Son's 1st Musky!!!!

[Uncle Grump]

All

Here is a pic taken about noon today of my son's first musky,

a 41". Est. wt is 25#. He caught it on

a chartruse tube bait. The gent in the pic is Steve Huber, our guide.

We were fishing on Lk J., E of Rhinelander Wisc.

Fish will be going on the wall.

Today we had a total of 10 hits, 6 of which were boated,

fish in

size from about 28" up.

Alex also got a 36" and 33.5". I missed 3, Alex missed 1.

Steve boated two small fish, and "re-boated" one.

We caught one twice, on back to back strikes on suckers-

the same fish! The second time we caugtht it wasn't

hooked -it just held the sucker in its mouth, and Steve

gently brought it in, and I netted it. This was the 33.5",

after Alex had hooked and brought it in the first time.

Yesterday I got a 33" spotted, and we each missed fish,

and had follows.

This trip was a early HS graduation present for Alex.

Sorry this is so big = no chance to edit the pic down yet....

UG

[Matt Johnson]

Congrats Alex!! Nice muskie!!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[ARMAN-21]

Nice catch!

[minnesotamusky]

Nice fish, but it should have been released.

[half2fish]

Lonewolf,

sorry but i dont agree. i know personally that the first muskie i catch that is legal is headed for the taxidermist. No matter if it 40" or 60". I personally dont like replicas. to me it isnt the same and i dont think they look very good. just my opinion. Very nice fish Uncle Grump.

[delmuts]

i have to agree. it would have been nice to see it released. but, first fish; and a legal fish; your choice! NICE FISH!! del

[ARMAN-21]

I also agree, it would have been nice to see it released. My first muskie was 48" and that was over 7 years ago, it's still swimming in the lake as far as I know & hope. I'll get a replica of anything over 50. The fish on my profile picture was 49 1/2 and caught this year and is still swimming. I back CPR 100%, but that's just me and I'm not trying to start anything with anyone about what's right or wrong. I just know what I would do and that's all that matters to me. I've got a wall full of 8x10 pics of all my fish.

Fish on!

later-

Scott

[Muskydanno]

I'm with Scott on this one. I've waited about 7 years to top the 50 mark then i did it twice in two weeks.(insert horse shoe here)I never even had a second thought about releasing both of them. My 52 is being replicated by a very reputable reproduction place.I think whether you get a decent looking mount or not is soley who you choose. I've seen some pretty horrendous recreations and some absolutely beatiful ones. Fittante in wisconny is a master at patterning on muskies as far as i can see so he is getting my business. Knowing that the fish is still swimming for someone else to enjoy is worth every penny extra that the graphite costs. I have to disagree with the fact that the real thing is better because when those things age they look like dump and the fins start getting brittle and whatnot. I can't really fault a guy for keeping a legal , thats your choice but my philosophy when i look at the mount on the wall is that its alot nicer to know the fish was allowed to swim around a while longer after taking so long to grow to that size class. Its all personal choice and i'm glad the bulk of us are into CPR now so we can continue to chase these great critters. Congrats on the catch!!

[widetrack]

How can you tell from the photo that it wasn't released? It looks like a boat seat in the background to me... Maybe I'm not seeing everything...?

[HUSKIN FORA MUSK]

Widetrack,

Just need to read the story again.

/-/ /_/ _/` /< / /\/

[ARMAN-21]

I'm just going by what was said in the post, it's says and I quote "Here is a pic taken about noon today of my son's first musky,

a 41". Est. wt is 25#. He caught it on

a chartruse tube bait. The gent in the pic is Steve Huber, our guide.

We were fishing on Lk J., E of Rhinelander Wisc.

Fish will be going on the wall."

It doesn't say anything about C.P.R, just that its' going on the wall. By NO means am I trying to start an argument/fight about this topic and I'm not saying that you are trying either. I was just saying that if it was me the fish would still be in the water, but that's just me.

Thanks

Scott

[Uncle Grump]

All

This was a tough decision for both of us - my son and I. I wanted to do a graphite mount, and had I caught the fish, it would have gone back in the water - I could have waited.

But it was not mine, Alex caught it. I gave him the option, and he took my check book in to consideration - rightly or wrongly. It was his first muskie, and by far the largest fish of any species he has ever caught. Is this fish a once in a lifetime for him? Possibly - I don't know. I can tell you that in the future, should we chase muskies again and he catch another trophy fish, I will encourage him to CPR, and I suspect he will. Some of you might not consider this a fish a trophy, but for him it was. It was also a learning exeprience for him.

For what its worth, the taxidermist that our guide is recommending we use wants to use Alex's fish for a model (he must build his own?), and as such, doing this will probally save some other trophy's in the future. Our guide is giving this his support, and I agree with the merit of the idea. The final decision though, is Alex's.

UG

[widetrack]

UG,

That' cool. Congrats to your son!

One of these days I'm going to bonk one on the head too, I'm just waiting for the right one for me!

[JohnMickish]

You know, I think the decision to mount or release depends on the age of the person catching the fish. I work with this 21 year old kid that says a replica is the same thing. He grew up on the big V. and has caught many nice fish but not a "mounter". He needs the ego boost, but as we get older you fill your ego with different things. Any way you slice it, it's still a nice fish.