Muskies! 40″ & 42″

A fella I’ve never meet… but argue with frequently, Marc Stevens sent these to me this morning. Marc chases after these toothy creatures regularly when his not giving me a hard time.

They were caught on Lake….hmmm…better not say…along a weed line in a lake that’s fairly close to the metro area. Marc and his friend were useing sometype of jerk bait and poped these two within 20 minutes of each other.

All followed up by the release…Gary, I know your home taking care of Mom and new baby…but these pictures have to hurt…just a little…don’t they?!

Marc’s friend with the 42″.

And the release!

Great JOB Guys!

First off nice fish and great job on the release, they sure are beautiful fish. With muskie anglers as they are, not keeping fish, I find it funny that the background needs to be blocked out. Metro lakes are loaded with fish, these must be some spots that you never see anyone else fish. Is there such a spot that exists around the metro area anymore, the answer is no! I just find it odd. We as muskie anglers pratice catch and release, and the reason behind this is so others can enjoy the same fish over and over again, as we have. Now again I ask why, what is the rational behind doing this, I just don’t understand. The reason that I post things here is to tell others what is working for me and where I am finding fish, in hopes that I can help someone out, and perhaps they even go there and hit a nice fish. Sharing info is what this is all about. I could see if you were holding a 50+ inch fish and did not what to disclose the exact location. Someone please explain this to me, I am not trying to sound a jerk, I just really don’t understand what the objective of this is.

here we go again!!

CA

I am not trying to start anything, I just don’t understand why!

Wow those are some nice fish.

Hold on CA! Don’t set the hook yet!

There’s a very…very good explaination here.

Bob, you’ve asked a very good question…and I’ll answer it in a couple- three words…I DID IT.

Here’s the scoop:

My friend sent me his pictures this morning and I asked him if I could post them on IDA. He ok’ed it and gave me some information… I’m not a musky fisherman…and I told him that I would cover up the background…Wasn’t his doing…at all…it was all me. Heck, I thought all muskies over 50 inches were good to eat..the Y bones are bigger…(ok..I’m kidding here).

So Marc, if your reading this…you can see, we have a bunch of very good musky fisherman on this site willing to share info…YOU need to register and get on line because I think Bob is interested in where you’re fishing and if I was a betting man…I would bet a quarter, he could give you some tips on bigger fish water…

PS isn’t a 40 inch musky big? They look big!

It’s hard for me to guage this because until talking with Marc, I thought muskies were just used for Flathead bait!

Let me know if that answers your question Bob.

I think the real question is why the heck are these pictures buried in the Catfish Forum? Let’s get them out in the sun where real people can see them!

There’s other forums?

Like I told James, you’ll never get that smell off your fingers

Love the background in Pic #1!

Bob – i couldn’t agree with you more on this subject especially in regards to muskie fisherman. I think that Brian was posting keeping in mind some conversations that have happened lately on the cat forum and also one that happened as a result of my post on the St. Croix muskies I had been connecting with earlier. You can find it in the St. Croix Forum and there are about 1300 views and a whole bunch of replies on it. http://www.in-depthangling.com/forum/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/216958/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/93/fpart/1
By the way, I have been totally blanked on my two most recent trips. It is fishing a lot tougher as summer rolls on which is counter intuitive for muskie fishing as far as I know. I know this last time out it was after a big storm that rolled through and I think the time to be out would have been the previous afternoon about 2-3 hours before the rain and lightning would have chased me off. Do you know much about river muskies? Do their habits change or differ that much from lake muskies in the summer. It seems that they just haven’t been active at all lately! I literally haven’t seen a single fish these last two times out and this spot has been producing at least a couple of follows every time! A penny for your thoughts. When are we going to connect and get out man?

mwitham,

Thanks!

I was talking with my neighbor… a mushy fisherman by heart. He was saying that with the temps up and the levels down they go hide in deeper water…

Again, I know squat about muskies, but this guy does pretty well on the croix…normally.

Bob,

I think the reason muskie guys will hide a background or not say much is that muskie guys are so damn crazy that they will flock to a lake/spot if they hear the fish are biting. You can ruin a lake (by “ruin” I mean put a whole lot of people on it … sharing a 1000 acre with 20 boats is not my idea of a fun fishing trip, fish or no fish) pretty quickly by talking about it.

I think it works that way for virtually all species. For example, a lot of the Pool 4 walleyes are photographed and released at Evert’s or somewhere other than where they were caught. What do you make of that?!?

