mean, it's the story Tom's
telling everybody because what happened not the truth. Oh it's
(14:11):
like I couldn't believe he said that, but it was.
That's recorded. And at that point, they're not looking to
prove me innocent. They're looking to prove me guilty. And
what's their motivation in your mind for not trying to
prove you innocent? What what do you think their intentions are?
You know, that's a good question. So the guy who
currently has the North Dakota state record is his name
(14:32):
is Neil Lear, and he has the first cousin named
Doug Lear. And Doug Lear is North Dakota Game and
Fish lead biologist. So right there, every walleye that's caught
for a record, it becomes a conflict of interest because
it's one of Game and Fish is very own that
has the record. It's his his first cousin. So it's
like that's a problem right there. So what I did
is I conducted an open records re quest after the
(14:53):
investigation was completed and asked for all the communications going
back and forth between Game and Fish and anybody else
pertaining to my wallefe. There was a text message going
back from Doug Lear to somebody else saying, yep, steal
a leer in the record books, So you know that
they're not technically a neutral party when it comes to
any type of walleye record. In my mind, in North Dakota,
(15:13):
keeping a foul hooked fish, regardless of intention, is a
Class B misdemeanor and fine. So that's a huge issue
for me because I am a drug prevention specialist for
the state. I helped train law enforcement, and it's like,
if I were to get a CLASSY misdemeanor on my record,
that could potentially have me lose my job and other
job opportunities in the future. And that's ultimately why I
(15:33):
had to hire an attorney. And people are like, I
don't know why he hired an attorney. Well, when somebody's
telling you that you've committed a violation, aren't you going
to hire an attorney because you know what they're trying
to do. At that point, and what does their investigation
look like? How wide a net are they casting? I
thought when they opened the investigation, it was gonna be
thorough and it's gonna take everybody's perspective into account. But
(15:54):
they didn't. So what happened is is after they opened
this investigation, right, it's Matthew Canouth guy, they called Game
and Fish that night and this is about ten o'clock
at night, the night I caught my walleye. Um. Yeah,
the North Dakota States probably be a record. I was
(16:15):
right beside and almost like an the snake in the tail.
He came into first, and they edited tail first. They
were snake and fish all day. In his statement to
Game and Fish, Canuth told investigators that before volt landed
the big one, he saw him foul hook multiple fish,
(16:35):
which he let his kids reel in. That's what he says, right,
And I have pictures of those two walleye with my
two kids and him in the background showing that those
walleye were hooked in the mouth. I have the pictures
where the hook is still in the mouth of the walleye.
And that's a blatant lie that he told the investigator.
And then he goes, well, I didn't put two and
two together till later, so you know it probably was
(16:56):
faul hooked. I'm not sure if you guys could tell
not were brewing the guy on shore. I kind of
didn't put together until later that day. Hunt five perceptual,
and I'm like, oh my gosh, in a court of law,
(17:16):
you know, with my tears as my jury, that would
never hold up. And that is absolutely reasonable doubt by
their only official witness. Another person who came forward to
question volts record wasn't even there when the fish was cut.
(17:36):
I got an email that you had some concerns regarding
the new state record fish. Yeah. I was down there
that morning, and I know I watched a tin fish
come out and every single one of them more snag. Sure,
(17:58):
so back in my mind, I think there's that fish
was snagged and cut, you know on there. I think
you were probably right, So I'm assuming that you weren't
down there then when it was caught. No, I was not.
Jacob Magnus was never even a witness in my case,
(18:20):
but he's listed as a person interviewed and um involved.
Never clarifies in the report that this guy never was
even a witness And what's the motivation of all these
outside witnesses? What are what are their motivations? So I
will say for Matthew Canoes, he's upset that we got
to the spot first. I was there or whatever behind.
(18:44):
I kept seeing all these fish come in, but I
couldn't figure out how everybody was catching the fish all
the time. You know, It's like he was just jealous
and upset and he was mad that we were there.
And then he goes, all the fish there are snagged.
