Local man pulls 'monster' musky from Cambria County lake using $20 Walmart rod

CAMBRIA COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) — A Bellwood man says he’s feeling blessed after landing the catch of a lifetime at a Cambria County lake Saturday.

Randy Thompson says he and his family own a camp near Lake Glendale, in Cambria County, and decided to go fishing for the day.

Thompson says he and his family go fishing there all the time and the day started off like any other day.

He was using a Zebco fishing rod he had picked up from Walmart for $20, with some shiners for bait.

“My daughter caught a couple smaller bass earlier in the morning and then 11 o’clock it just...boom,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he hooked a "monster" – a musky weighing dozens of pounds.

He said he struggled to get the fish to shore but luckily some nearby fisherman came over and helped him land it.

“If they didn’t bring their nets from their boats, we would have never have got it,” he said. “Thank God those guys came over and helped me.”

Thompson said he didn’t get the exact measurements of the fish before he released it back into the lake.

“I worked construction all my adult life and I know what 60 pounds feels like,” he said. “That fish was 60 pounds plus.”

He added that they were able to measure the fish and it was about 52 inches long with a girth of about 30 inches in diameter.

“Some of the older guys who were watching us catch this fish, they fished that lake all their lives for the last 50, 60 years and they never hooked onto something like that,” Thompson said. “It was definitely the fish of a lifetime.”

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