The late Louie Spray must be "resting" a bit easier these days since both regaining his rightful title as the World Record Musky Holder back in 1992 for his 1949 69# 11 oz. Catch out of the Chippewa Flowage and also, some 55 years after the fact, finally gaining official world record status for the 61# 13 oz. Musky he caught out of Lac Courte Oreilles in 1940. Being listed as the second largest musky catch of the 1940 season, this fish was deprived of receiving world record status because Michigan's Percy Haver was believed to have caught a larger musky (62#) two months before Louie caught his fish. But, as it turned out, this author's research has proven the Haver fish to be an exaggerated catch and it has recently been disqualified -- by both the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame's Fish Historian, Larry Ramsell, as a world record and the State of Michigan DNR as their state record.

So, along with his first world record musky catch (a 59 1/2#er from 1939), Spray stands as the only man in history to ever have caught three world record muskies. But old Louie knew this in his heart all along. For deeply etched into the granite of his own tombstone, Spray had instructed the following inscription to be written: "Here lies the remains of Louie Spray. Three record muskies in his day."

For years, Louie Spray's three champion musky catches were on public display for all to see. The 1939 & 1940 catches were on display in Spray's Bar in Hayward (now known as the Moccasin Bar). Once Spray moved to Rice Lake and caught his world record (from 1949), he had the mounts to all three of these fish exhibited at his bar there. Spray had also loaned out his record musky mounts for exhibition at numerous outdoor sport shows where literally thousands of people have seen these great fish. At the 1950 Milwaukee Sentinel Sport Show, both Spray's 69# 11 oz. And 61# 14 oz. Muskies were displayed with Cal Johnson's 67 1/2# world-record musky. A most impressive sight to behold these three fish had a combined weight of nearly 200 pounds! After Louie caught his first record musky, the 591/2#er, Marshall Fields -- a well know Chicago department store -- requested to display the fish in its store.

After getting his 61#er back from a 1950 sport show, Spray noticed it had cracked in several places and had to have it redone. Becoming very meticulous with his mounts after that, Louie cautioned exhibitors to use care in transporting his fish and to use a heated station wagon during colder weather so as not to subject his fish to great temperature variations. So Spray must have been mortified when a fire in January of 1959 at his Rice Lake real estate office consumed the building, many of Spray's prized possessions, and all of his treasured fish mounts. In addition to losing his three record muskies, Louie also lost the 461/2#er that he caught in 1911, a 42#er from 1938, a 25# northern pike and a 16# walleye. A lifetime's worth of fishing memories -- up in smoke. Best told by Louie, who narrowly escaped being trapped in the blaze himself when, on a cold Thursday morning, an oil stove in the building exploded, Spray recalled the tragedy on Dick Kaner's WJMC radio show some 25 years ago:

When I sold the tavern (in Rice lake) I had no place to put the fish, so I took 'em up to Pete Johnson's café, the Coffee Cup, and had 'em in there. And he had what we call dry heat, gas heaters stuck up with blowers behind them, you know. Humidity was very low in there and the fish weren't keeping too well. So I called up Karl Kahmann, the taxidermist, and told him my predicament. He said I don't know what to tell you to do except to get them out of there. I had started to build my office, down south end of town, from my realty business, and I had one room all finished so I took the fish down there and Karl was going to come down to refinish them. I had them out of the cases and everything so that he could work on them.

This particular morning -- it was in January -- I went into this place where I was remodeling it, doing all the work myself. It was cold in there so I turne dup this oil stove. And I went up town and got the mail, went home and wrote some letters, and come back. I was probably gone a couple of hours. And when I got back there, this whole house was full of oil smoke. Instead of that stove burning, it just smoked. And, of course, my room that I 'd finished and everything was all smoked up. I began to open up doors and couldn't get no windows open in this old house that I was remodeling, so I went upstairs but couldn't get no windows open up there either. And I came down to get the wrecking bar and I was upstairs quite a little while until I got a window open up there. Then I could see a movement of air, like the smoke was going out. I was probably up there, say, 15 minutes messing around trying to get that window open. I think I got another one open up there too.

When I came down that oil stove had taken off and there was just little sparks kind of coming out of it. All ready to explode it looked like. So I didn't know what to do in a hurry and I thought of a fire extinguisher I had in my car. So I ran out the door to get the fire extinguisher and, when I did, I think that saved my life because I heard a WHOOSH and, when I looked back, the whole thing went up. There was a blaze coming out of the upstairs windows and it would burn in the air. Burn and go out, black smoke would burn in the air. It was all ready to explode. That gas was all through the house. So I run around trying to get some of the neighbors but I couldn't get no action. I run over to Bill's Outboard Motor Shop and called the Fire Department. They came down but it was too late.

I tried to tell them where the fish was and to play the water in that particular area. The flames seemed to be going up and I thought, if we could hold a stream of water on there, that I could maybe salvage the fish or part of them. But, of course, their job is to protect other people's property and that's what they did and that's what happened to the fish.

The fish were all destroyed. Even though Spray had his biggest three muskies insured for $15,000.00 total, there was no amount of money that could have replaced those rare mounts. With the loss of his fish, Louie felt like he lost part of his own identity and he fell into a pretty deep depression for a while. He had trouble sleeping and even breathing. His depression, and anger, was heightened when some people immediately accused him of torching his own building for the insurance money. Those people didn't have the slightest idea what those mounts meant or represented to Louie. Up until the fire, Spray had kept up with his fishing, but, afterwards, he lost his desire to do any serious fishing and a chapter of his life had come to a close. Louie himself commented on how he felt:

Well, for many years I seemed to be quite a guy. There was a lot of comment where I went and they talked about muskies. And when they were gone it seemed like I was all by myself and quite all alone. I gradually learned to live with it but the enthusiasm to fish muskies was something like being in a poker game --- winning, and with the evening pretty well along, getting mixed up in a pot and losing the works. It would be too late in the game to buy more chips and to start over.

The loss of Spray's mounts was not only tragic for Louie, but for all of today's musky fishing addicts. Fellow musky historian Larry Ramsell, was one of the fortunate people who saw Spray's mounts many years ago. He described them simply as, "Awesome!"

Reprinted with permission of John Detloff. Originally published in the Trailblazer Magazine, April 28, 1997.

John Dettloff
Sawyer County and Lake Chippewa Flowage Historian