So then why are you fishing it? If you think
all the fish are snagged? Why are you there for
three days in a row fishing the spot? That his
statement would absolutely be torn apartment corn of lock. And
(19:10):
is there any evidence when you're looking at the fish
after it's out of the water that would provide again
insight into where the hook went into the fish. Yes,
So like anytime you follow hook of fish, there's gonna
be a mark. There is no mark on this walleye
and there's nothing there, but it has a huge hole
in the mouth, and there's the actually string burned on
the cheek of the walleye, and the string marks point
(19:31):
right to where the hole is in the mouth of
the walleye. So the only other damage on this fish
is a torn soft dorsal fin and when the at
taxidermast looked it over, there's actually scar tissue on the
dorsal fin. So the texting Germans said, Tom, that's an
old wound. He said, it couldn't have been hooked there
because that's an old wound. So that tells me that
if there's just a soft dorsal fin tear, that's old,
and there's a hole in the mouth and string burn
(19:52):
on the cheek, it was caught in the mouth. Okay,
So for people who don't fish, again, who cares if
you catch it fish through the mouth foul? What's the
big deal about foul hooking fish? And why is it
such a stigma? That is a great question, To be honest,
that is a very great question. I've posed that same
question to game and fish because to me, it shouldn't
matter where it's hooked. And I can count in my lifetime,
(20:14):
I've only foul hooked a fish five times, probably in
my lifetime. So it's a lot easier to catch a
fish in the mouth than it ever is the foul
hook one. So when does the investigation report come out,
and what's the next dominot to fall? Okay, So the
investigator calls me and says, I would like a statement
(20:36):
from you, and I said, okay, let me just get
ahold of my attorney because at this point, you know,
I'm still under investigation and they're still trying to get
me with a crime. So the attorney reminds me of that.
So I said, you make sure that you don't provide
a statement, and you don't let them take your wall
unless they get a warrant for it. So I call
the the investigator back. I said, I can't speak to
you because you're holding these criminal charges above my head.
(20:58):
And I said, I'm saving the walleye for you, and
you guys can come get it, but you just have
to get a work for it. And then he hangs
up the phone. What did your wife's think about all
this while it was going on. I think when the
time where she got the most upset was when I
was thawing the fish out in the bathtub to kind
of record the condition of the walleye because I figured
that this was going to have to go to court
(21:18):
and that I would want to have documentation of the
condition of this walleye. When she sees me in the
bathroom thawing out this thirty two and a half inch
walleye in the bathtub, and I'm thinking she's gonna be
mad at me, and she comes in and goes, this
is so frustrating because I can't believe they're doing this
to you. I can't believe it. She goes, I was there,
I witnessed this. There's nothing, nothing happened. And she's like,
(21:40):
I don't know why they're doing this. And I think
she was just as frustrated and as upset as I
was that we had to go through this, and that
she saw me losing sleep, she saw me consulting with
the attorneys. She knew it was gonna cost money, and
she was she was mad, and she doesn't get mad
very often, but she was pretty mad. So then what
(22:00):
happens next? Okay? So then then some time goes by
it I haven't heard anything. You know, the wallet is
in the freezer, against my taxidermist recommendation. I'm fully expecting
the game and Fish to come and get a warrant
for the walleye, and uh nothing. They don't come and
get it. They don't call me anymore. Um. And then
on May tenth they call my attorney and they say, hey,
(22:21):
we want to talk to you and Tom So, my
attorney calls me and I go rushing over there as
fast as again. And in this conversation he says, the
decision was made to issue a warning. And I'm like,
what about the record? Why? Why? What do you what
do you mean you're giving me a warning? What do
you give me a warning for? You know what? I
didn't think I did anything wrong. And the investigator goes, well,
we believe that you file hooked that fish. And I said, wait, wait, wait,
(22:43):
don't you want to look at my evidence before you
make your decision? Why don't you look at this stuff now?
And the investigator goes, well, right now, my my investigation
is closed. I was just mad. Was like, they had
this Walleye. They could have looked it over, they could
have done their job when they had it, and they
(23:05):
just didn't do it. And now they're going to try
to make me look guilty. And that's exactly what they did.
They gave me a written warning and I can't fight
a written warning in court. They gave me a written warning.
They published this one sided investigation. Report and I was
never even able to do anything about it. I couldn't
cross examine my any witnesses. I couldn't present my evidence.
Like even asked him about an appeal process, and they said, no,
(23:26):
there's no appeal. That's a due process violation. You can't
do that. In the fishing world. You you do have
a reputation like oh called Tom, he knows what he's doing,
you know, called Tom, He'll give you a good spot
and stuff like that. And it destroyed all that. What
game and fish did. It ruined my entire reputation the
fishing world. I stopped fishing for almost oh Man from
April all the way up until December. I even put
(23:49):
my boat up for sale because I never wanted to
fish again. It just took a lot of enjoyment out
for me. You know, when you walk around, you feel
like there's a perception. Tell me a little bit about
how this is affected your reputation in the big inning.
