Tumor on eyes?

[BullFighter]

Over the past 40 years

I have seen a lot of strange things on the head of a ESOX

but I have never seen the tumors like the ones that are on

John Beckfeld's Musky he caught on Lake Minnetonka.

(In the MAY Issue of Muskies Inc)

Totally strange looking?!?

I would like to do study on that fish and see how much longer it survives?

[PostFrontal]

I netted her. Super healty looking fish except those eyes. Felt bad for her when I saw it. I've got close ups that we sent to Kellett and he forwarded them to the DNR. Would make your stomach turn. The DNR said that we should have kept her so they could make sure it wasn't contagious. Guess we should have, but being so used to releasing everything it didn't even cross our minds.

Turgeon speculated it might have been the old 2 finger eye hold that did it. If that was the case it means she has been around for awhile because there is no wa you could hold her with 2 fingers now.

Johnny put in the aricle where he caught her so the only way we could narrow down the spot more is give GPS coordinates

So if someone gets her this year, they may want to consider getting ahold of Kellett and get her to the right people at the DNR. Or if she has made it this long let her swim away for another day. That's up to them...

[TomWehler]

Whats a Kellet?

Sounds more creppy than the tumor!!!!

[John Barnard]

SAW THAT PICK ON THORNE BROS MESSAGE BOARD.....PRETTY GROSS. I'M GUESSING SHE WAS CAUGHT ON DBL 10'S HAVING TO BITE BASED ON VIBRATION ONLY.

[PostFrontal]

Nope. Squirko.

[Black_Bay]

Any one have a photo?

[PostFrontal]

I'll post some when I get home later...

[JRedig]

Any one have a photo?

[John Barnard]

just looked for it on thorne bros and the pic is gone. the post is there but the pic is gone. if you can find bob turgeon's blog it should be there.

[PostFrontal]

[John Barnard]

YUP THERE IT IS....GROSS. LOOKS LIKE MUSKIE CATARACT

[John Barnard]

The last on the list looks like a match.

[Black_Bay]

Originally Posted By: Black_Bay

Any one have a photo?

Ahem:

Quote:

SAW THAT PICK ON THORNE BROS MESSAGE BOARD

Yea I looked there since someone posted that the photo was there. BUT no specific thread talked about so I looked at quite a few pages in may different threads to no avail.

[fishuhalik]

Wow. I've seen some coldwater growths on northerns that were pretty gross, that one takes the cake.

[Jim Uran]

IT'S NOT A TUMAHHHH!!! Sorry couldn't resist. But gross to say the least.

[Musky Buck]

Nasty, I personally would take that fish out of the system if legal same I'd drop a deer if it had a major issue. See some pike with their slime all messed up at times or those skinny bodied big head ones. Ish

[JRedig]

Nasty, I personally would take that fish out of the system if legal same I'd drop a deer if it had a major issue. See some pike with their slime all messed up at times or those skinny bodied big head ones. Ish

What issue did that fish have exactly that makes it worth culling from the herd? Nothing in the photo's indicated that it has ANY trouble surviving or finding food. Lateral line is a powerful thing....

[Musky Buck]

Cmon man. I'd bury it 10 feet down in my garden, let a new fish take over for him/her. I know where you are coming from JR and I'm with ya 99.9% of the time and I can understand it must still be able to eat but if that were a pike we'd probably agree it should be taken out and I know fish can't feel pain or whatever but I'll be just as curious as anybody to see if it gets caught again. Issue wise are we certain as to what it has ? Is it called blood tumors or was it mishandled or what ? There's enough one-eyed fish in our lakes already, if they don't have eyes I'm ousting them, hopefully never have to.

[DHanson]

I'm with JRedig on this one. That fish looks very healthy minus the eyes. Obviously it has no trouble feeding as it looks very healthy in that regard. Do you think humans that are blind should be put to sleep? Obviously not. Let nature take it's course. And there is no proof that that fish can't see at all. Fish are killed all the time regardless of how careful catch and release fishermen are. A true muskie angler does not ever kill a fish on purpose. That goes against everything we try to do.

[John Barnard]

The fish farmacy HSOforum mentioned that abdominal dropsy could result in the popping out of both eyes. Probably not harming or contaminating any other fish so no real reason to kill it. The DNR would probably like to examin the fish to find a cause for the......eyelessness but.....it's a fun fight for the next angler eyes or not.

[Ice-King2]

Thats an interesting muskie. I have seen fish with tumors but never on the eyes like that one.

[PostFrontal]

It still had it's eyes under all the stuff. Don't know if they were attached by the bottom of the socket still, or by all the junk.

[BullFighter]

I would take the fish out of the system just as the DNR suggested.

Just as you would with a messed up Rack on a Deer.

I'm with Musky buck on this one.

[Musky Buck]

It's a tough one guys, more than likely I'll never have to deal with that, I've released 1 eyes or what's looks to be almost like a broken back or a super thin big headed ski etc, I've released many with defects, but that one seemed a bit much. So I've fished and released every muskie I've caught since 1988, 21 years worth, none on the wall, and I'm not a true muskie angler if I kept bloody tumor eyes. Don't equate a fish with a human. When my dog went completely blind I put him down so I'm not a dog lover. When my dad and I in 1979 found a stymied deer that was shot in the face and blinded by shotgun pellets and my dad went to get the rifle to put it away we are not deer lovers. A bigger concern might be what a co-worker just reported to me from Mille Lacs. He didn't mention the resort name but he was encouraged to kill any muskies caught and the resort owner was all grins when he told the resort owner about the speared muskie found in the creek with the spear still in it. I can get more details later of this. I'm certainly not encouraging people catching a muskie with a defect to eliminate it, it's just what I'd do with a fish that looks like that "one", now that it's possibly still swimming I'll be curious to see if it can get caught again. I have zilch against the guy who released it, I'm just glad it was shared with us.

[Musky Buck]

I hear you guys, even losing a single fish it takes years to replace em. In 21 years at it I've seen enough mishandled, dropped, tangled in bad nets, etc. Waiting on my coworker to fill me in on this resort and owner that was running around camp asking people if they catch a ski to kill it. I know hear say is often wrong but often a bit of truth to it at times, a few that spear lake miltona drill some muskies and shake them off the spear so they swim away wounded only to die farther away from the spear house. Had a guy from shore yell come spear in the winter, you can get them then you #$%^ ^&**%$#@%^ etc. How many days till June 6th ? Can't wait !