Biggest Fish?

I would be interested in hearing what eveyones biggest fish from Mille Lacs was last year? For me I am going to say 44 inches which is only a guess because I never took her out of the water.

A Walley a little over 28″s. All the big fish we boated I let someone else reel in. Then the biggest was a 43″ muskie.

This was my only Mille Lacs Ski for 2004. Caught during the Oct full moon period while trolling cranks for walleyes. I did not get a measurement. Snapped a quick pix and back she went!

Hook had a horseshoe stuck in his behind in 2003…….He landed a 49 1/2 and another over 51 inches!!! Ecnook and I were with him when he hooked the 49 1/2 incher. Still have that night fresh in the memory bank!

I didn’t hook her, but I will share the story!

Last September.

Up on Myr Mar reef, my buddy had a BIG GIRL follow in on his bucktail. I’m talking a fish well over 50″ and she was extremely THICK!!! It was the biggest fish I’ve ever seen on Mille Lacs, and it was bigger than anything I’ve ever seen on LOTW.

When the fish came in, he frooze and lost composure. It sucked too, because the fish “reared up” and was ready to take his hair. As the bucktail sank into the depths, and he just stared at her…….I started figure 8’ng on the other side of the boat. She darted over and followed my reefhawg…..After a couple of passes, she lost interest and off she swam away.

I immediately switch gears and put on a big bulldawg and casted to where she came from……..
Here she came again, nose right on the tail………Brought her up to the boat, did some circles and she was hot and right on it…….But, she lost interest and swam away……..I grabbed my bucktail rod, put on a yellow hair tail and burned it where she was………here she comes again, this time hotter than before…….I was burning about as fast as I could crank and she was coming in like a torpedo…….I pulled an “L” at the boat, she came in and took a swipe, but missed the hair…….. At this time, I lost all composure (knees shaking, blood pressure at 500 psi, babbling words in tongue, you know the deal…….)

My buddy casted his bull dawg and again, here she came…..but again, lock jaw…….she swam away…….So, we anchored up on the spot, regained composure, and let her rest 1 hour……..I gave my buddy a gentleman’s cast, and she came again on his bucktail…….again, all she would do was follow. Lock jaw…….

After that, we never saw her again. I swear on the holy bible, that fish would have pushed the state record. If I would have seen her once, I would probably have doubts, but when she was at the side of the boat 5 times, and two guys staring at her, there was no doubt about the size of her when we talked about it………..We still talk about it…..

Fish that big, make me loose all composure. I’ve lost 3 fish like that on LOTW, where they follow in and I get soooo hypnotized by the size of the fish, I goof up every time. When your face to face within 6 feet of these water wolves, it just makes your heart go into cardiac arrest…….

Two – 27.5 eyes last season. One in June and one in September.
One 36 or so pike. didn’t measure that one, in September also.
Never tangled with a Millelacs muskie yet.

Being lcuky enough to chase the mousekies on mighty Mille Lacs countless days, my boat lands several over 50″ per year. But we have never landed one over 52″. Last year, again, our biggest was 51 1/2″. I marvel at how many I hear about in the 53-54″ range but we can’t seem to find one —on the ruler–that big.

Gary—I watched you that day through my scope, seeing the “fishy” body english, on the Myr Mar reef from my deck. lol lol I was NOT happy to see you there! lol I hope you enjoy waitng in line now to get a cast there….lol

Steve Fellegy
NPAA #49

Being lucky enough to chase the mousekies on mighty Mille Lacs countless days, my boat lands several over 50″ per year. But we have never landed one over 52″. Last year, again, our biggest was 51 1/2″. I marvel at how many I hear about in the 53-54″ range but we can’t seem to find one —on the ruler–that big.

Gary—I watched you that day through my scope, seeing the “fishy” body english, on the Myr Mar reef from my deck. lol lol I was NOT happy to see you there! lol I hope you enjoy waitng in line now to get a cast there….lol

Steve Fellegy
NPAA #49

OOPS!

Hi Steve;

Didn’t know you lived there. If you were watching, then you probably seen the temper-tantrum too…….oh, by the way, sorry about the foul language as well……..

That fish made an absolute mockery out of me…….I think she actually did it all, just to pee me off!!!!