It was hard, you know, in the beginning, it was
very difficult, and I couldn't believe what some people were
saying about me and about my character. So I sit
on the city council too, from my community right um,
(24:11):
from my city of Lincoln, North Dakota. And when I
do some public announcements or I chime in publicly about something,
somebody always brings up my walleye. Oh Tom is misleading
just like his walleye. Tom shouldn't be on council because
look what happened with his wallet. It doesn't want to
follow the rules. So it does impact me every day.
And the fact that somebody always brings up the walleye,
and it's just like, really, guys, you can't drop this
(24:33):
by now, oh man, tell me a little bit about
sort of what has come at you online or or
other places. The social media part of this is just unbelievable.
So I got this message from somebody that says, put
a gun in your mouth and taste lead. I can't
believe you're trying to take a record from somebody who
caught their fish legitimately. And what an f and loser
you are for doing this, And and the fact that
(24:54):
people are telling you to commit suicide because you've caught
a walleye is unbelievable to me. Do you ever think
that your dream of catching this record fish could unspool
into what has become sort of a nightmare no, I
would have never thought that at all. When I left
(25:16):
the shore, everybody was excited. Nobody brought up any concerns,
not one person. So I left that shore thinking that
everybody was as excited as I was, that they just
got to witness this awesome, huge fish being caught. And
I think that was the biggest thing for me is
I just got stabbed in the back. Where is the
fish now? It's on my wall. I was able to
convince my wife that since this wallet is the unofficial
(25:38):
state record, I said that I wanted the living room,
and every time I look at it, I'm like, I
caught the biggest fish in the state, and nobody can
ever take that away from me. I am looking at
the biggest all I ever caught in the state. So
to me, I don't care what people think. It's it's
sitting on my wall, and it's a beautiful fish, all right.
(26:05):
A big thanks to Tom Volt for sharing his side
of this fishing story. Curious to hear what the listeners think,
Please share your thoughts that triggeration on Twitter and Instagram,
and if you're liking the show, please take a minute
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lot and finally, as we do every week, we check
in with the legend Chris, Matt, Doug Russo, Chris, how
do we do this week? Maddie? Good job, keep up
(26:26):
to good work. How thanks Chris? All right, talk to
you guys next week. Triggeration is a production of I
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Welcome to Triggeration, a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
back to the Triggeration Podcast. As always, I'm your host,
Matt and thanks for tuning into the world's number one
rated show about deception and sports. Your weekly celebration of
the cheaters, schemers, pranksters and scammers, all people who played
(00:23):
by their own set of rules. Last week we went
all in on a sketchy w n B A assist record.
The week before that, it was potato pickoffs in the outfield.
Next week we are hot on the trail of the
back story of Mike Tyson's prison contraband. But this week
we've got an all time doozy on the hook for you.
A suspicious state fishing record that lasted for just one day,
(00:45):
and the story of the fisherman who got snagged along
with it. Always in the back of your mind, you're thinking, well,
maybe what if what if I do catch a big fish,
if I do break that record? Next time I catch
a fish that's close to state record, I'm gonna hit
it over the head and a throw it down the whole.
(01:06):
I don't want anything to do with it. Tom Vault
is a forty two year old City councilman in North Dakota.
In his spare time, he's mostly on the river. Fishing
started back when I was about five years old. We
would go with my family to the river and and
we'd fish all day. And you know, it was just
(01:26):
kind of a family thing that we did, and I
loved it. And what do you like about fishing? It's
kind of an escape, to be honest that it truly
is an escape for me. It was somewhere where I
could just be at peace and I didn't have to
think about my responsibilities, my job or anything like that.
Because when I was on the water, all I was
trying to do is figure out how to catch more fish.
And it was addictive to me. Like my wife tells
(01:48):
me all the time that I have an issue because
I do spend a lot of time and a lot
of money on fishing, and UM just love it. In
the state of North Dakota, one type of fish is
coveted more than any other. Our state is very much
all about the walleye, and it's just it seems to
(02:10):
be the fish of choice. People spend thousands and thousands
of dollars to chase these walleye and it's a big
sport for people here, And what's so special about the walleye.
