50" speared

[MUSKY18]

I'm not saying that every large fish gets speared when they come through some holes, but I would be willing to bet that many more get speared than are let to swim away!

[sbro73]

The article can be viewed in Thorne Bros. Messages HSOforum.

[pinkfloyd4ever]

I fish for muskies, my success rate is low though. I went on the spear fishing get-to-gator the other weekend with the spear fishing guys, I've never speared before. I have to say its a blast staring down the hole at your bait. To get to my point here, those guys don't just spear any fish that presents itself, on that day- I guess I can't speak for the total #- but more were intentially passed up than were speared. Just don't want the broad brush affecting both groups of sportspeople.

[Fish&Fowl]

Guess I don't understand spearing, just glad its not allowed here.

Is there a lake in Iowa?

All kidding aside...there are a lot of people who don't understand hunting or fishing. A good percentage of them are environmentalists. Don't knock it just because you don't understand it or haven't tried it.

[bassNspear]

Guess I don't understand spearing, just glad its not allowed here.

[troyfideldy]

Good evening Guys,

I just came off a metro area lake spearing. Did not see a northern this morning but I did get the chance to see a 10 pound tiger muskie. I DID NOT spear this fish. I could tell the difference between a hybrid and true northern. There is no excuse for a person to spear a muskie, not even an "accident"! I am an avid muskie fishermen and spearer. Spearers do not automatically harvest all the large pike in a lake. Spearing is not as easy as it may seem, try it before you knock it. We need to continue to stock and expand new muskie waters. But we need to share all the waters with everyone.

[Huey]

Well said, Troy.

I've seen many muskies while spearing and it's easy to tell them apart from northerns. If there's any doubt, do not throw the spear. I've never speared a muskie and would never even consider doing it. BTW, they are a lot of fun to watch underwater.

It's awful that a 50" muskie was killed by a mindless one-who-thinks-I-am-silly, but we should be careful about attacking each other. When muskie guys broadly condemn spearing, and want to close all muskie lakes to spearing, they tick off the spearing guys. Then when muskie guys try to stock muskies in new waters, guess who's afraid of having another lake closed to spearing and opposes muskie stocking? Remember Gull Lake? That was disappointing. As the saying goes, "friends come and go, but enemies are for life".

Huey

aka

Chris Cochran

MN Darkhouse Angling Assoc Member

North Metro Muskies Inc Board Member, Past President

[BullFighter]

Spearing is a Great sport !

I did it for years and enjoyed it VERY Much.

[Rebel9921]

There will always be a big difference in opinions when it comes to something like this... but I have to agree with what Huey says... which is "If there's any doubt, do not throw the spear."

Best we can do right now is to unite... no matter how bad the opinion differs... We will be able to achieve more as long we fight for our rights yet being able to work with others to achieve it better... It could be some idiots who hates muskies or it could be a first-timer from Florida or Texas who didnt know any better and got over-excited... with this situation, it pretty much provides good reasons to have the muskies people work with spearing people, and quid pro quo...

The case is now in the DNR's hands... and I hope that they have a great success in closing this case and the responsible one(s) be caught and repriamanded properly...

[Nick Kuhn]

And not to say it isn't a shame but right next door in Wisconsin this is perfectly legal for a certain group of people, and there still are fish to be caught. The accidental spearing that'll occur in MN is nowhere near the tribal harvest in WI. Most are pretty good about what they do.

Not being a spearer myself I can't say for sure but I'm guessing a big reason why they spear on muskie waters is they tend to be larger lakes with better clarity. I would imagine there are more than a few lakes out there that are too stained for spearing.

[Shawn Kellett]

The problem in that area is that there's a few guys that are intentionally dropping the hammer on muskies. This is the 2nd 50 that's been speared out of Plant in the past 2-3 years. There's a lot of talk in that area about the "spear and release" program. I've heard it enough times first hand to believe it's not just bar talk.

IMOP if the MMDA was serious about being above board with their sport they'd be working to get these guys either under control or turn them into TIP. I know the muskie guys do that when one of theirs is breaking the law. If we all want to get along there has to be trust. Trust is hard to gain when people are covering for one of their own.

And yes, I get the spearing thing. I've spent hours and hours looking through a spear hole. My father-in-law is a carver/dark house guy and I've fished through the "Polish Television" for years. Anyone who's done it for more then 1/2 hour can tell if the fish is a muskie or pike...especially when they're 50".

[b1gf1sh1]

i've been following this post and refrained from commenting mainly because i'm biased, and get angered by this stuff. but then i saw something that made me laugh and shake my head a little and wanted to comment. i'm wondering how (i know why) anyone can call spearing a fish ''angling''? i mean c'mon call it what it is... spearing. angling is defined as ''the act or skill of fishing with a hook and line''. please don't hide behind words. it might sound better to the public, but really if a sport needs to hide behind deceptive words to make it sound more palletable then there must be, or the perception of, something wrong with it. spearing is killing plain and simple. there are no live releases. really i'm fine with anyone doing anything if it's legal. it's their right. and i will speak up if a fingerling muskie is killed unlawfully and try and hope to install regulation to prevent it. close all muskie waters, what, 110 of 6,000 pike lakes?, no spearing. problem solved, and it ''IS'' a problem. if the pike''anglers'' have a problem with me speaking up that's just too bad, i don't mean it to cause enemies, i just want to tell it like it is and not sugar coat it. if you have fun doing it fine, just please leave the sport i enjoy alone, which is ''angling'' for every fish that swims.

[bassNspear]

you dont use a hook spearing myfriend. You use a Live Decoy harness

[Fishing Freak]

spearing is very hard and take alot of time and you need very clear water and you pass up 10 times as my you are able to spear because they fly by the spear hole very fast.

