Wisconsin 57″ Muskie Speared

Just read the Wisconsin Outdoor News last night and pretty much came unglued when I read the article about Jerome LeBarge spearing a 57″ – 54lb muskie supposedly from the Lac du Flamdeau reservation.

He killed it on April 22nd. To make matters worse, he indicated he speared a 53″ – 45lb tiger muskie 4 nights before. The article also indicates this guy was involved in the “Big Carr walleye incident” last year and lost his off reservation spearing privelages for 1 year. There are questions whether these fish were really taken on the reservation or off. Both bait shops that weighed and measured the fish asked that their names not be used for the story. I sure wish there was something the average Joe could do to prevent this from happening. You should see the picture of this hawg of a fish.

57 inch muskie

“getting such a large fish in the boat was quite an ordeal” give me a break

I am not a Muskie fisherman, but that story makes me sick.

Ay yi yi, people have no respect. I am a very big ‘catch and release’ advocate not because I don’t like to eat fish but I enjoy that fact of knowing someone will be able to ‘re’ catch this fish when it’s that much bigger. I just don’t understand what people like that are thinking…

I think we need to be more sensative and understanding.

She looked plenty healthy, probably would have layed thousands of eggs this spring. Seems pointless to me, but at least he has something for the wall of the trailer-house now. (insert banjo clip from Deliverance here)

I hope he at least took the meat from the cheeks

What a waste, this makes me sick

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The article also indicates this guy was involved in the “Big Carr walleye incident” last year and lost his off reservation spearing privelages for 1 year.

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I’m not familiar with that event. Can you elaborate or point me to some info on it? I tried a google search and came up empty.

Haha Dan, I couldnt have put it better myself

I believe he was ticketed for spearing too many walleyes on a lake off the reservation.

Yes son, see this fish on the wall. I snuck up on her in the dark and stuck her with a red hot poker.

I can not find the words to express how I feel about this

This is one of those situations where I don’t know if I want to read about it. Yes, it is nice to be informed, yet printing such articles gives a chance for people to get their 15 minutes of fame doing stupid chit! What do you guys think about reporting on such things?

tensions run high in that part of the state every year at this time. publishing this picture will do nothing but add fuel to a very touchy subject. I’m heading over there tomorrow. it will be interesting to get the local take on things.

I’m an obsessed muskie fisherman, and have been for over 15 years. I’m not happy to hear that a 57″ was speared, but it was legal and it’s a nice fish to admire even if it is dead. Did any of you complain like this when Tom Gelb killed his 50#er last fall or was that different somehow?

John

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Did any of you complain like this when Tom Gelb killed his 50#er last fall or was that different somehow?

John

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John;
I complained soley due to the fact that people stated “he deserved and earned it”.

Throwing dead fish on the wall just doesn’t impress/or/appeal to me anymore. I’m not going to condem anyone who does it, if it is legal. I guess as I get older, I don’t “need to” anymore.

To each their own.

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I am not sure where to begin with this, the posting of the story about someone essentially poaching that fish is disgusting. In an age when conservation of resources is a top priority, I find it reprehensible that you would “glamorize” the killing of what is essentially the top reproducing fish in the ecosystem. A fish of that size is not only at it’s peak of reproductive potential, but from the photo appears to be in excellent health. If it where pictures of the same two yahoos stringing up the dozens of deer they kill on tribal lands, typically by means that would be considered illegal to the non-native citizen, your e-mail inbox would overflow with countless PETA people demanding your head. I see no difference, sacrificing a fish for nothing more than a trophy for the wall goes against all of the native tradition in which the tolerance of said act of spearing is allowed. I would suggest you pull that picture and story as soon as possible as many of the true sportsman in the area have taken notice, perhaps these are the same people who buy advertisements or subscribe to your rag. If you want to do a real story, perhaps you would like to focus on all the programs and organizations that exist to ensure that a fish such as that even exists.

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A copy of the e-mail I sent to the powers that be over at the Lakeland Times. Correct me if I am wrong but the native’s right to spear is held up based on their traditional practices. Is it native tradition to mount giant fish?

