A walleye that threatened the state record came out of the Maquoketa River Sunday.

Dan Hettinger, 27, of Lamont, said the lunker would have established a state record if it had been officially weighed shortly after he caught it at 8:20 p.m. Sunday.

The walleye weighed 13 pounds, 14 ounces and measured 31 3/4 inches in length, according to Department of Natural Resources personnel who certified the catch 12 hours later at the Manchester Fish Hatchery.

It came within 10 ounces of the state-record 14 pound 8 ounce walleye caught 24 years ago in the Des Moines River by Gloria Eoriatti of Ankeny.

Hettinger said he and friends measured the fish at 33 1/4 inches shortly after he caught it. An admittedly unproven scale registered 15 pounds 2 ounces, he said.

Although Hettinger tried to keep the walleye alive through the night to minimize shrinkage, the fish died. ‘There was definitely some shrinkage.

It’s impossible to say how much,’ Hettinger said.

While Hettinger’s walleye fell short of the state record, it topped the 11 pounder caught last month in the Wapsipinicon by his friend, Travis Dudley of Quasqueton.

Like Dudley’s giant walleye, the Maquoketa River monster did not put up a fight commensurate with its size, Hettinger said. ‘It was a 30-second fight, maybe. She started moving, and I got her to the top, where she rolled a couple of times, and that was about it,’ he said.

Once the fish’s size became apparent, Hettinger said he jumped into the river and hand-landed the trophy. Hettinger said he caught her on his favorite walleye lure, a yellow quarter-ounce jig tipped with a yellow twister tail.

She was in deep water about 15 feet off the bank in Hettinger’s favorite walleye water, a stretch of river between Manchester and Bailey’s Ford County Park, he said.

After a summer of high, muddy Eastern Iowa rivers, walleye fishing has improved dramatically in recent weeks after a period of extended dry weather returned the streams to normal sea sonal flows. Good catches have been reported recently from the Maquoketa, Turkey, Wapsipinicon, Cedar, Iowa, Shell Rock and Up per Iowa rivers. The good walleye fishing could continue through November if river levels remain stable.