PORT CLINTON: An iconic 600-pound fiberglass walleye used to ring in the new year in a Northwest Ohio city is getting a $4,000 facelift.
Wylie the Walleye, measuring about 20 feet across, takes a nose dive from the sky each Dec. 31 at midnight in the Lake Erie town of Port Clinton. Besides the Walleye Drop, the fish attends festivals, parades and the county fair and provides a backdrop for tourist photos at his year-round home on a trailer outside a hotel.
He’ll also make an appearance at a tailgate party for the Toledo Walleye minor league hockey team when it hosts the Chicago Express on Saturday.
Don Clemons, chairman of the Walleye Madness at Midnight Committee, calls the fish “an ambassador for Port Clinton.”
“Over the years he’s really gotten beat up,” Clemons told the Fremont News-Messenger (http://bit.ly/n2vJdZ). “And he doesn’t have any health insurance, he’s just supported by our nonprofit group.”
Clemons jokes that the fish is undergoing surgery for the hardships he’s faced over the years.
“He had skin cancer and reconstructive surgery,” Clemons said. “In walleye years, he’s 110 years old.”
Wylie recently had his gills and scales touched up with a water-based paint by taxidermist Jim Wendt, who created the mascot with Kevin Pietras of Coastal Marine II.
“He’s basically designed like an airplane with a wooden frame inside and with fiberglass over top,” said Wendt as he worked on the restoration inside a bay at Coastal Marine, where Wylie hung from a hoist.
“When we built him we had no idea he was going to be in operation this long,” Wendt said.
Supporters say the current Wylie was created after his 120-pound papier-mache predecessor, created by Ohio contemporary artist Andre Cuthel, cracked during New Year’s celebration in 1997.
Clemons said the creation has represented Port Clinton as part of travel and sport shows in Cleveland, Chicago and Virginia.
“He’s been on Jay Leno,” Clemons said. “A couple times they made fun of him, but that’s OK.”
He says the mascot will show off his makeover at the Toledo game, but will then spend some time close to home.
“Now that he’s older he doesn’t like to travel as well,” he said. “Now he really likes staying in town.”