Caught 40" Musky icefishing

[chewynoeyes]

I'm not a musky fishermen and i landed a 40"er yesterday while pike/walleye fishing just before sundown. my 12# line broke when his head came up the hole i was able to get it on ice with my hand.

How common is it to get muskies ice fishing. It seems like i see one come out of water every winter.

[Jeremy airjer W]

I've caught them fishing for crappies/bluegills. Some places you can watch them swimming just under the ice all day long looking for an easy meal.

[V-12 Merlin]

That's awesome! Congrats!!!

I suppose it would be no different than catching northerns on a panfish jig, though maybe a little less common. Seems like if a northern sees even a tiny jig, they'll eat it.

[Shawn Kellett]

Nice fish!

[pinkfloyd4ever]

nice catch chewy

[mrklean]

Nice job

[Gordie]

Great picture and nice fish

[50inchpig]

That fish is very well built for a 40" and that's cool you got an awesome pic of it. For as many people as there are on the ice I don't hear about muskies being caught in the winter that much and it's never happened to me.

[Gordie]

That fish is very well built for a 40" and that's cool you got an awesome pic of it. For as many people as there are on the ice I don't hear about muskies being caught in the winter that much and it's never happened to me.

I have caught one many years ago on cedar lake at 2 am on a rattle reel it took the bait so fast-the bell stopped ringing until the ski hit the end of the line. It was about 6-8 pounds and yes it went back I to the water

[Craigums]

I've caught them fishing for crappies/bluegills. Some places you can watch them swimming just under the ice all day long looking for an easy meal.

Couple winters ago I was crappie fishing in a 28' hole. Looked down the hole and saw a giant muskie right under the ice. Scared the bejezzus out of me until I figured out what it was...super cool

[Driftless]

sweet!!!!

[The J-Man!]

That is a GREAT picture! And an awesome looking fish. Thanks for posting this.

[mrbigfish]

Muskies need to eat too!! In southern Wisconsin we catch Muskies thru the ice quite often on several lakes like pewaukee lake. It all depends on the population density of the ski's on the lake. Actually our musky season goes til December 31st every year in the southern half of our state so this makes ice fishing for Muskies legal for usually a couple of weeks each year thru the ice. Nothing wrong with catching a Musky thru the ice - just like northerns . The only reason to not catch muskies thru the ice would be that a lot of money is spent on stocking each fish and the potential of people letting the fish swallow hooks and keeping the fish out of the water too long before realeasing.

I feel that we should be able to fish muskies thru the ice statewide in WI till Dec 31st with 2 treble quick strike rigs only this opens up a cool opportunity to catch them with minimal impact. After all the musky season in WI is closed for 5-6 months every year thats too long!! Tip: Where legal, hook on a bluegill to catch muskies thru the ice.

[davidbigreelz]

I was with family on round lake in Hayward and i kid you guys not my little cousin dropped a round rubber fish plug on a snoopy pole, the plugs that come on the pole. A 33" ski took it so hard his teeth were in the rubber and the kid pulled it right up and out of the water!

BTW great pic!

[Muskiefool]

Cool picture, like was mentioned before they are very easy prey under the ice on many of our lakes, hence the Dec.1 closure.

[MN BassFisher]

I seem to see a few of them come through the ice each year in MN (I personally have never pulled one through the ice). In most lakes I would say it's uncommon, but like a previous poster said - they gotta eat too!

[Musky Buck]

It used to be more common, when a 40" was legal, know a guy who took way to many keeper sized muskies out of a lake and what he did with them I'll never know, he said he takes them out so no one else can catch them, we nearly had a full scale brawl after those comments. At least when it went to 48" he honored it and doesn't "try" for pike out there anymore either. I won't go further with that nights events when he came out and said that to us. I wonder how many he really took, somewhere between 20-30 sounded about right, yummy.

[KJMinion]

Cool picture and nice fish!

[Jmeyers]

Sounds like that was fun, nice fish!