John

If you’ll notice in our reports, and any other photos Hawg Hunters (meaning Bob and I) publish on this site, we hide nothing. We share with everyone else what we use, where we are, the type of spots we are fishing, etc. Truthfully, I don’t care if you find it neccessary to cover up backrounds and landmarks. It just tells me what kind of “fisherman” you are. Considering this site is about learning and sharing, I would say there really isn’t a reason for you to bother posting your or your friends pictures. If I wanted to see pics of big fish, I can just open up my “My Pictures” folder on the trusty old C drive, turns out… I have a sh#*-load of them already.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

You have to admit they are nice looking fish….I mean for a muskie.

I still hoping to get Marc to register and chime in here…

Marc,one of the things we do on this site is share opinions and sometimes everyones not in agreement with a thought or action… Then we have a discussion. No opinons right or wrong…

BUT I’ve learned a ton of things from people challengeing others (including my) thought process.

Many fishing sites don’t allow this…I’m glad I’m on one that does!

I’ll admit that I’m quite secretive of my milk run on Tonka. I have 5 spots that I consistently work that 95% of the time produce quality fish. I have been working Tonka hard for the past 5 years to come up with these spots. Yes, I know there are a gadzillion other locations on Tonka that hold quality muskies. However, these spots are consistent producers that don’t hold alot of musky traffic, let alone other fisherman.

So, through blood, sweat, and an awefull lot of tears…..(plus some terrible words I have shouted…Sorry Lord……)…I hold these 5 spots sacred to me and my primary fishing partner.

Now, I have no problem sharing these spots with close buddies, but I don’t want to advertise a milk run that I do feel that I own through the time, blood, sweat, swears, tears…..Not when they are not “popular” locations on Tonka.

If anyone wants milk runs for LOTW or Mille Lacs, I will gladly share them each and every day on this website. Reason being is that I’m only up there a few times a year (not much this year, but that is OK, I have to take care of my new little fishing buddy!!!! ). Heck, I’ll draw out maps, just holler.

But Bob and Dan, you guys are right, when it comes to the general muskie lakes of the metro, there really are no secret spots anymore, because somebody has already learned them.

MWITHAM, A penny for my thoughts…I am sorry to say that is about what it is going to be worth when it comes to muskies on the river. I am not sure what types of seasonal patterns these fish have. I just have not done enough of it yet. Over the past couple of years I have started to hit a few rivers and have had a mixed bag of results. I have fished the upper mississippi(Baxter-Brainerd) very early in the season and again late in the fall, we have hit some nice fish there. It seems to me that early in the year when the water is high the fish seem to push up close to the banks, finding shelter from the strong current, down falls,eddies,and front and backs of islands have all been holding fish early in the year, as the water slows the fish seem to migrate to the deeper holes, still using the islands but I don’t seem to find them using the down falls as much. Late in the fall it seems that all of the fish have gone to those deep holes and the stack up in there. We have seen numbers of fish all in the same hole. I don’t have any idea what advice to give you on the Croix, Let me know when you have a few weekends that you are free and we will see what we can put together….

Dan,

I think it’s great if you share very specific information, but I’m not going to do it. I’m more than happy to say that I was catching fish on Leech in Portage Bay casting black and orange musky candy spinnerbaits over the weeds. But I’m not about to say that I was catching fish trolling jointed baby depth raiders around the big flat south of the park landing on WBL. Do you have any idea how many guys would be out trolling baby depth raiders around that flat over the course of the next couple of weeks? The WBL structure I’m talking about is maybe 100 acres and has a well-defined weededge … as compared to Portage Bay, which is several thousand and has dozens of weedlines.

And do you think I’m going to give away my favorite wingdams, sand flats, etc. on the river? That’s crazy! Those spots would be swamped and I wouldn’t be able to fish them anymore. Even if there was something specific I was doing to get fish, the numbers of boats alone would ruin it.

I do think you’re right that my unwillingness to share super-specific information says something about me as a fisherman: that I’ve worked my [censored] off for the information I have and don’t want people exploiting it, or I’ve learned something from a friend who wouldn’t appreciate my sharing it with just anyone (perhaps anyone at all). I’m pretty sure that’s ALL it says! Most of the best fishermen I know (not all) don’t share a whole lot of info. with just anyone. And it does seem like the muskie guys are tighter-lipped than the walleye guys — it’s probably directly proportional to the effort required to get the information.

I think you said a lot in your post when you said that in your reports you reveal the types of spots you’re fishing … not the GPS coordinates of the spots. I dare you to try the latter! If there’s a distinguishing landmark in a picture, it’s the same thing!

