53" muskie

[Quackaddict9]

Friday late morning-- some friends and I witnessed a guy catch a big fish that turned out to be a muskie that was seen from my lake cabin no further than 100 yards. I was told that he kept the fish out so long, Im guessing at least 5 mins? I got to see him put it back in the water and it took awhile for the fish to swim away or else it didnt swim away at all. I talked to him when he passed by my dock and asked him if it was a northern or muskie, he came to the dock and showed us the picture of the fish and said it was 53 inches. Well turns out that the same fish came up shore not far from my dock yesterday. I took some pics, held my first muskie but its probably not as exciting as a live one. I measured it and it was 53 inches long and 20 1/2 in girth. FM policy rule says no dead fish pictures so Im not sure if I am allowed to put some pics even though dead muskie pics were posted on FM a few times before.

so I'm guessing. Too long out of the water, warm water, warm weather and fish was stressed as well. It was disappointing to see its belly up.

[Tippman]

Very sad. I would guess that by posting the picture with your story you will help save more fish though. It will emphasize how people need to be very careful handling warm water muskies if even targeting them during this time at all.

[CaptainMusky]

Wow, what a shame. I would find a hard time believing the fish would have lived regardless of water temp being out of the water that long.

I realize that is a fish of many lifetimes, but why even bother releasing it? There is no way it is going to live after that.

[Rebel9921]

Hey quack... POST the pic!!! Dont let that muskie's death be wasted... Its impact on us all would be high...

Basically not many are doing muskie fishing at this time of the year... with the water temp the way it is nowdays... but from those who I have talked to about fishing... some of them swear that this time is the BEST time of the summer to fish for the muskies... what they do is bring it to the boat, leave it in the water in the net while unhooking it, then take pics with the fish still in the water in middle of the release process and they'll swim away... Many wont even take the fish out of the water regardless the size... I on the other hand would prefer to be safe than sorry... I would rather to wait til the water temp cools off a bit before doing some more fishing... At least this sabbitical allows me to re-arm my arsenal... I cant imagine the guilt that fisherman is feeling if hes reading the post... I hope karma's gonna bite him back... 5 minutes is wayyyyyy too long to be out of the water... From what I know... generally u should hold your breath then take the muskie out of the water... if you feel its time for u to stop holding ur breath, its time for the muskie to go back in the water... *sigh* Yeah... Captain is right... why bother releasing it after all that...

[JRedig]

That's such a shame. I witnessed a similar event on WBL a few weeks ago. I had a fish follow 12-15 times but wouldn't hit, he followed on 5 different lures. Even bit the tail of a pounder, but just nibbling at the back of it. So I left the area planning on coming back later and try again.

About 20 minutes later some bass fisherman went through and hooked this fish on a small spinnerbait. They had 8lb line and played it out for about 10-12 minutes. Once up to the boat, they netted it and straight into the bottom of the boat it went flopping around on the dry floor. I started timing them, took 3:36 to get the fish photo'd and ready for release. They measured it on the side of the boat and tossed it overboard straightaway with no R&R and started to motor off. I put my rod down, went in and grabbed the belly up fish and started motoring around with the trolling motor. 10 minutes in it still went belly up, 15 minutes it held itself upright, 20 minutes it swam down in about 20 FOW. I stayed around the area for about an hour casting for bass to see if it came back up, and checked back on my way in for the day, didn't find it anywhere. I hope it made it.

I gave the bass fisherman a small tongue lashing, but only because they started harrassing me about messing with their "big dumb fish that should be able to save itself". They sure seemed proud of it when they were snapping pics......bastards.

[Quackaddict9]

Talk about the muskie rampage in 1955 on Leech Lake, it was mid July and was the best fishing they had for muskies on Leech Lake for a few days as it sounds. Muskie fishing can be good right now but you just have to be smart and prepare what youre gonna do when you have one on. I have not caught one myself but i can learn from it. Im pretty sure most muskie guys know what they are doing and we all can learn from each other.

you can see that the tape measure is moved back 1 inch short.

[Rebel9921]

Wow... What a beautiful Muskie... sure has a profound impact... I hope the guy who caught this one and kept it out of the water for 5 minutes sees the pic... other than that... Im speechless about this tragedy... Yeah I have read about the Leech Lake Massacre... I'll have to second you on how we all can learn from each other... and pray that we all actually DO!!!

[Rebel9921]

JRedig... Wow... those bass fisherman should be lucky they ran into you... not me... I would've threw the pounder repeatedly at their boat until I got one hooked and dragged overboard... then reeled them all the way to the boat... they would be fighting in the water... and when all is done... let them swim back... lets see if they can survive the exhaustion... Oops... did I daydream again, and typed my thoughts out??? They can be such blankey blanking blankey blank

[polarsusd81]

I got my first ski on WBL a few weeks ago 7/13/07 and it was a 42". When I went to release the fish it flopped out of my hands and swam away a bit and came up. My buddy and I chased her down with the trolling motor and got to her so we could revive it and she ended up swimming back into the deep water. It is unfortunate that there are anglers that would get mad at a person for attempting to revive a dying fish that they didn't take care of. I would have done the same thing had I seen that. These fish are far to sensitive to be treated like trash. Sad to see a beauty die like that.

