Super Deep Bairfish/Muskies

[Swimmer]

Was on LCO last week and couldn't believe the huge pods of baitfish and some of the largest hooks I've EVER seen at 70 feet over 90 feet of water!

Question: I didn't see a distinct thermocline, but assume one exists...I guess there is still O2 down there?

Question: If you targeted these fish with downrigger...would this be a death sentence for the fish since they couldn't maintain air bladder equilibrium on the way up?

The size of those hooks though...kind of spooky.

[ptkane]

That's way to deep to pull a fish up from...according to anything I have read about muskies.

[Random guy]

I Know that when we would pull walleyes out from 40' on Leech there would be an airbag problem I'm sure a fish with such a large O2 reserve would have some trouble after coming up from that deep under stress. It would be interesting to send down a camera and see what type of monsters are making those big arches or "hooks"

[Swimmer]

JP: Ya thats what I thought. Most of it is the sea monster curiosity thing...getting a camera on 50" of fish in 70' of water would be fun (if even possible??). I also would like to know what the baitfish is. Could be Cisco, Sunfish, Crappie, shiner??

[JWB475]

Keep an eye on those baitfish, they will likely rise up in the water column as dark approaches.

I lost a monster on Bemidji last year trolling through pods of baitfish, I say monster because I only had it on for a minute or two, and never saw it - so obviously it had to be huge...

Throughout the day the baitfish were way down in the water column, but as it got closer to dark, they rose up and were at the same depth as the crankbait I was trolling...