New World Record?????

[MedicDan]

I will say though, that gide is really good at what he does.

[MuskyBrian]

Not trying to be overly picky here....But aren't we at an agreement that the vertical hold needs to be put to rest?

Seems kinda silly to advertise the proper handling and releasing of a fish when you display that hold?

Fantastic fish either way, just surprised to see multiple photos like that by a professional....

[Redline]

All those pics are totally fake. Nice try. Someone is not very good with photoshop.

[riverrat56]

Redline, the fish and the guy are real, the background was intentinally changed as to not reveal the spot, it says it back farther in the post.

[waltinader]

That fish could (Contact US Regarding This Word) near eat you.

[riverrat56]

Im never swimming in Wisconsion again....Not that i ever would.....or even go to wisconsion, but that fish just renforces my choice.

[Cooter]

Very impressive fish no matter what the measurements are. I do think the vert hold taints the whole story a bit though, as well as the photo alterations. Guess I'm just jealous!

[CaptainMusky]

So you know it was caught on Green Bay? So does everyone else, it hasn't been a secret, they just cropped the background so the obvious landmark wasn't showing.

[Scoot]

My appologies for the misinformation- I looked at some other info and misread it. I thought this was a different fish, but it's the same one. Sorry to be a mis-informer. Dang, I hate it when I'm wrong!

[gshaw]

In the first photo, something just looks goofy, not necessarily about the fish, but about the man's hand. It looks abnormally large compared to his body, suggesting to me that the photo was doctored in the fish respect as well as the background. I would think that in relation to the rest of his body (shoulders and face, specifically), his hand should be smaller.

I have nothing to gain or lose from ratting out a fake, it's just remarkable how the eye can pick up such subtlties and decide something isn't kosher.

[sledzeppelin]

That's a fake. For what it's worth, I'm a web designer and very experienced with photoshop. The hand blur, the blur around the outline of the fish, the mysterions finger in place of the anal fin - fake.

If the poster wants to send me a high-resolution original image and not the small, low quality ones posted, I'd be happy to inspect it and post if I find that it's actually real.

-Ryan

[Quackaddict9]

MAN!! i dont know? after looking at it over and over and looking at it closely it looks kind of fake and yeah i know the background is different from the orginial lake it was caught at. But yeah i agree that his hand in the first picture looks too big for his body and looking closely in the 2nd pic with the blur.. something is missing and in the 3rd pic of the vertical hold, he holds it up like its nothing, i mean at least 65-70 pounds, its not easy to hold a fish like that... jeez but that fish is a true giant!

[MedicDan]

Excuse me sledzeppelin, but I am part of putting that fish into the hall of fame, and those are not fake, whatsoever, they are like to not reveal the actual identity of the fish's home waters. We are not allowed to release the actual pictures. If you have further questions you will have to wait 1-2 years, when the lake is actually given away. The real pictures, at this moment will not be ever given out- so at least that portion of the lake is not over fished.

Here is the one and ONLY ACTUAL in water picture of it that is not edited in any way on its way in from the lake.

Here is what the guide has to say:

Here is one of the original pics this was the fish about 10 feet from the boat during the battle.

Ryan caught this fish I took the pictures. Of course we had to release this fish it was out of season. In regards to cropping it yes the back ground has been cropped by a friend of Ryans. That was Ryans choice mostly probably because a few of the locals asked him to do that and he agreed. I would not have done that but regardless it's really not that big of a deal folks, enjoy the pics for what they are worth. Hard to try and please everyone but I think he did a good job!

Picture

[CaptainMusky]

Just curious why you think the lake is some big secret? The pics are supposedly going to be in an issue of Musky Hunter later this year with a write up.

It was caught on Green Bay, not a secret, it has been well publicized. I was curious why a guide who has a 19 foot Princecraft boat would be guiding these guys out of a crappy aluminum fishing boat?

[buzzsaw]

Quote:

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In the first photo, something just looks goofy, not necessarily about the fish, but about the man's hand. It looks abnormally large compared to his body, suggesting to me that the photo was doctored in the fish respect as well as the background. I would think that in relation to the rest of his body (shoulders and face, specifically), his hand should be smaller.

I have nothing to gain or lose from ratting out a fake, it's just remarkable how the eye can pick up such subtlties and decide something isn't kosher.

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Quote:

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Just curious why you think the lake is some big secret? The pics are supposedly going to be in an issue of Musky Hunter later this year with a write up.

