54 inch 44lb Northern?

The only part of the story that is bogus is the location given for the catch. That photo is legit in MHO. That is one massive pike and I’d love to know the true story behind the “where and when.”

That is the biggest bigpike I have ever seen, and it looks very real, what a sow……I am with James, someone has to know what the story is behind this fish

I’ve shot 35mm photos for about 10 years. The enlargeing of digitals is harder than real film when trying to achieve the dense clearity in the coloring of the fish this photo seems to have. The dpi’s fade when enlargeing a digital and the color just looks too solid in all parts of the fish. If it is a fake its a very good one. The weights of various parts of the body and the way hes holding his hands and body say it real to me. One heck of a nice northern.

this photo is real! how could he enlarge the photo and his hand be the same size? and indent on fish matching perfectly to his hand? We need the story on this one! Someone has to know this guy?

Real or not that IS one big pike.

If you do a search on 54 inch northern pike you will get some hits, Alaska as well as most of the provinces of Canada.
I do not know the European fisheries so I can not say much about them.
I do agree with James on this: I would love to read the real story behind this fish.

Ron

Hey, look what I caught! HA HA

If I was that guy I would give out a not so true story as the location I got it!! I do not blame the guy for that. I also would agree that the fish is real.

I got a 45″ and the tail was also beat up pretty good.

I can’t even imagine pulling one in 10″ bigger than that!

WOW!!

Holy moly you all are acting like Musky fishermen!

Holst has it correct. Real fish but caught in the Netherlands in 2005. Look at the rain suit! Also that is why it looks a bit different as it is a different “strain” of Northern Pike. I have a buddy in Denmark that fishes for them and knows the story I asked him to drop by.

Red Lake would be the place for something like that anyways not LOTW or the Rain…

The fish is real……..

I got a big pike on the wall at home……..she has red fins with dark spots if anyone thinks that only muskies can have red fins.

He is trolling big baits (I would guess deep, open water trolling, as we have done this on LOTW with some success). Look in the boat, you see big cranks with big bills.

He also has Lowrance electronics (so probably again, due to popularity of Lowrance in the Midwest/Canada).

The fish is real guys……

Now, unless the guy is fishing in a little 8′ dingy and he is a 3′ midget………… HOLY BALLS THAT IS BIG!!!!!!!!!!

Sitting at my desk in my office, I can almost smell the stinky slime on that big piggy!

I’d guess northern Canada over Europe just because of the boat and electronics he has.

Anyway nice fish!

So I did some digging with google and it seems there are a many of versions of this story…

JJ, now we know this fish is fake!! There is no way Blue would be able to net something like this, he can’t even net a smallie. Besides, I don’t think any of those three have the brassies to grab this monster.

Very funny stuff!!

The large collar on his jacket looks oddly familiar…

I think it’s a fake.

That fish wasn’t caught on this planet.

The real pick:

Thanks guys, My day at work has been BORING, until now. Those last photos are awesome!
Thanks again for the laugh!

PS. Dats a REAL FISH

I have some authentication of this fish, my wifes friend from work- her husbands friend caught this fish on Rainy Lake, I will get more details about this fish now that I have a trail on who caught this fish- more details coming soon….

I just want to know if it was a CPR??? Could you fathum a kid hooking up with that? And what if they had decent stuff?

Wow the memories! I have taken some decent Pike and like to practice the picture method now!!

LOOKING AT THIS MONSTER. IT IS HARD NOT TO BE A LITTLE skeptical.just a little.over many years of fishing i have seen a lot of giant pike and muskie.most on the end of a rod and reel. this fish is probally not out of the ordinary”for the waters he was fishing.we all have seen and have caught large walleyes bass etc..on muskie and large pike plugs.we were diving in a lake in mid-central wis.in the late 80’s. we encountered in one bay many pike and muskie.but what really caught our eye was four or five pairs of muskie and northern pike.swimming together in perfect harmony.right during the spawn.these fish were 45 inch and larger.we all have caught and heard of monsters of this calibar.but this fish appears to be a fish of a life time.if northern and muskie actually mix breed.it would certainly explain the fins.even so again this fish is monster.in any respect.see ya on the waves

Just wondering why guys think that Rainy Lake couldn’t produce a fish like that deep water, a lot of islands with back bays, shallow isolated reefs and shoals, I’ve driven over it going to Sioux Lookout I don’t know how many times and I wanted to pull over launch the boat and make some casts…just looks like a big fish possibility all over the place…

The ‘S’ on the seat looks like the ones in a Smoker-Craft boat. Do they have those in Europe?