It tastes the best in my mind. The walleye is
tastier than any other fish, and they're finicky at times,
so they're hard to catch. So if you get really
good at it, it's kind of like bragging rights from
(02:34):
the record for the largest walleye caught in North Dakota
remained untouched, but there were whispers that the record fish
was scooped and not hooked. That record held for almost
fifty years, and it was controversial, like people were like, no,
he found a dad that shouldn't count. You should take
that record away. It was something that people wanted to
see broken. And two years ago it was broken when
(02:55):
a man named Neil Lear reeled in a fifteen pound,
thirteen ounced walleye and never and I was like, yeah,
it's broke. We don't have a controversial record. Good for Neil,
you know, And I don't know the guy. Um. I
know from some of the stories that he wasn't an
avid angler, which makes it even better. Like somebody that
doesn't fish a lot goes out and catches a state record.
How how great of a story is that? You know?
(03:18):
It was easter Sunday, and I really had no plans
to go fishing. But my buddy Joe, he was like, Tommy,
I think you should really come out and go go fishing
with me. I was here yesterday catching some fish out
of the spot, and I think it'd be really fun
to try to catch some more fish. So I was
able to convince my wife and the kids to come
fishing with me on the shore of the Heart River
in mandan Um. I wasn't really expecting to catch a
whole lot of fish. I thought maybe one or two
nice fish and maybe something for the frying pan um.
(03:41):
But we started catching fish right away, and we found
that there was a spot about a hundred feet out
and if you threw it into that slack water, these
fish were kind of sitting in the in this slack
water of the current. So we felt that if you
just dragged it along the bottom of the water, that
would give them a lot of time to bite. So
(04:01):
I cast out about hundred feet out there into that
flat water and I just slowly start reeling it in
and I just felt this to what that really means
is the fish picked it up in its mouth, and
I'm like, Holy cow. Is that a walleye? Is that gosh?
I hope that's a walleye. And I set the hook
and I'm like, oh man, that feels heavy, you know.
And I start reeling it in and it's not really moving.
It's like solid, and I'm like, okay, this is a
(04:23):
big one, you know. So my wife was recording me.
Hold on, say let's get let's get this fish for Dad. Here.
That's got a gigantic fish. So I'm fighting it for
about two minutes and it's staying under water and I
don't know what this thing is, and I'm like, Jesus,
is a big fish. You know? It's a big fish.
And then all of a sudden, you know, it kind
(04:43):
of broke the surface. So at that point when it
breaks the surface, I could see my string is coming
from the head of the walleye, not from anywhere else. Walleye,
big wallete, ready to get And at that point I
think what she did is she she rolled. And I
(05:03):
believe then that my string somehow got looped around the
fish because it just changed the way it fought. So
for the first two and a half minutes, you can
see the head shakes, you can see where the fish
is literally, you know, shaking its head underwater, and you
can see that that rod bounce just like a typical
wall I does, right, typical Um, no concerns whatsoever. But
then after about two and a half minutes, you can
(05:24):
see that kind of stopped. And that's what makes me
think absolutely that this thing just rolled and got tangled
in the string, because at that point it just changed
the way that it was fighting. And at this point,
it's about fifty ft out in front of me, and
I'm just really reeling this fish and just horsing it
because I'm like, God, I don't want to lose this
in the current. I'm trying to get it into the shore,
and uh, I'm not making much ground on this thing.
(05:45):
His fishing buddy, Joe Gibbs, is standing by poised with
a net. You know, I'm telling Gibbs, I'm like, you
better get down there, you know, better get down to
that spot where we're gonna have to net this fish.
And he runs out to the peninsula and he gets
way out there and he can't see the fish. He's
like looking all over for this fish is where hell
is that? Where the hell is it? And all of
a sudden, you know, it gets down close to him
and you next this fish and I'm like, thank god,
(06:07):
we got it in the net. And I see this
fish and then net and I start swearing ship, let's go, dude,
that's the record. Then everybody's out there just like giving
high fives and and and it's like cheering, and uh
it was. It was true joy. Like again, I've been
(06:29):
fishing for thirty five years, thirty six years at the time,
and I'd never seen a walleye that big. It is
something that dreams are made of. When Volt pulls the
fish from the net, he shocked by what he sees.
When I pull her out for the first time, she's
got this massive belly on her, like it just hangs down.
