Muskie Photo Gallery

[steffanf]

I'm pretty sure the guide was Doug Warren with Lake Minnetonka Guides. He had a green Ranger with UpNorthOutdoors.com on the side. Thanks, Doug... if you are out there.

Also, someone mentioned in a different thread how the population of muskies in Lake Minnetonka is skewed with very little smaller mid-30's fish, compared with the higher population of larger fish. I actually seem to find the opposite true as 4 out of 5 of my muskies caught on the lake were in the low to mid 30's. Then again, I have never caught anything in the 36-47" slot on that lake as of yet.

[polarsusd81]

Nice fish everyone. I have yet to boat a ski this year, but I haven't been able to give em much effort. I need to change that seriously.

[bassNspear]

Nice looking fish Steff! That water looks really clear. Everyone that i have talked to has said that tonka has been on fire.

Nice Job!

[steffanf]

Well, I can tell you that the water clarity is not as it really seems in the pictures. The water is anything but clear... probably no more than 4 feet on the secchi... perhaps 5 in the main lake.

[bassNspear]

really. That pic is alot different then. Looks very clear water.

[fullmetajacket]

Here is a pic of my buddy that got his first 'Ski tonight around 5:30. It was 36".

[steffanf]

And here is another one I caught on Wednesday, October 1st. It too is in that mid-size range at 35.5" That makes 5 out of 6 caught out of 'Tonka in that size that is supposedly rare in that lake. By the way, it was figgin cold that morning. With the slight breeze was bone-chilling. Sorry about the so-so picture... was the first time I took a picture of myself while alone (using a homemade camera cradle). Was going to take some release pictures, but the thing shot away as soon as I rested it in the water:

[HopkinsFishN]

Steffan I got one Wed out on Tonka that was in that same range, maybe a 42 at most, caught him about 8PM

[Jimbo111]

Here is a beautiful 44" tiger muskie my father-in-law caught

on Pelican Lake, WI. in a tournament for us to take 3rd place.

Forget the date of course. It wasn't caught in January 2006.

How do you make these pictures come in smaller?

[Nick Kuhn]

JRB2 you have to edit them before you upload them. Generally 640x480 (or 800x600 if you have a 22" monitor like me) work best for posting images in forum threads.

[HopkinsFishN]

One I got on 10-1 8:00PM

[HopkinsFishN]

Heres the one i was trying to post a few days ago, gotta love that face right!

[steffanf]

Heck, Hopkins... that's a bigger fish than I got. Good going. I will say that your face looks rediculous... of course, I can't say much for myself either. I chose the better of two pictures for my last fish... and the better one had most of my head cut-off! Good thing too, because I was making one strange face myself...

[goblueM]

Got this girl last night on a metro lake. Last available light on a figure 8 - my first fish ever on one. Actually my first follow ever. And hey, Rebel is on to something with that pink/pink

[mrklean]

real nice fish guys

[MuntzAngling]

10/5/08 first light of day 46.75". Yep, crane bait got her interested. Best pic I could take being solo.

Too bad no one would go with me

[bronzeback]

awesome photo. was it raining when you got that fish to bite? and if so did you change baits when it started to rain? I'm curious what some people's go-to rain baits are.

[MuntzAngling]

It was the first shower of that front yesterday. I was throwing a tallywacker until it started raining. I snapped on the Crane bait and jerk twitched it. The sun was peeking out on the other side of the raincloud for the first time of the day. Then there was snarling and 5 minutes of playing the fish. I also like buchertails and Renosky Sonic Swing (rubber body fish spinner) for weedbeds in the rain.

I also had a bigger one, likely 50", follow the Crane as well.

[Rebel9921]

Too bad no one would go with me

Well... you never asked there are plenty people here who are currently without a boat... and probably would've accepted your offer...

[MuntzAngling]

I'm sure I'll be going again. I'll keep you in mind the next time. I was referring to 4 of my wishy-washy friends who sound like this...

"Naw, I'm sleeping in!"

"Me and the wifey are going to church"

"Not able to make it to the cities this weekend"

and "I'll call you back tomorrow"

[Rebel9921]

We all have friends like that... its the norm...

[propster]

Not trying to preach, and I myself was not aware of the potential damage a vertical hold can do to the bigger fish, but a better photo when alone might be of you releasing her, holding the tail and snapping the photo with your other hand. Otherwise great catch.

[fishcast]

The last few times I've been out I have seen nothing and I was starting to wonder if muskies still existed, but this weekend was crazy awesome!!!!!

My very first cast with a pacemaker and I had a skie blow up on it, but it got off after a big jump! But then my canoe partner Steve on his first cast caught his first ever skie!! It nailed a buzbait canoeside and then jumped completely over the other rod he had sticking out the front of the canoe!

Not long later we had a "problem." We doubled up on muskies!!! I was realing in a pacemaker at dark when a skie nailed it! For our group we had one canoe and two kayaks. The muskie took off and went over one of the guys in the yak and started jumping. Then we got it away from the yak and it took off at the canoe and jumped and hit steve in the front of the canoe! Then we got it in the cradle and I bent over to unhook it and a member on the site kayakman (tom) has a skie blow up on his cisco kid topper! Everybody is screaming and I thought his kayak was going to take on water from all the splashing from his fish. (by the way this is all at dark) Then the crazy kayakman lands the skie himself since the cradle was occupied by my fish! He unhooked it and we tried to get over to take a picture but on the way it jumped out of his arms! It was his personal best! Estimated around 49" which would have beat his previous of 46.

Unfortunately we only got a pic of mine which was by far the small one of the double but here it is

Next day kayakman started out with his first skie on the fly!!!

Not long later I hooked my BIGGEST ever! I had asked about jerkbaits on the site and I ending up getting a perch swirl color 9" suick. I chucked out my suick in shallow and reeled it down a couple cranks and gave it a hard snap. I saw a flash about 15ft away and then gave it another hard snap, and on the pause this skie nailed it! During the fight it ran under the canoe and flew part out of the water on the other side of the canoe! when we got it in the cradle it rolled right out of it, hooks still the cradle, so it took an extra scary scramble to get in back in.

Here is my new personal best 48”!

Next was a friends first muskie ever!!! on a 7" jointed believer

and 15 minutes later his second muskie ever on the believer!

and last skie of the weeekend was this one I got on the fly! Kayakman had this fish follow a 10" believer on the figure 8 around 3 times before it left, he told it should be right "there" and I chucked my fly out and it ate it!

All fish were successfully cpr'ed

[DHanson]

Nice fish there fishcast! Looks like you guys had some fun. I'm just curious, are you fishing a river in WI?

[bassNspear]

Awesome looking fish!!