I’m at a lost here.

Why is it that some people don’t believe Pike can have have red fins?

Look at the land in the background. I see snow. I don’t know any part of Rainy lake that has trees like that either.

It looks like a way north country like northern Canada or northern Europe.

It the guys hair cut and head shape. Looks european…

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It the guys hair cut and head shape. Looks european…

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The conehead?

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It the guys hair cut and head shape. Looks european…

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Not European……that’s Iowaean.

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It the guys hair cut and head shape. Looks european…

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Not European……that’s Iowaean.

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I think this is a real photo, but I betcha this one was caught in Europe. Take a look at this page of European pike photos and you can see that some of them look similar to the pike seen in this thread. Some big fish to be seen here. Nice catch Johan!

While Googling some big pike photos I ran across this. Wow!

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I’m at a lost here.

Why is it that some people don’t believe Pike can have have red fins?

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I can’t speak for any other of the “not real” votes, but I am a cynical person who doesn’t believe much of what he sees without hard evidence to support it, especially on the Internet. (If you believe otherwise, I am a former Nigerian Minister of Finance who has millions of dollars in a Nigerian account, but I am under investigation. I can transfer the money electronically, but I need an account to send it to. Just e-mail me your bank account number and password, and I will deposit it there, and then when I leave Nigeria I will split it with you… ).

I need to see more than an on-line photo to convince me a story like this checks out. I lost track long ago of how many times I saw the photo of the huge mountain lion being held by the waist by the hunter who shot it posted on-line or sent to me via e-mail. Depending on who posted it or sent it to me, I was told that cougar was shot in Iowa, Missouri, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Oregon, northern Minnesota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, North Carolina…I also saw at least three different faces pasted on the photo of the hunter who actually did shoot it. (The snopes.com has the full story on the “record cougar” photo.)

I find the weight of the alleged “Rainy Lake” catch site funny, for instance–it is one pound under the official state record, which would explain away the lack of an officially-verified weigh-in–the people behind the photo could say they weighed it on a certified scale, and it didn’t quite meet the record, so they didn’t have anyone confirm their catch. By the way, if it is real, was it caught at Rainy Lake, as one person assures us, or was it caught overseas, as others say with certainty? I am not trying to pick a fight here, but I am very skeptical about this sort of thing.

On that note, there is a lot of doubt about the “official” Minnesota state record Northern. The DNR has considered throwing the old 45 lb 12 oz record out for lack of any real evidence it was that big, but that leads to the question of how to award the new Northern record. (The “official” 5 lb. black crappie allegedly caught in the Vermillion River is widely suspected of being a fraud, as well.)

As for why someone would fabricate a story like the 44 lb. Northern: well, guides, resort owners, and baitshop operators would have plenty of $$$ reasons to do so.

And, the red fins: those are not the problem, as Northern do have red in their fins. I have caught a lot of Northern in Minnesota, though, and I have yet to see one that had dark round spots on a light background of any color. That is common on muskie, but not any Northern I have seen. It is possible that some European strains of Northern often has this pattern on its fins–I would not know. I do know that European Northern grow larger than those in North America, so the photo could well be legit., but of a fish caught in Europe. Quite frankly, it will take a LOT to convince me that a pike this size was caught anywhere near Rainy Lake.

I thought a large- the largest part of Rainy was in Canada, you certainly cant assume it was caught on the Minnessota side of the lake…the lake I fish in Canada was netted by the MNR a few years ago, the netters I talked too released two fish, one 38#, one 33#-both fish were caught post spawn, so I would say lakes in this part of the world can grow pike to such large proportions. Also there are musky in Rainy and the two species have been noted to inter- breed (though no one has seen it).

I noticed two contradicting clues:

1) I see three musky lures and 1 big musky box wode open

2) Check out the slime all over his clothes.

I vote ????????????