Anyways, I have a date arranged with that lady this coming June. Hopefully, nobody has knifed her yet and put her on the wall!!! She needs to smile in a photo with me!!!!!

My days of chasing smallies on Mille LAcs exclusively years ago has lended itself to several accidental muskies. I may have seen a couple close to 50″, but no idea for sure. I have caught several in the 38-44″ range on the pond. Two falls ago when the Muskies were going nuts in the twilight hours of Otcober walleye guiding we again put hooks to 3 muskies in that month that we actually boated. Biggest during that period was 47″…..

Those fish are truely the “great rulers” of the water!

Gary,
That fish you talked about had to of been huge to get you worked up like that! WOW!!

Steve, if I only would have had a cam-corder……

But it is these episodes that make these fish so beautiful.

You will never have a walleye, pike, bass, or any other fresh water fish torment and torture you like that. Those fish will either bite or they won’t. But when these big tunas come charging in, it is a true war-fare event. I even get worked up when the little guys come out of the depths and tag my lure by surprise. Make my heart jump every single time…….

I have ten times the memories ski fishing, than I do fishing all the other species combined. I can tell you just about every encounter I’ve ever had with every ski, caught or follow that I’ve ever had.

Just A TAD OVER 43″ What a fatty! She hit @ 2am on the East side rocks just south of Agate Bay Reef. Lost one earlier in the evening on Agate Bay reef. Man it happens so fast. Wish you could slow those moments down into slow-mo. I let her go to swim another day! What a feeling that is, watching her swim back down to the depths! I can’t sleep at night. I’m wound tighter than a top. I can’t wait until opener on the pond! Hopefully the eyes will be a little more cooperative this year.

here is my biggest fish ever. August 31 at about 3:00 in the afternoon. fishing for muskies and finally thought i had one because it hit so hard and started to jump like crazy. no net big enough to get it in so i had to land it by hand. reached for it once and as soon as i got my hand to the gill it jumped like crazy. thought i would lose it for sure. got it back to the boat and reached down again. this time i got her into the boat. she swollowed my bucktail and ended up dieing. i would NOT have kept her but she ended up dieing. so i had to keep her. i regret it but what could i do. i was not going to leave her floating in mille lacs. she went 40″ and 15lbs. cant post a picture. this site wont let me.

Fish4fish, You should beable to post a pic as long as it’s under 100k. when you make a reply……just add it on the preview page. Hope this helps…….if not let us know and we will walk you through it!

lets try this

says my picture needs to be under 10000. how do i change that

You need a photo software of some kind to change the image size. Do have any photo software that came with your computer or digital camera?

Bobber,

I remember that well…Hooks never would have caught that Musky if it weren’t for me doing figure 8’s looking at the GPS

fish4fish-

this download works really well for resizing pictures.
easy to use.

irfanview

0 inches. Notta. I’ve only lightly dabbled with these critters the last two falls though. The follows are amazing, I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like after I hook up with one!! I got a 38″ pike two falls ago on the Pond, that was fun!

Yes..the body english”temper tantrum” was what led me to believe you had some action….and the fact you stayed way too long for NOT having any action. I even joked about what was gonna happen with the anchor rope in and a muskie on the line. Now that would have been entertaining!

Steve

Steve, I bet that you have seen some interesting views through the scope as you stated! some maybe not fishing related? oh…..don’t go there Bob
I have done some of the same watching fisherman out front of our place on the eastside. From guys running the lower unit into the rocks to just listening in on a conversation….sound travels well over open water ya know.

A buddy of mine nailed a 51″ during the first weekend in August (when the nasty cold snap came through). I had a fish follow a phantom to the boat later that morning that could have eaten the 51″…as Gary mentioned before, it was one of those fish that absolutely leave you stupified and unable to do anything but watch. We saw her coming from quite a ways out and by the time she got close to the boat and we saw how big she was, I was spent. Absolutely ridiculous how big some of those fish are….there’s nothing like ’em.

I have not had the pleasure of fishing the big pond yet. I have caught a 48″ tiger muskie many many years ago. Last year on vermillion fishing with my girlfriend (now wife) I had a big one follow several times and then swipe at my lure and knock it several feet into the air. Never got close enough to see just how big. Judging from my heart rate I would guess it to be at least 85″ long!