How rare is a 50″ ????

How rare is a 50″? I think the biggest variable would be the fisherman. Myself, i might never catch a 50″ but Musky Breath (Jason Hamernick) would catch two in the time it takes me to type this post.

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Only the avid esox chasers that are putting in a large percentage of time on the water compared to the recreational, weekend warriors, and only on the high producing waters, seem to be upping their personal anty to 55+ as the new benchmark.

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Or those lucky SOB’s that end up getting a giant fish as their first ever.

You said it all!!!!! i absolutely agree, i would be willing to bet that a bunch of fish that guys claim are 50″ers are actually 48-49″ fish. why do people think they need to stretch a fish like that? i dont care if its 45-50″s they are all awesome. likewise with trying to hold a fish out towards the camera, you really dont need too. if anything it makes the pic look stupid. 50s are rare and alot less common than you think. my personal best is 53″ and at the time i didnt have a tape so i measured it with a piece of dacron, also got the girth as close as i could. imagine my suprise when i saw that the fish was alot longer than i thought! i figured she was close to 50″. well i didnt need to stretch that fish and it didnt occur to me at all to keep her either. thank god for a camera and a good net guy! i will post pics soon.

I got my first one over 50 inches my second year musky fishing and it was 51 inches long. I don’t think its all that rare anymore to catch a 50. I think once you get to 53 inches and bigger, in my opinion, its a true trophy. Compare it to the 30 inch walleye, how many 30 inch walleyes have you caught?? I’ve only caught one walleye over 30 inches and I’ve been fishing them all my life. I’ve got on muskie over 50 inches and I’m in my third year of muskie fishing. So, in comparison to a walleye, a 50 inch muskie is like catching a 28 inch walleye.

mallard, where the heck do you fish? gotta be millelacs or vermillion im guessin. otherwise you are goofy! have you looked at a tape measure lately? rootski hit the nail on the head. as for the guy that catches 48″ tigers….. lets see um! i dont fish the metro lakes much but i have never even caught one. . anyway, i think its pretty obvious that people tend to stretch there fish,. i recently got lucky and boated a couple really nice skis, 48 & 49″ers. you know how many people said that 49″ was WAY bigger? alot. it wasnt, but its still a slob! all i know is when you see a true 50″+ fish you will know, i come unglued.. i dont get up to millelacs enough to say i am getting used to seeing fish like the 55″ benchmark, and i doubt i ever will! my loss i guess!
sorry i kinda rambled

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mallard, where the heck do you fish? gotta be millelacs or vermillion im guessin. otherwise you are goofy! have you looked at a tape measure lately? rootski hit the nail on the head. as for the guy that catches 48″ tigers….. lets see um! i dont fish the metro lakes much but i have never even caught one. . anyway, i think its pretty obvious that people tend to stretch there fish,. i recently got lucky and boated a couple really nice skis, 48 & 49″ers. you know how many people said that 49″ was WAY bigger? alot. it wasnt, but its still a slob! all i know is when you see a true 50″+ fish you will know, i come unglued.. i dont get up to millelacs enough to say i am getting used to seeing fish like the 55″ benchmark, and i doubt i ever will! my loss i guess!
sorry i kinda rambled

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mr fritz, get up north to lakes like bemidji, cass, plantan, as long as your fishing good structure you will have a good chance of a 50 or better fish. even tonka has plenty of fish over 50, may be skinny, but long.

I do fish Mille Lacs a lot mrfritz. I measure my fish very carefully, I don’t guess, and I don’t lie about how long fish are. I’ve seen fish on Mille Lacs that you wouldn’t even believe, so I would rather not say how big I thought they were etc., or I might get accused of lieing again. There is strong evidence of a few muskies that are at the 50 inch mark on Mille Lacs that are not very old fish at all. The fish grow faster and girthier on Mille Lacs, and have a lot of growth left in them after 50 inches. This is ovious by the size of the head of a muskie, a big fish with a small head, is a relatively young fish for its size. On the flip side, a fish with a huge head compared to its size, is a very old fish and will probably not grow much in its life.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I know 2 muskie fisherman that went out one night this year and boated 19 muskies, with 7 legitimate muskies over 50 inches in one night. These guys are very experienced muskie fisherman, with one being a muskie guide, and no they were not on Mille Lacs. And I cannot say what lake these were caught on.