Brian, I like the pics! Here’s one I caught last week on Lake of the Woods. I didn’t get a perfect measurement, but it was close to (maybe slightly under) 50″. On a suick, over some rocks, somewhere up there! Dan, I’m sure you have pictures of dozens of thirty-pounders on your hard drive (right?)… but even if you don’t enjoy looking at fish pics I’m sure there are people who do. I am one of them for sure!

John

I have quite a few big fish pics, but still my favorite thing about outdoor sites is seeing other peoples pics of big fish.

John, do you pratice catch and release??? My next question would be why? If the answer is so others can enjoy the same thing that you did, is this not a little redundant. Sure we all work hard to find spots and learn lakes, now you should now as well as I do that these spots that we find big fish are typically “THE SPOT ON THE SPOT”. A land mark or even GPS cords will not put you right there. A lot goes into boating a big fish, first off you have to be there when that big gal is ready to eat, timing is a major factor, skill also plays in this as well. But most of all its luck. I love seeing and sharing pictures of big fish as much as the next guy.

Bob,

Whether or not landmarks or GPS coords put you right on the fish, they will put a lot of boats near them. I’m all about sharing up to a certain point … but I sure don’t want people all over my spots, especially since luck/timing can have a lot to do with catching muskies. Any idiot can throw a suick over rocks, and sometimes it really is that simple.

I love the fishing reports on this site, and sharing information is awesome. But I’m irritated because I don’t think it’s right to criticize or even question a guy that doesn’t want his exact location revealed. Besides, maybe accepting what little he does have to say about a particular fish will make him comfortable sharing additional info in the future.

John

* WHY * is this even being discussed? .. why does *why* always seem to turn a thread into something its not supposed to be.. especially when backed up by another *why*?

The person does not want to post their exact location.. that is their right.. they are in no way obligated.. and are respected(greatly by me) for not giving locations or all the *catch and release* musky fisherman will hammer the area.

Flathead fishermen are CPR fisherman by rule too… doent mean I want to compete with 10 others over my own spot I was so nice to share on the internet.. been there, done that… It doesnt mean we cant leave some type of general info on where we hit the fish.. weedlines, jerkbaits.. who knows.. but I know as an individual I dont have the right to question another person why they wont say where they were fishing.. they did their homework, they found the spot that is working.. THEY are entitled to enjoy what they earned, and not obligated to tell people where.

BTW.. Very Nice Ski’s!!

John I am not criticizing or trying to make anyone upset, I was just questioning the rational behind this. I guess that I have never even thought about doing that to pictures that I post and that was what started my questions.

Bob…as I said before, it was a very good question IMO.

If you have a chance read the “Secret Spots” thread. This thread was started with the intent of questioning why posting pictures and stories was(n’t) bad for a fishery. But it was side tracked into a “spot” thread. Check it out. Coming from this forum and the history it’s had this last few months, I try to keep spot specific info out of the pictures… Just saying P3 is too specific for some folk…it increases the traffice was sited.
I’ve found we have basicly two types of fisherman that fish and read this forum…the ones that will share info freely and don’t mind fishing next to another boat…and the other type that part of their fishing experiance is being alone…”the solatude”. Neither one is wrong or better…just two differant preferances.

I admire your openness…and even more your willingess to talk about it in a manner that shows that you care. Whether or not an individual chooses to edit out the background is really up to them. Just like asking the question “why” is up to you.

I can tell by the passion in your posts that I would love to get you slimey and stinky fishing cat’s some night…soon!

Guys thanks for the response to my questions, like I stated I was not trying to create any static or judge anyone, just curious. BRIANK- I am all for that bro, I would love to get out and give that a try, like I told you earlier, if I go with you I am willing to wear a blindfold . Guys have a great weekend and good luck on the water. I am going to be out on Sugar chasing those big gals, if you see us stop by and say HI. Red Ranger 619 with a big tall native dude in the back(Mr.Larson). Getting his handed to him…….Now thems fightin words bro!!!!!

Hmmm, never heard of a catfish called Big Gals before?

I am not aware of any catfish in Sugar , but I think they may be a few muskies

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Truthfully, I don’t care if you find it neccessary to cover up backrounds and landmarks.It just tells me what kind of “fisherman” you are. Considering this site is about learning and sharing, I would say there really isn’t a reason for you to bother posting your or your friends pictures.

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John23 and FisherDave I agree 100 percent…

John23 sorry about you being insulted

Keep Posting great pictures….