Biggest fish of my life last night

Musky opened Saturday. Went 0/7 that weekend, with three fish hitting and missing


Made up for it last night with this 52 1/2" tank.

That is an amazing fish!

Congratulations! What did you catch it on?

WS

WOW!

Orange and black bucktail I made

Wow Hutchy.....You NEVER cease to amaze!

Put the mask back on lol amazing fish what do you think it weighed?

Haha.

I posted a few mask wearing pics, and a bunch of online morons kept bugging me cuz they thought it was a covid mask

Lol.


In fisherman lists an average 52/53" fish at somewhere around 45 lbs.

That is a heck of a fish and I figured the mask was for sun protection but I like stirring the pot lol

Yup. Nice to get in off the water and not feel fried

Plus, there is some skin cancer in the family.



Thanks!!

Wow again !!

wow

Hutch great that you caught it on a lure you made. Awesome fish!

Hutchy,

Did you keep it or release it? I'm okay either way (just curious).

I agree, catchin it on your own rig would have to make it all that much sweeter.

Are you going to get that picture framed up and inform the wife that you want to put it (and your lure) where she used to keep the cookbooks?

very nice fish....tough to catch one bigger than that

I’ve seen your lures but give me specs on rod , reel , and line you use .

Nice

That is a beauty! Congratulations on a great fish.

Released. Has to be 54" to keep, and even then... why?

People whine because they "eat all the walleye"..no, people eat the walleye. lol. Plus , like wolves its cool to have apex predators out there.

Very Cool

That was caught on an 8'-6" st croix, with a diawa lexa 400, spooled with 100lb Berkley x9.

100 lb isnt needed so much for the fish, more to avoid line breaking when you backlash an 9 ounce lure on the cast lol

You know, thats a pretty good idea!

I am going to keep using the lure though. You don't bench the lure that nailed an almost 53" fish haha

no kidding haha

My grandma caught a tiger musky back in the 70's that was 55" and 44;bs. She quit fishing after that because she didn't think she would ever beat it. That and she caught 2 the same week and the guys at the lodge they were staying at made my grandfather take her home... HA!!!!

We went to the same lake about 15 years later and she "guided" my uncle to a 56 incher. She now has her picture on the wall of the lodge twice.

I have a picture of my grandfather holding it up on the gaff and it is almost as long as she is tall.


That's a beautiful fish. How long it take to wrassle that in?

Great fish, congratulations!!

Not long. couple of minutes in total.

The heavier gear means we can get them in quicker and they arent quite so exhausted, increasing chances of survival.

Great fish Hutchy.
You are going to be on the cover of the Canadian Fishing Magazines.

A Beauty !

Congratulations fish of a lifetime there

Looks like a lamprey scar on it mid section?

Congratulations on a nice musky our fish and game dept stocked them in a small local lake thin out the carp , it's working well with some now in the 40" + class in there now the rainbow trout took a hit also but things happen .

The older St Croix rods are darn nice , I'm not convinced that the new rods are the same quality .
Keep up the good work so it a plastic fish mount of it in your future ?

Definitely a nice fish! Congratulations!

Congrats! Awesome fish.

Wow, congratulations on a great fish!

Great job.

Yeah Buddy, I bet that one made the line stretch a good bit.

Nice fish , Hutchy
He's a brute for sure ..

Just dove real deep. The big girls always do.


So much fun trying to figure these fish out.

Nice fish. Congrats. you beat me by 1 1/2 inches. Hope you beat your record..

That would have made a nice sandwich.

AWESOME

Thats just the thing eh.

Theres always a bigger fish..


Somewhere. lol

I like that. CPR here too

Nice fish Hutchy!

Love those Lexas. I use the 300 models for wreck fishing, fast retrieve makes it nice.

Have a 400 for deeper water, 200 ft tile fishing. Buddy of mine boated a 60 lb yellowfin on a lexa 400

Good job!

NICE!

Well done, Hutchy! Now you have a new record to break!

I have cast and burned shadzillas so hard, and for so long the side of the reel got hot to the touch.

Underrated reels...I like them more than the abu garcia beasts

Congrats,did you get it on one of your custom made lure?Hope to get out a couple of times this summer,works been CRAZY lately 75 to 87 per week.I've been stuck at 49",one of these times it will a 50" plus looking forward to that day coming.

How many lbs drag do you give those big Musky? Just curious , if you need to wear them down before boating or tighten them down.

That reel certainly has the drag capability!

I doubt if you need to worry much bout drag using hundred pound test line,unless you just want to tire it out before landing.

This here is the whole point.


Musky are actually very fragile. We don't want to tire them out.

The longer the fight, and the warmer the water, the higher the mortality.


Into the net, the net stays in the water, cut the hooks (because they are usually wrapped in the net), pull out any embedded hook points, lift into boat for a quick measure, picture, and release.

Fish rests in the net in the water for a bit while getting the bump board out and camera ready, and then it's out of the water for maybe 45 seconds total.

I do back the drag off just a bit though. A really big fish isn't being perfectly controlled anyway and you need some give.

It might seem fanatical to try so hard to be gentle on them, but we really enjoy the challenge of the hunt, so we try our best.

Nothing wrong with that Hutchy you're the master of the trade and your right people eat the walleyes not the musky

Boy oh boy..you got.yourself a whopper. Lol

Beautiful fish-
I always ask the "eat all the walleye" people... Have you ever seen a smallmouth feed?

Do musky eat walleye? Sure! Along with bass, sucker, small carp, cisco, whitefish, etc.

And then theres the 500 boats on the water every day, each one with several guys who are just out to get a limit every day.

Thats a lot of fish! I eat walleye too, and lots of them. They are stocked here by the natives, and we have zillions of walleye.

Heck, my buds wife got a 51" musky last fall trolling for musky that had the tail of a 4-5lb walleye hanging out its throat.


I guess its just that I feel like musky are allowed to eat whatever they want.

I know they eat whatever I agree with you but I don't understand why people think some fish are sacred like large mouth bass down here , the great thing about fishing is you can fish to eat which is me or you can catch and release or both but for a healthy population of fish I feel the apex predator is a must.

wow nice fish

Hutchy...I seen this post and it got me thinking...
We've had muskie stocked in the river close by about 25 years ago.
I've never fished for them in my life. Ain't fished this river in about 5 years. Heard and seen pics of others that have caught some goodens. Well, went Friday and seen 4 and hung 2 but didn't land eighter.
Went back today and got a 38.25" 1 and my boy had 1 on that was bigger.
Now I'm hooked bad...lol...thanks...


Donnie

Nice muskie.Would be on my wall.