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Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I know 2 muskie fisherman that went out one night this year and boated 19 muskies, with 7 legitimate muskies over 50 inches in one night. These guys are very experienced muskie fisherman, with one being a muskie guide, and no they were not on Mille Lacs. And I cannot say what lake these were caught on.

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I wonder if they took photos of their fish

Yeah they did, but obviously I didn’t catch them, so I don’t have the pics. You don’t have to believe it if you don’t want to. Then again, why would I lie????

i am not accusing you of lying…… my point is that i believe alot of guys round there fish up. 481/2? close enough. looks like 50 to me. there are alot more 48-49″ers swimming around than 50+ “ers. i understand millelacs is really special! one of my best friends works for an outdoors television show and filmed a coupple episodes where the guide boated 2 or 3 50+”ers in 20 min. 40lbs. being the biggest. all im sayin is i have caught some really nice upper 40″s fish the last 15yrs and realize how rare a true fiddy is! i also have a buddy that doesnt even take pics of fish unless they are upper 40″s! and he treats big pike, “10+lbs.” like carp! shake um off no pics nothing! i dig big pike!

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i am not accusing you of lying…… my point is that i believe alot of guys round there fish up. 481/2? close enough. looks like 50 to me. there are alot more 48-49″ers swimming around than 50+ “ers. i understand millelacs is really special! one of my best friends works for an outdoors television show and filmed a coupple episodes where the guide boated 2 or 3 50+”ers in 20 min. 40lbs. being the biggest. all im sayin is i have caught some really nice upper 40″s fish the last 15yrs and realize how rare a true fiddy is! i also have a buddy that doesnt even take pics of fish unless they are upper 40″s! and he treats big pike, “10+lbs.” like carp! shake um off no pics nothing! i dig big pike!

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I like the guys that dont handle and take pics of fish under 45 inches (not that its not a nice fish and fun). I dont either. Its good for the fish. much appreciated. shake em off and keep fishing.

Time on the water.

What do you need a camera for?

50″ in MN – Not all that Rare. Take a look at the tournaments and the percentages of fish over 50″ Even the metro tournament… 200 acre lake?

50″ in WI – Rare

Canada – No fish in Canada at all.

The real rare fishermen is the one that doesn’t care the size. They are all rare.

Heres the mallard w/ a big hog. 52″ x 25. we froze that nite with 3 ft waves. we were in our underwear in the water trying to get the boat back on the trailer. 40 degress water temp, and 3 footers rolling into the landing which the dock was out. what a nightmare. almost didnt get the boat back on the trailer because we were to cold.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS?

Wow, I would have sworn that Mallard was Jody Dahms from Lakeville. I had to double check Mallard’s profile…I guess I was a little off.

Here is a better shot of this fish. 52 x 25

Looks like a great fish Derek!

Slow, i had a chance to view some old posts of yours and i wanted to appologize for disagreeing with your opinions. I had no idea that you and Mallard were as accomplished as you are. I also fish alone sometimes, but unlike you i am able to get good pics without hurting the fish. go to walmart and get a tripod. 20$. It takes me maybe a couple minutes to get the camera set up while the fish relaxes in my big beckman. i want to get good pics so i can look back and relive the awesome memories of past trips! I am no photographer but i have some really cool pics of my buddys fish and my own! again i had no idea i was in the presence of such greatness!

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Slow, i had a chance to view some old posts of yours and i wanted to appologize for disagreeing with your opinions. I had no idea that you and Mallard were as accomplished as you are. I also fish alone sometimes, but unlike you i am able to get good pics without hurting the fish. go to walmart and get a tripod. 20$. It takes me maybe a couple minutes to get the camera set up while the fish relaxes in my big beckman. i want to get good pics so i can look back and relive the awesome memories of past trips! I am no photographer but i have some really cool pics of my buddys fish and my own! again i had no idea i was in the presence of such greatness!

