 While there's officially a new Willy the Walleye statue jumping out of the lake in Badette, our own Cheryl Moore tells us the legend of the fish and shares what he means to the community. A lot of people around the country know about Willy. They may maybe not know Badette but when you tell them Willy Walleye is there then they then they tend to know where it's at. The old Willy Walleye spent 60 years in the Badette community. He was 40 feet and two and a half tons and eventually came to be known as a symbol of Lake of the Woods. You know when you're giving directions to somebody you can always say you know where Willy Walleye is or the store right next to it or you know turn left or whatever. Everybody knows where he is. Those decades of Willy fame brought a lot of good memories to the people of Badette. Although with the memories also came a good amount of wear and tear. The original was made of rebar and and cement and the cement was starting to crumble to the point where it just wasn't fixable. Some of the iron inside of it was rusting so it just wasn't it wasn't a fixable structure. The new Willy is made out of fiberglass so he's built to last. Legend has it the old Willy brought luck to fishermen so many in the community are hoping this one will do the same or at least still be fun for families to hang out around. And we've just always told the story that we caught him and I think every grandparent does or every parent that comes through and every kid wants to catch a Willy Walleye. The crew will be out here for two more days just putting on his extra fans and making sure he's nailed to the ground. So that means only two more days so you guys can take selfies with Willy again. For the past weekend nothing had been in Willy's spot which had tourists a little worried. There's been a few people asking once it was gone where Willy was because they were here to take pictures so uh means a lot to the area. While Badet residents are sad to see the old Willy go some are looking forward to the new memories this one will create. It's different but um move forward move on um bigger better the other one had old stories this one will have stories to tell too. Reporting in Badet, Shawn Moore, Lakeland News. But at residents raised more than $62,000 to help bring in the new Willy the city of Badet also added money to the fund. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.