And at that time, you know they're spawning in April,
(06:49):
and she was full of eggs, Like, she was absolutely
full of eggs. And what people need to know is
that she's most likely on the end of her life
cycle and that once she were to spawn out those eggs,
she was pretty much going to be done for most
likely because because she was pretty old. So I have
no problem keeping a fish like that, just because we
have no shortage of wallefe population in the river that
I'm fishing. As per custom, Volt gathers his family around
(07:11):
and holds high the prized fish for the snapshot he
can only assume will echo in time long after he's gone. Here,
guys take a pictures, and then I think somebody goes
put it on the scale. Man put it on the scale,
and I'm like, oh, okay, that sounds good. I didn't
know if somebody had a digital scale there, and Joe goes,
I got one, and he whips out his digital scale
(07:33):
and we put it on there and I'm just yelling
these numbers out and there. At that point, I knew
it had potentially a state record, because I knew that
the current state record is fifteen pounds. That's when I
kind of figured this has potential. So I'm trying to
(07:55):
call everybody I know to try to get ahold of
game and fish, and on an Easter Sunday, that's kind
of hard do. And finally I call Burly County Dispatch
and I'm like, okay, I have a big wall. I hear, guys,
I think it's a state record, and I need some
officers to come verify this fish for me. And you know,
they show up at the gas station where the certified
scale is, and at that time it had been are
(08:17):
you starting to dry out? And the owner of the
gas station let me put in the big minnow tank
so I was able to keep it alive. And we
put it on the scale and it weighs seventeen pounds
on the scale, and the and the guy goes, it's
it's official. He goes that slider bar is right at
seventeen pounds zero ounces, and the other officer goes, oh,
it's not showing you the ounces very well, you know,
(08:38):
because it has this old slider bar on it. And
I go, well, we can go somewhere else too. I
was like, I want this to be legit. I want
you guys to feel comfortable with the weight, you know,
and I wanted to be a legit record. So the
next step is to get it to the next gas station.
And at that point it's kind of drying out, and
I know that it's gonna lose weight drying out, but
at this point it was seventeen pounds, and I knew
(08:58):
it could dry out a lot before I would ever
lose the record. And by the time I got to
the second scale, the scale was jumping around from sixteen
pound twelve ounces to a little over seventeen pounds. It
was because the fish was so big she didn't fit
on the scale, and like she would flop her tail
and that would kind of throw off the scale a
little bit. And I said, we can easily go to
somewhere else. I have no problems with that, and they go, yeah,
(09:19):
I think I know a place. And we got to
the third scale, and at that point it was sixteen
pounds nine ounces. But that one showed consistently every time,
and I was comfortable with that. The officers were comfortable,
and at that point they were taking pictures and video
and they were sending them to people and laughing and saying,
I think we gotta we got a new record, you know.
(09:39):
And they were excited to be there and to witness
this fish. And what are your emotions when it becomes
apparent at this point that you have cut the record?
While for your state, I would say as a fisherman,
it was the greatest moment in my life. It was
like the angels opened up in the clouds and started
singing to me. It was for great I was at
(10:02):
a loss for words, but I was calling people as
I was driving, stay record record, verify my game and
fish sixteen pounds and nine and a half pounds? Do
we have to go to three different scales just to
get an accurate weight on it? And I'm going to
do an interview right now. The New States wants to
(10:24):
get old Mere's this crazy? I'm like a celebrity for
a day. What kind of stature would it be to
have the record for this fish? Like? How important is that? Okay,
So here's the misperception. So a lot of people believe
that there's royalties and that you'll get pictures everywhere and
that you will get all this money, and that is
absolutely not true. But I think even I was under
(10:47):
the perception that, oh my gosh, I could get some
royalties if I let people make replicas of this and
they can put it in their stores, just to find
out later that no, that doesn't happen. Big box stores
and everybody else just takes your measurements and to make
their own replicas. I think there's this false perception that
you you get all this money and you get all
this fame, and it's really not true. But it is
(11:07):
just excitement and bragging rights. That's really what it's forced
to say, I got the biggest ball in the state.
Nana nana booboo. You know, alright, time for a quick break.
On the other side, witnesses come forward casting doubt on
the catch, as well as Tom's character. If somebody had
a concern, fine, great, I don't care. Why wouldn't they
have just talked to me about it? Why did they
(11:28):
just let me leave? When I left the shore, everybody
was excited. Nobody brought up any concerns, not one person.