[b1gf1sh1]

Quote:

you dont use a hook spearing myfriend. You use a Live Decoy harness

i know that. i might not spear but i'm a minnesota native and am very familiar with the practice. what's the point? maybe trying to go around the issue of the definition of angling is my guess. i don't want to argue the english language and the definitions thereof. just that they are absolute in their specific meaning and no where does harness or spear get mentioned in any definition of the word angle, angler or angling in english. maybe french, or russian i don't know. pole is mentioned though. but im sure it means one with line guides on it not sharpened spikes on the end. ... i just thought it was weird that's all. please enjoy your sport. and please condemn illegal activity if you encounter it. thanks.

[DHanson]

Not if it's a muskie. They will sit there and stare at the decoy and almost every muskie lake has crystal clear water. Very vulnerable to the muskie haters that like to abuse the law. I understand that most spearers follow the rules, but this is a problem on every muskie lake that spearing is allowed on.

[BullFighter]

IMO if the MI (Muskie Inc) guys would lighten up a bit maybe there would be more Trust?

I wonder how many times the MI guys Lecture the likes Bob M

every time he holds a Muskie in the vertical position for one of there TV shows?

(In order to get the MONEY SHOT)

or how he might be hurting the poor fishes mouth because he uses hooks with barbs and then turn around and tell me that I shouldn't use barbs?

After more than 10 years of being a Member of MI the one thing I have learned is that MI guys are kinda funny sometimes.......

[bassNspear]

funny sometimes, what do you mean?

[10,000 Casts]

There is nothing wrong with the sport of spearing... It's a cool sport and it will never be outlawed and why should it be? Yes, it is killing but so is Deer hunting, Turkey hunting, Duck Hunting and so on. For me, it's dollars and sense and priorities, spearing puts tens of thouands back into the communities of Minnesota, Muskie fishing puts back tens of millions back into the communities. We arguable have the best Muskie fishery in the World right now... Lets keep it that way. I still say close the Muskie lakes to spearing. A few bad sportsman are too many. There are 1000's of good Pike Lakes, why not spear in one of those?

[MUSKY18]

IMO if the MI (Muskie Inc) guys would lighten up a bit maybe there would be more Trust?

I wonder how many times the MI guys Lecture the likes Bob M

every time he holds a Muskie in the vertical position for one of there TV shows?

(In order to get the MONEY SHOT)

or how he might be hurting the poor fishes mouth because he uses hooks with barbs and then turn around and tell me that I shouldn't use barbs?

After more than 10 years of being a Member of MI the one thing I have learned is that MI guys are kinda funny sometimes.......

Are you serious. If the Muskies Inc guys would lighten up? The members of the MI chapters have worked long and hard to get a very low number of lakes in this state stocked with muskies. Worked even harder to get these very few lakes to produce trophy fish. Everytime that there is a new proposal for a new lake to get stocked with muskies, the opposition is incredible. Not just from the lake associations, but the other groups as well. Remember Gull? Who was the biggest opposition to getting that stocked? The darkhouse assoc and Northerns Inc. Out of 10,0000 lakes in Minnesota, there are roughly 100 that are stocked with muskies, and according to Bass N Spear, he would be in favor of closing all of these lakes to spearing. So if that is the case, if the MI guys proposed the closure of these lakes, would it fly. I seriously doubt it! I don't know how you can say the MI guys need to trust the Darkhouse guys when you fight them every step of the way when they try to do something with a given body of water.

Please don't think that Bob M doesn't get chastised for holding fish incorrectly, any good muskie fishermen should know better and is probably more than willing to tell Bob that. Speaking from personal experience, the one time that I met him, he acted like a class a donkey to me and my fishing group. Have no respect for the man, and there are many, many out there that feel the same.

I have speared many, many times when I was younger and quit because it just didn't trip my trigger. Would rather spend hours casting lures than staring down a hole. I know on one of the muskie lakes that I fish, the "spear and release" program is in full effect mainly because of the decline in the walleye fishing, which is blamed on the muskies eating all the walleyes.

[Fish&Fowl]

it might sound better to the public, but really if a sport needs to hide behind deceptive words to make it sound more palletable then there must be, or the perception of, something wrong with it. spearing is killing plain and simple. there are no live releases.

Let's just call everything killing then. Instead of going hunting, let's just say we're going killing. And when you keep some fish to clean and eat, say "I killed them" not "I caught them." Spearers pass up fish all the time, which is the same as "releasing" it. You act like you're on some high horse or that you are better than people who spear. I am an avid muskie fishermen and spearer.

[Muskiefool]

This is no different than headless deer or Geese for fertilizer, we need more Co's and the reward for turning in a Poacher of a 50 inch fish to be close to the cost of replacing it, $7500.00.

[croixflats]

ye who past judgment may be judge. Who's to say who is right or wrong.

[BullFighter]

Originally Posted By: BullFighter

IMO if the MI (Muskie Inc) guys would lighten up a bit maybe there would be more Trust?

I wonder how many times the MI guys Lecture the likes Bob M

every time he holds a Muskie in the vertical position for one of there TV shows?

(In order to get the MONEY SHOT)

or how he might be hurting the poor fishes mouth because he uses hooks with barbs and then turn around and tell me that I shouldn't use barbs?

After more than 10 years of being a Member of MI the one thing I have learned is that MI guys are kinda funny sometimes.......

Are you serious. If the Muskies Inc guys would lighten up?

Quote:

Yes I Am!

[croixflats]

Pretty soon there is going to be a certain group that can only hunt for muskies the way its heading now, and petta is loving it waiting to shut them down ounce they take control.