Otter Tail County’s unique combination of prairie, forest, lakes and rivers provides habitat for all matters of wildlife and fish. As two young anglers discovered in 1948, Otter Tail is truly a sportsman’s paradise.

The ice on Lake Lida was perfect in /December 1948 as Harold Rice and Dick Swenson were spearing from Swenson’s dark house.

“Harold and I had a system,” recalled Dick, “we’d flip a quarter to see who got the spear. We were one short of the limit when Harold took the spear.”

The two peered into the hole, Swenson jigging the decoy while Harold was poised with the spear.

After a while Harold saw a shadow under the water. “What in the hell is that?” Dick replied dryly “it’s a fish.”

“What should I do?”

“Stick it!” hissed Dick.

Harold let the spear fly and when it hit its mark the rope twanged like piano wire as the dark house rocked on its skids.

“Get another rope!” yelled Dick.

“There isn’t one!” answered Harold.

“Run and find one…hurray!”

Enlisting the help of a nearby fisherman, the three struggled to pull in what the December 26, Fergus Falls Journal described as “a whale of a fish.” The “whale of a fish” happened to be an enormous 6’ 2” 102 pound sturgeon. And while the story of catching the fish is pretty straight forward, what happened next is not. One account claims the sturgeon was turned over to the local game warden. Another is that the monster was hauled to a Pelican Rapids butcher who offered sturgeon fillets for $1.10 a piece. The fillets were supposedly in great demand until people actually tried to eat them. Dick Swenson asserted “they tasted like mud.”

Regardless, the skin was saved and sent to a taxidermist. For years the mounted sturgeon greeted patrons at Perry's Bar on the outskirts of Pelican Rapids.