So I left that shore thinking that everybody was as
(11:51):
excited as I was that they just got to witness
this awesome, huge fish um being caught. When do you
realize that there's controversy with this catch? Well it was
really the next day, okay. So Game and Fish came
out with their announcement at nine o'clock in the morning
(12:13):
and said, hey, we got a new record. You know,
Tom Volkes walleye sixteen pound, nine ounces walleye is the
new state record. And I'm getting flooded with calls from
the media asking me to tell my story. But the
gut punch came when they called Gibbs, the guy who
netted the fish, and they they called him and said,
we want you to provide a statement. The fish is
(12:35):
under investigation in your witness to the violation. And Gibbs
called me and said did you know that? And I'm like,
I didn't know, you know what, Like, what would they
be investigating? Why would they wanted what? What? I was like,
I had no idea what was going on at that point.
Game and Fish launched a full scale investigation into whether
Tom volts Walleye was caught legally in the mouth or
(12:58):
was foul hooked me in The hook entered the fish
somewhere behind the gill plate. So we get to the
fish that everybody is interested in, of course, So let's
go through that. So you needed the fish. You you're
saying you didn't know where it was king at that time,
(13:19):
just say attention. I was just trying to get a
big fish on then. So like Joe was telling him
that this fish was flopping in the net, and he goes,
I never looked for the hook or the string fish
flop around in the net at all, Okay, because in
the video it doesn't move at all. I feel a
flying on my neck. So the bit once in the
video is wrong. And the officer says to him, you're lying.
(13:44):
Why are you lying? Are you lying to protect Tom?
I said, it was Joe, this is I've had an
offense behind my back. You need to tell the truth
I'm telling. I mean at the time the video, the
fish didn't even move. I mean, it's the story Tom's
telling everybody because what happened not the truth. Oh it's
(14:11):
like I couldn't believe he said that, but it was.
That's recorded. And at that point, they're not looking to
prove me innocent. They're looking to prove me guilty. And
what's their motivation in your mind for not trying to
prove you innocent? What what do you think their intentions are?
You know, that's a good question. So the guy who
currently has the North Dakota state record is his name
(14:32):
is Neil Lear, and he has the first cousin named
Doug Lear. And Doug Lear is North Dakota Game and
Fish lead biologist. So right there, every walleye that's caught
for a record, it becomes a conflict of interest because
it's one of Game and Fish is very own that
has the record. It's his his first cousin. So it's
like that's a problem right there. So what I did
is I conducted an open records re quest after the
(14:53):
investigation was completed and asked for all the communications going
back and forth between Game and Fish and anybody else
pertaining to my wallefe. There was a text message going
back from Doug Lear to somebody else saying, yep, steal
a leer in the record books, So you know that
they're not technically a neutral party when it comes to
any type of walleye record. In my mind, in North Dakota,
(15:13):
keeping a foul hooked fish, regardless of intention, is a
Class B misdemeanor and fine. So that's a huge issue
for me because I am a drug prevention specialist for
the state. I helped train law enforcement, and it's like,
if I were to get a CLASSY misdemeanor on my record,
that could potentially have me lose my job and other
job opportunities in the future. And that's ultimately why I
(15:33):
had to hire an attorney. And people are like, I
don't know why he hired an attorney. Well, when somebody's
telling you that you've committed a violation, aren't you going
to hire an attorney because you know what they're trying
to do. At that point, and what does their investigation
look like? How wide a net are they casting? I
thought when they opened the investigation, it was gonna be
thorough and it's gonna take everybody's perspective into account. But
(15:54):
they didn't. So what happened is is after they opened
this investigation, right, it's Matthew Canouth guy, they called Game
and Fish that night and this is about ten o'clock
at night, the night I caught my walleye. Um. Yeah,
the North Dakota States probably be a record. I was
(16:15):
right beside and almost like an the snake in the tail.
He came into first, and they edited tail first. They
were snake and fish all day. In his statement to
Game and Fish, Canuth told investigators that before volt landed
the big one, he saw him foul hook multiple fish,
(16:35):
which he let his kids reel in. That's what he says, right,
And I have pictures of those two walleye with my
two kids and him in the background showing that those
walleye were hooked in the mouth. I have the pictures
where the hook is still in the mouth of the walleye.
And that's a blatant lie that he told the investigator.