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I am not sure where to begin with this, the posting of the story about someone essentially poaching that fish is disgusting. In an age when conservation of resources is a top priority, I find it reprehensible that you would “glamorize” the killing of what is essentially the top reproducing fish in the ecosystem. A fish of that size is not only at it’s peak of reproductive potential, but from the photo appears to be in excellent health. If it where pictures of the same two yahoos stringing up the dozens of deer they kill on tribal lands, typically by means that would be considered illegal to the non-native citizen, your e-mail inbox would overflow with countless PETA people demanding your head. I see no difference, sacrificing a fish for nothing more than a trophy for the wall goes against all of the native tradition in which the tolerance of said act of spearing is allowed. I would suggest you pull that picture and story as soon as possible as many of the true sportsman in the area have taken notice, perhaps these are the same people who buy advertisements or subscribe to your rag. If you want to do a real story, perhaps you would like to focus on all the programs and organizations that exist to ensure that a fish such as that even exists.

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A copy of the e-mail I sent to the powers that be over at the Lakeland Times. Correct me if I am wrong but the native’s right to spear is held up based on their traditional practices. Is it native tradition to mount giant fish?

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Native spearing rights are held up based on contract rights established between the US and the tribes. And what does poaching have to do with any of this?

I’m not a spearing fan, and have never kept a muskie. I just think it’s counter-productive to treat an Indian spearer differently than a guy that keeps a muskie caught by angling.

Nice email Dan. Hopefully they will get your point. I am not a muskie guy and probably will never be, But this makes me sick.

John

It’s a shame seeing a fish go like that, but…
was he on the wrong side of the law?

If he’s within the law of the land, wasn’t it his fish to take?

What would be the difference if he was an angler on Lake Mendota who kept that fish as a trophy to be mounted.

Guess I don’t understand.

Nice fish either way! I guess there are still giant muskies in wisconsin

John my contention is based on the reason behind why they net and spear. “Traditionally” isn’t it supposed to be rooted in the desire to acquire food? It would seem, since this fish is going to be mounted, that they are actually engaging in this practice for sport. If that is the case, I never want to here again how the White Man stold their land for their own gain. This joker’s ancestors would have never considered taking a fish to a taxidermist, they would have focused on the tremendous benefit that the whole tribe could collect from the harvest of this animal for food. The treaties that were put into place were conceived on the ideal that the native way of life be preserved, I guess I don’t see how that has happened in this situation, this guy is just trophy hunting. Just like “we” used to firing high powered rifles out of train windows at buffalos.

I could be wrong here but wouldn’t they still be able to eat the fish if it was a skin mount?

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I could be wrong here but wouldn’t they still be able to eat the fish if it was a skin mount?

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Come on, you know that this guy has no intention of eating this fish. PLEASE!!!!

John23

how can you even ask what the difference was between Gelb’s fish and this one? The most obvious would be that Gelb was row-trolling in sub-forty degree temps, driving rain and pulling a crankbait. This fish was taken at it’s most vulnerable state, shallow while spawning or staging. Spotted with a high powered lantern of some type and speared with a surgical steel trident tip spear.

Hey, if they want to continue those rights they should revert back to the methods of the period that those rights were granted. Bamboo bark canoes and torches. Make sense?

any die hard muskie fisherman, as you claim to be has to be sickened by this photo. legal? yes. Ethical. you decide

Go directly to page 8 of this pdf. It is a prime example of what the “tradition” should be.

Young Ojibwe Who Believes in Tradition

There are definitely some ethical questions at play here and many of you take a commendable stand on them. But unfortunately, these same ethics are not always carried forward to other sporting ventures.

We want our turkeys to have the longest beard, our deer to have the biggest racks, our ducks to have the most curled tail feathers. Many people keep big fish, of all species. Many deer are harvested over bait, legally .

Again, I commend the ethics being referred to here by the many musky fisherman. While doing so, let’s not fall on our sword by jumping to the conclusions insinuated by the references to banjo music, taking dozens of deer by unethical methods, etc.

Lots of emotion here! Let’s make sure we act and type, ethically.

ET

So much for providing food for the family & their people , this sucker’s going on the casino wall baby!

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Go directly to page 8 of this pdf. It is a prime example of what the “tradition” should be.

Young Ojibwe Who Believes in Tradition

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That was a pretty good read.