[Muskycrazy]

Thats a (Contact Us Please) shame . I'm a pretty easy goin' guy but that [PoorWordUsage]es me off .

[beatuplund]

That thing has what looks to be a leopard pattern on it. Haven't seen that before... is it a Tiger Muskie?

Such a waste.

[CaptainMusky]

Quote:

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That thing has what looks to be a leopard pattern on it. Haven't seen that before... is it a Tiger Muskie?

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That is how the muskies look in some Bemidji area lakes. One lake in particular has VERY distinct markings like this and I am assuming this fish is from that lake.

[MuskieJunkie]

5 minutes! Ouch. I saw a mid 30s floating yesterday on Independence. I know I'm preaching to the choir but, Summer months - water release.

[setterguy]

There was a 40+ floating on Forest yesterday also. Things like this can only help the fishery if one person learns how to handle a fish in these temps. Thanks for posting the pics and the story. It seems that a big strong fish like that could take the abuse but its simply not the case. Good luck to everyone out there.

[dippydawg]

I've seen that many,many times,not all muskie survive after the catch unfortunately. even an expert will not have 100% survival rate on catch and release.. can you believe some places are mandatory catch and release??? IMO that is just crazy. to throw a trophy muskie away because the law says so,dead or alive they do not care, you must put it back in the water.. what a shame.

Thats a nice fish, you should give it to a taxadermist if nothing else. The fish deserves to be mounted.

thanks for sharing the pics/story with us.

[Slyster]

Good thread. Some bass fisherman who hook into muskie once or twice a year really do not know what to do. I'll be sure to pay more attention next time myself... although I've never had one die on me and know enough to release them properly.

[Quackaddict9]

Quote:

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That is how the muskies look in some Bemidji area lakes. One lake in particular has VERY distinct markings like this and I am assuming this fish is from that lake.

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nope, not a Lake Bemidji muskie. The fish was caught and found dead on a stocked lake that dont have the numbers like the muskie lakes. The fishermen was also bass fishing during the muskie was caught.

its probably too late to bring it to a taxidermist. I thought about it but dont have the money to do that.

[SledNeck]

Lots of these bad boys on Lake Vermilion

[dippydawg]

the taxerdermist will be more then happy to take that fish off your hands.. they can mount them and sell them or use them for display to advertise there work..

my taxerdermist is always looking for fish to have given to him to mount, in fact he has a wish list!!!

[MuskieMojoTackle]

Quote:

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Lots of these bad boys on Lake Vermilion

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Lots of them on Vermillion? How many is lots?

It's pretty disgusting to see that.

Even the best musky guys are going to lose a fish here and there, but if "lots" of them are showing up dead...

[southwest]

I think people that make comments that they would cast a

musky lure at another's boat and try to hook them and then commit a crime and assualt them because of a dead fish is amazing to me. A fishes life more precious than person's life, get a life and realize that your quote makes you sound very uneducated to say the least. I am sure you and everyone that posts about how tragic a lost fish is and how dumb the other fisherman are for doing it has done something that they shouldn't have in past, maybe even by accident. Sometimes things happen, I am sure all your released fish have always lived, found every wounded duck and deer. Posts like that should be deleted becuase they are

offensive.

[Rebel9921]

Dang... Didnt I leave a hint of sarcasm with that comment??? Guess I didnt... What more... that fish didnt die thanks to other fisherman who spent 20 minutes reviving it... then to get into a dispute with the same fishermen who caused the whole mess in the very beginning... Who should be the one getting a life??? Whats your point about the quote? I must be too uneducated to really grasp what you're trying to say??? You're the only one who found my posting offensive... and I certainly found yours to be offensive

[southwest]

It was intended to be. I didn't want to waste my time and not get a reply out whoever typed it. I recieved the reply that I thought I would. You said the fish didn't die how would he have known, its a guess at best that it lived. I doubt that i am the only one offended, you just assume that just like assuming the fish lived.

[MJBo]

I didn't find your post offensive because I'm not easily offended. I did find it irritating (because I am easily irritated)and poorly considered. No one wants to kill a musky but it happens and going after a BASS FISHERMAN for improper handling is absurd. One time I had a great blue heron come VERY close to getting my topwater several times as I franticaly reeled in a bomb cast. If I had hooked that bird would it be fair for ornithologists to descend on me in judgement for improper handling? No.

And seriously I think that if anyone ever intentionally casted a lure at me in my boat i would be well within my rights to defend myself and would do just that.

[Rebel9921]

Opinions do varies... You did waste your time... because I was merely commenting on that one unfortunate incident... and it was all laden with sarcasm... which means I was trying to be funny, not being serious... What I should have said was "Thanks to a certain fisherman who spent 20 minutes reviving it, the fish lived some more and managed to swim off... whether it died sooner or later, or is still alive will not be known, but at least it was given a chance" Again, there was NOTHING serious about that posting... it was all sarcasm... get past it!!!