And then he goes, well, I didn't put two and
two together till later, so you know it probably was
(16:56):
faul hooked. I'm not sure if you guys could tell
not were brewing the guy on shore. I kind of
didn't put together until later that day. Hunt five perceptual,
and I'm like, oh my gosh, in a court of law,
(17:16):
you know, with my tears as my jury, that would
never hold up. And that is absolutely reasonable doubt by
their only official witness. Another person who came forward to
question volts record wasn't even there when the fish was cut.
(17:36):
I got an email that you had some concerns regarding
the new state record fish. Yeah. I was down there
that morning, and I know I watched a tin fish
come out and every single one of them more snag. Sure,
(17:58):
so back in my mind, I think there's that fish
was snagged and cut, you know on there. I think
you were probably right, So I'm assuming that you weren't
down there then when it was caught. No, I was not.
Jacob Magnus was never even a witness in my case,
(18:20):
but he's listed as a person interviewed and um involved.
Never clarifies in the report that this guy never was
even a witness And what's the motivation of all these
outside witnesses? What are what are their motivations? So I
will say for Matthew Canoes, he's upset that we got
to the spot first. I was there or whatever behind.
(18:44):
I kept seeing all these fish come in, but I
couldn't figure out how everybody was catching the fish all
the time. You know, It's like he was just jealous
and upset and he was mad that we were there.
And then he goes, all the fish there are snagged.
So then why are you fishing it? If you think
all the fish are snagged? Why are you there for
three days in a row fishing the spot? That his
statement would absolutely be torn apartment corn of lock. And
(19:10):
is there any evidence when you're looking at the fish
after it's out of the water that would provide again
insight into where the hook went into the fish. Yes,
So like anytime you follow hook of fish, there's gonna
be a mark. There is no mark on this walleye
and there's nothing there, but it has a huge hole
in the mouth, and there's the actually string burned on
the cheek of the walleye, and the string marks point
(19:31):
right to where the hole is in the mouth of
the walleye. So the only other damage on this fish
is a torn soft dorsal fin and when the at
taxidermast looked it over, there's actually scar tissue on the
dorsal fin. So the texting Germans said, Tom, that's an
old wound. He said, it couldn't have been hooked there
because that's an old wound. So that tells me that
if there's just a soft dorsal fin tear, that's old,
and there's a hole in the mouth and string burn
(19:52):
on the cheek, it was caught in the mouth. Okay,
So for people who don't fish, again, who cares if
you catch it fish through the mouth foul? What's the
big deal about foul hooking fish? And why is it
such a stigma? That is a great question, To be honest,
that is a very great question. I've posed that same
question to game and fish because to me, it shouldn't
matter where it's hooked. And I can count in my lifetime,
(20:14):
I've only foul hooked a fish five times, probably in
my lifetime. So it's a lot easier to catch a
fish in the mouth than it ever is the foul
hook one. So when does the investigation report come out,
and what's the next dominot to fall? Okay, So the
investigator calls me and says, I would like a statement
(20:36):
from you, and I said, okay, let me just get
ahold of my attorney because at this point, you know,
I'm still under investigation and they're still trying to get
me with a crime. So the attorney reminds me of that.
So I said, you make sure that you don't provide
a statement, and you don't let them take your wall
unless they get a warrant for it. So I call
the the investigator back. I said, I can't speak to
you because you're holding these criminal charges above my head.
(20:58):
And I said, I'm saving the walleye for you, and
you guys can come get it, but you just have
to get a work for it. And then he hangs
up the phone. What did your wife's think about all
this while it was going on. I think when the
time where she got the most upset was when I
was thawing the fish out in the bathtub to kind
of record the condition of the walleye because I figured
that this was going to have to go to court
(21:18):
and that I would want to have documentation of the
condition of this walleye. When she sees me in the
bathroom thawing out this thirty two and a half inch
walleye in the bathtub, and I'm thinking she's gonna be
mad at me, and she comes in and goes, this
is so frustrating because I can't believe they're doing this
to you. I can't believe it. She goes, I was there,
I witnessed this. There's nothing, nothing happened. And she's like,
(21:40):
I don't know why they're doing this. And I think
she was just as frustrated and as upset as I
was that we had to go through this, and that
she saw me losing sleep, she saw me consulting with
the attorneys. She knew it was gonna cost money, and
she was she was mad, and she doesn't get mad
very often, but she was pretty mad. So then what
(22:00):
happens next? Okay? So then then some time goes by
it I haven't heard anything. You know, the wallet is
in the freezer, against my taxidermist recommendation. I'm fully expecting
the game and Fish to come and get a warrant
for the walleye, and uh nothing. They don't come and
get it. They don't call me anymore. Um. And then
on May tenth they call my attorney and they say, hey,
(22:21):
we want to talk to you and Tom So, my
attorney calls me and I go rushing over there as
fast as again. And in this conversation he says, the
decision was made to issue a warning. And I'm like,
what about the record? Why? Why? What do you what
do you mean you're giving me a warning? What do
you give me a warning for? You know what? I
didn't think I did anything wrong. And the investigator goes, well,
we believe that you file hooked that fish. And I said, wait, wait, wait,
(22:43):
don't you want to look at my evidence before you
make your decision? Why don't you look at this stuff now?
