The eel-like creature has been a native of Minnesota waters for more than 10,000 years, but it's not everyday you hook one. "I kept on thinking about throwing it back, but when I seen that mouth, I knew it wasn't very good for the fish," Paul DesChene tells WDAY-TV. He caught it on the Buffalo River near Moorhead.

The process of moving the bridge span for the new Hastings bridge over the Mississippi River has begun. The 545-foot span will be lifted into place next Wednesday. Residents gathered along the Mississippi Friday to watch the historic event.

The Spiral Bridge first opened to horse-and-buggy traffic in Hastings in 1895. It is the only one of its kind ever built. Crews demolished the bridge in 1951 by simply knocking it into the Mississippi River.

More than a hundred fish houses sit on the frozen Lake Lida in Otter Tail County and among them is the Ice Hole Bar. WDAY reports it can seat about 20 people and even offers satellite TV. The Ice Hole Bar is open Thursday through Sundays until the end of the season.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says roughly 531,000 licenses were sold through the Friday before Memorial Day, the Pioneer Press reports. Next year, the price of Minnesota hunting and fishing licenses will increase for the first time in 12 years. License sales help pay for fish stockings and surveillance of lakes.

A group of teenagers discovered a massive bison head that's estimated to be 5,000 years old. The teens were trying to catch minnows with a fishing net when it got caught on the skull. The University of Iowa says it's very rare to find bison remains in that area.

Minnesota's western neighbor set another record in March to become the second-leading state in crude oil production. Texas is now the only state to produce more crude oil than North Dakota.