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Thanks for the compliment. Man, what a nice thing to say. I am not that accomplished, just fish hard. You should take me out fishing and show me a few things?? How about next weekend? Sat or Sun? You are the guide that day. I am rollin this weekend Fri to Mon. Shoot for the 29th or 30th. Plus i have been on a cold streak for awhile now, sometimes helps to fish w/ somone else as they may fish totally different and helps create new ideas. I hope to start gettin in ROLLIN again this weekend. Been 3 weeks since i boated a fish. I had a buddy boat 4 on me in my boat 2 weekends ago. On 1 of the fish, i had chase my bait to the boat and darted over to his and he caught it, bad streak. I am going to cast right out of it the weekend though.

Im gonna be in bemidji next weekend, look me up

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Im gonna be in bemidji next weekend, look me up

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Man, what a drive form Hudson to Bemidji. Good Luck. Should be on fire. I wont be there. I will be fishing metro area that weekend.

Dont be afraid to get real shallow up there this time of yr, even up to that 2 ft range. Also may want to try slow rollin big spinner baits at nite up there. Even at nite thay can be super shallow.

Thanks B Curtis and Mrfritz! That is a 40 pound class fish, but I did not catch that one, Slow Rollin did. He doesn’t like to handle the fish very often, so I did, because that was a picture fish no doubt. Who’s Jody Dahms?? I still have not beat my 51 inch fish, but the next two months is the time to get it I hope!!

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Thanks B Curtis and Mrfritz! That is a 40 pound class fish, but I did not catch that one, Slow Rollin did. He doesn’t like to handle the fish very often, so I did, because that was a picture fish no doubt. Who’s Jody Dahms?? I still have not beat my 51 inch fish, but the next two months is the time to get it I hope!!

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Mr. Dahms is the guy who got that monster on Mille Lacs last fall w/ mr. jonesi, go to stevejonesi.com and you will see mr. dahms holding a massive fish. got it on the large mojo (rubber, not hair) gray/silver in color.

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Thanks B Curtis and Mrfritz! That is a 40 pound class fish, but I did not catch that one, Slow Rollin did. He doesn’t like to handle the fish very often, so I did, because that was a picture fish no doubt. Who’s Jody Dahms?? I still have not beat my 51 inch fish, but the next two months is the time to get it I hope!!

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Mr. Dahms is the guy who got that monster on Mille Lacs last fall w/ mr. jonesi, go to stevejonesi.com and you will see mr. dahms holding a massive fish. got it on the large mojo (rubber, not hair) gray/silver in color.

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Yes, the fish didn’t look the same but the guy/clothes looked close. That is why the double-take. I guess it is actually Jonesi holding the fish and not Dahms? Anyway, nice fish Slow and nice hold job Mallard.

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Thanks B Curtis and Mrfritz! That is a 40 pound class fish, but I did not catch that one, Slow Rollin did. He doesn’t like to handle the fish very often, so I did, because that was a picture fish no doubt. Who’s Jody Dahms?? I still have not beat my 51 inch fish, but the next two months is the time to get it I hope!!

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Mr. Dahms is the guy who got that monster on Mille Lacs last fall w/ mr. jonesi, go to stevejonesi.com and you will see mr. dahms holding a massive fish. got it on the large mojo (rubber, not hair) gray/silver in color.

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Yes, the fish didn’t look the same but the guy/clothes looked close. That is why the double-take. I guess it is actually Jonesi holding the fish and not Dahms? Anyway, nice fish Slow and nice hold job Mallard.

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no thats mr dahms holding the pig. its not mr jonesi. what a hog though. i hoping to get 1 of those this weekend. actually i am slumping and would be happy w/ a 35″ right now. i will probably fall out the boat right now w/ a 35″ just to break the slump.

I must say that you guys(that are catching fish) have absolutely nothing to complain about I’ve only had one bite all year and nothing to show for it. I haven’t seen a fish since I’m so bummed and very frustrated

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I must say that you guys(that are catching fish) have absolutely nothing to complain about I’ve only had one bite all year and nothing to show for it. I haven’t seen a fish since I’m so bummed and very frustrated

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Are we still on for Monday? I’m a little leary of what the weather may create but I’m still game……. so long as the lightning is overwith!

I know that on every effort, there is no guarantee of anything….. so we just try. I’ve been pretty fortunate. Most trips this year I’m at least finding fish and the last 2 of 3 have produced action. They’re definitely up shallow man and between the two of us, we’ve got something to get their attention! We just gotta guess right at the right time!

Send me a pm and let me know if we’re still a go!