Big albino muskie landed in Wisconsin

LADYSMITH, Wis., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- It wasn't quite Captain Ahab's great white whale Moby Dick, but a Wisconsin angler reeled in a huge white fish -- a rare 51-inch albino muskie, officials say.

Paul Parise caught the white muskie Oct. 6 in the lower Flambeau River in Rusk County, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Tuesday.

"That is a pretty fantastic catch," Tim Simonson, co-chairman of the state Department of Natural Resources' muskie committee, said in a news release.

"Albino muskie are pretty rare to begin with, and for one to survive to that size is pretty uncommon given they don't have the protective camouflage to hide from predators or sneak up on prey. This fish stood out from Day 1, but through luck and maybe some skill, it survived."

The DNR said the fish is the second albino muskie taken in Wisconsin waters in recent years. In 2005, a DNR fisheries crew netted a 32.7-inch white muskie during population surveys.

Albinism is a heredity condition in which there is a total or partial lack of pigment that gives color to the skin, hair and eyes.