And the investigator goes, well, right now, my my investigation
is closed. I was just mad. Was like, they had
this Walleye. They could have looked it over, they could
have done their job when they had it, and they
(23:05):
just didn't do it. And now they're going to try
to make me look guilty. And that's exactly what they did.
They gave me a written warning and I can't fight
a written warning in court. They gave me a written warning.
They published this one sided investigation. Report and I was
never even able to do anything about it. I couldn't
cross examine my any witnesses. I couldn't present my evidence.
Like even asked him about an appeal process, and they said, no,
(23:26):
there's no appeal. That's a due process violation. You can't
do that. In the fishing world. You you do have
a reputation like oh called Tom, he knows what he's doing,
you know, called Tom, He'll give you a good spot
and stuff like that. And it destroyed all that. What
game and fish did. It ruined my entire reputation the
fishing world. I stopped fishing for almost oh Man from
April all the way up until December. I even put
(23:49):
my boat up for sale because I never wanted to
fish again. It just took a lot of enjoyment out
for me. You know, when you walk around, you feel
like there's a perception. Tell me a little bit about
how this is affected your reputation in the big inning.
It was hard, you know, in the beginning, it was
very difficult, and I couldn't believe what some people were
saying about me and about my character. So I sit
on the city council too, from my community right um,
(24:11):
from my city of Lincoln, North Dakota. And when I
do some public announcements or I chime in publicly about something,
somebody always brings up my walleye. Oh Tom is misleading
just like his walleye. Tom shouldn't be on council because
look what happened with his wallet. It doesn't want to
follow the rules. So it does impact me every day.
And the fact that somebody always brings up the walleye,
and it's just like, really, guys, you can't drop this
(24:33):
by now, oh man, tell me a little bit about
sort of what has come at you online or or
other places. The social media part of this is just unbelievable.
So I got this message from somebody that says, put
a gun in your mouth and taste lead. I can't
believe you're trying to take a record from somebody who
caught their fish legitimately. And what an f and loser
you are for doing this, And and the fact that
(24:54):
people are telling you to commit suicide because you've caught
a walleye is unbelievable to me. Do you ever think
that your dream of catching this record fish could unspool
into what has become sort of a nightmare no, I
would have never thought that at all. When I left
(25:16):
the shore, everybody was excited. Nobody brought up any concerns,
not one person. So I left that shore thinking that
everybody was as excited as I was, that they just
got to witness this awesome, huge fish being caught. And
I think that was the biggest thing for me is
I just got stabbed in the back. Where is the
fish now? It's on my wall. I was able to
convince my wife that since this wallet is the unofficial
(25:38):
state record, I said that I wanted the living room,
and every time I look at it, I'm like, I
caught the biggest fish in the state, and nobody can
ever take that away from me. I am looking at
the biggest all I ever caught in the state. So
to me, I don't care what people think. It's it's
sitting on my wall, and it's a beautiful fish, all right.
(26:05):
A big thanks to Tom Volt for sharing his side
of this fishing story. Curious to hear what the listeners think,
Please share your thoughts that triggeration on Twitter and Instagram,
and if you're liking the show, please take a minute
to rate and review on iTunes. It does help a
lot and finally, as we do every week, we check
in with the legend Chris, Matt, Doug Russo, Chris, how
do we do this week? Maddie? Good job, keep up
(26:26):
to good work. How thanks Chris? All right, talk to
you guys next week. Triggeration is a production of I
heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.