This view of the sedimentary pond in the new Prairie View Subdivision in northeast Blue Earth shows the whole 5-acre pond. In the foreground is the new walking path that will circle the whole pond. It is made of wood shavings now, but could become gravel in the future, The city also plans on building a dock at this point as well, mainly to allow fishing in the pond, which was found to contain a variety of fish during a recent study. There could be a muskie in the pond as well.

Jamison “Jaime” Holland is a big time fisherman, when he is not busy working at his job as the Blue Earth Public Works Department supervisor.

He has fished all over Minnesota and in several other states, and has been deep-sea fishing numerous times, as well.

“I finally caught my first marlin,” he says with some pride. “It had been a goal of mine for some time.”

A lot of his time fishing is going up north in Minnesota, and a lot of those trips are in pursuit of one very large type of fish.

The elusive muskellunge, or muskie for short. Holland has been successful in catching a muskie or two (or more). He is even a member of the Muskies, Inc. group.

“I have fished in a lot of muskie tournaments,” he says. “Came close to winning it, too.”

That time the muskie he caught was over 50 inches in length. The record for a muskie caught in Minnesota is 57.75 inches long and weighed 55 pounds, 14 ounces.

Holland has a replica in his office at the Blue Earth Wastewater Treatment Plant of a tiger muskie he caught up north. That is a cross between a northern and a muskie.

Now Holland says he is pretty excited that he might not have to go all the way up north to fish for muskies. In fact, he might not have to leave the city limits of Blue Earth.

And he is not joking.

Blue Earth does have one lake, called Brown’s Lake, which is on the southwest corner of the city, south of Putnam Park, along the Blue Earth River.

But that is not where Holland plans to go muskie fishing. He is going to try in the lake-with-no-name.

“It is the sedimentary pond out in the new Prairie View Subdivision,” Holland says. “And there are fish there.”

Holland explains that Collin Nienhaus, a graduate of Blue Earth Area High School, is a science teacher at Mapleton High School. Nienhaus asked Holland for permission to kayak in the five-acre pond and see if there were any fish in it. He was doing that in several storm drainage holding ponds in the area.

“We said OK and he did find fish were in it,” Holland says. “He showed me pictures of perch, blue gills, sunnies and bullheads.”

And something else. A very large something also went swimming by the camera.

Holland believes it could be a muskie, just because it was something really big, and it looked like a muskie.

And he has another reason to believe it is a muskie.

“In 2021, Bruce More, of Blue Earth, caught a big muskie in Lake Guckeen,” Holland says. “And there is a photo to prove it.”

Lake Guckeen is just north of the town of Guckeen and just on the south edge of Interstate 90. It is not much larger than the holding pond in the Prairie View Subdivision.

So how do fish get into some holding pond? Holland says there are two theories.

One is that they swim there. If there is enough flooding fish could swim about three and a half miles using drainage ditches, county tile and other waterways, to get to the holding pond from the river.

The other way would be that someone dumped them in.

“There were no fish in this holding pond in 2017,” Holland says. “So they came in after 2017.”

He adds that the pond, built around 1998, was designed to only be four to six feet deep. It was made to hold drainage water from where Lamperts, McDonalds and the Blue Earth Wine and Spirits liquor store are all located.

But Nienhaus had discovered that a lot of it is actually 10 to 12 feet deep.

Deep enough for a muskie, Holland adds.

How would a muskie get into the pond? Probably the same way one got into Lake Guckeen.

“I heard that when the DNR Fisheries in Waterville got flooded a number of years ago that all the species of fish got mixed up,” Holland explains. “They say that is how muskies got into the lakes in Fairmont.”

As far as folks who want to try fishing in the lake-with-no-name in the Prairie View Subdivision, they are in luck, says Holland.

“We (the Public Works Department) have been constructing a walking trail around the whole pond,” he explains. “We started during the winter during some nice weather days. We have a bit more to do, on the southwest corner, but it should be done by late May. It is going to be wood chips on the path.”

They would also like to build a dock someday also, to help out those who want to fish for the giant muskie.

For others, who think this is just an attempt at the Register’s annual April Fool’s Day story, maybe you better think again. Because, a lot of this story is true.