It was caught on Green Bay, not a secret, it has been well publicized. I was curious why a guide who has a 19 foot Princecraft boat would be guiding these guys out of a crappy aluminum fishing boat?

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Okay obviously this was a big enough fish but I'm in agreeance with these above comments/quotes. Just my .02 worth. Why in the world would the mans hand be all blury in the second picture??

[Guest]

Can someone blow up my muskie too? I think its a State Record..

Oh and it was released

[guideman]

I find it sooo funny that for some guys that say they wanted to keep this a secret you're all sure spending a lot of time talking about it all over the internet.

Why not just admit your looking to make some cash off of it and let it go at that? Hall of Fame?

It was taken out of season, it should never have been taken out of the water. Please stop with all the stuff about secret locations and saving Green Bay from over fishing. If that was truly the case

we would have never seen these photos. You caught a big fish, great but please save us all the bull

about not wanting the world to know about it, you told everybody on the planet about it.

"Ace"

[riverrat56]

I was thinking the same thing, why on earth would you care that much about protecting the spots and then post pictures all over the place? You really cheapen your story when you messed with these pictures and then claim they are orginals, and how come on the very first post you ask something like did anyone hear of the big musky caught and then tell us later that you were in the boat?

Also what is with he boat in the picture, why would you not be in the guides big boat?

Story just doesn't add up to me, you guys can believe it if you want to, until I see some real pictures or the fish out of the water and unedited, I'm writing it up as another fake in my book, there seems to be one every year so why would this year be differnt?

[buzzsaw]

Quote:

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and how come on the very first post you ask something like did anyone hear of the big musky caught and then tell us later that you were in the boat?

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I think Arman was quoting Eric Haatja (the guide) and those were not Armans words.... if I read this correctly. But I agree, it just seems fishy. If it is the real deal... WOW, if not then get a life. Only a few people know the truth I guess. I hate sounding skeptical or negative but if it looks and smells like shi7, it must be shi7.

[Duffer]

riverrat brought up some good points it seems to fishy.

[ARMAN-21]

THANK YOU BUZZSAW!!!!!! I just cut and pasted that story from another site...I wont say the name, but I just wanted to see if other people had heard about it. Cuz I knew very little about it at the time. I don't know the guys at all. I just thought it was funny that someone would post a story like this and say "they are not' going to post photo's and a few weeks later ..BAM there are photo's of the fish. later-

[half2fish]

at first i was convinced that this was the real deal. new world record. i was thinking "awesome" but now that i examine the pics even closer i have changed my opinion from "awesome new record" to "what a load of dump".

first thing first. like what the last few posts have said. Why would you not show the real photos or tell of the lake but you expect people to believe that it this is for real.

second thing, in the first picture you see i nice bow of a boat. nice trolling motor,a nice seat. but in the verticle hold you see a peice of dump aluminum boat that no way can that seat be in the aluminum boat because it needs a flat surface to be on.

also in the verticle hold, how can he be holding a fish of that magnitude up with one arm like it is nothing. he is wearing a long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up and if you look at his arms they are not exactly bulging trying to hold a fish up.

in one of the other photos how can his hand be that size. for crying out loud that thing looks like it belongs to a giant. he aint that much taller than the fish in the vert. hold and his hand is huge. does he have a abnormality that we should all know about?

last thing. in the one picture that he is holding it and there is a blur all around the fish, why does the fish look so slim? in the one picture that there is only a blur on the anal fin it looks like it is fat as a hog.

this is a big fish guys, you should be happy with that. why go around trying to pass it as a world record? there are some guys out there that cant hardly even get a follow (like me) and there are guys like you that have to strech the truth about a monster that you caught. and why? because you can, with no proof because you threw it back and no "real" photos that you will show us. why should we believe that?

[Guest]

IS it just me or in this picture, his right leg disappears into welding / rivots of the boat?

[sledzeppelin]

Notice how the guy's hat casts a shadow on his face but he doesn't cast a shadow on the fish. Now, I guess it's possible that the angles aren't right and there really wouldn't have been a shadow, but it looks wrong to me.

If they were going to put in a fake background, why use two different pictures of the same area? The backgrounds are slightly different. My guess: those pictures are of a guy holding some other fish and the big muskie picture was put in over the real fish. That would explain the different backgrounds and the lack of shadow on the fish.

Not only that, but this notion of "we put in a different background so no one would know where we caught it" sounds pretty silly to me.

-Ryan

[Guest]

I may not be the best at facial expressions either but doesn't the fish's face look like a fish that has already been mounted?