50lb. muskie caught by 71 year old man on last day

My father who lives in Eagle River just emailed this link out of their local paper about a 71 yr old man who did not give up and caught this MONSTER on the last day of the season while rowing.

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Fish was caught by a writer or someone thats works for Musky Hunter magazine. Cant recall the mans name but know Lax is mounting the fish. It was caught row trolling a Depthraider.

Tom Gelb is an editor for Muskie Hunter, just click the web page link on the first post for complete article.

It seems like a shame that he got all those measurements on the fish but then didn’t release it.

well personally i would totally have kept it. its just a fish. i understand that people would want to through it back but i couldnt do it. since personally i dont like replicas getting a fish of a lifetime like that would be on the wall.

That is deffinately a fish of a lifetime.

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It seems like a shame that he got all those measurements on the fish but then didn’t release it.

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It doesn’t seem like a shame to me. I am happy for the old timer. If every senior citizen that catches a 50lb+ musky decides to kill it, it won’t amount to much. Good for him .

Tim

I would have to agree. 71 years old maybe was in Korea. Has been down the road of life. Probably has fell flat on his face more than once and rebounded. Has seen way more in 2 weeks of his life than I have in my whole life. Has seen death in his friends and loved ones.

So for me an old timer killing a huge ski is no problem. Plus he has a HARLEY DAVIDSON motor on his boat! How many guys can say that?

Plus if I am able to fish at that age than I have lived a decent life!

Rock on Oldtimer!

I won’t pass judgement on the old timer, but I wonder how many more years that Muskie would live anyhow….anyone know?

One thing I have noticed on some of these fishing sites, and maybe it’s just coincidence, but a lot of the big muskie pics from Wisconsin seem to be on dry land, while most of the pics you see from Minnesota seem to be out on the water. Is catch-n-release not popular in Wisconsin or what? And I’m not talking about this guy, just in general.

If I’m not mistaken he has fished Muskie his whole life and this is the first he has kept.

W ell deserved I’d say.

Awesome Fish.
Great Catch
Congradulations

TRULY a fish of a lifetime!!

It is a great fish!

Slipsinker,
I’m sure there are fish that get kept in both Wi and Mn. I do the majority of my muskie fishing in Wi and know quite a few others that fish in Wi. Several of them have caught 50+ inch fish, but I don’t know of any of them ever keeping a muskie. I have seen pictures in area newspapers of fish that were kept, but 9 out of 10 of them seem like they are the ones that were caught more as a fluke than by people fishing for muskies.

I tip my hat to Tom Gelb for even being out fishing on Nov. 30th. The weather was miserable. Until I catch a fish of that size, I honestly can’t say whether I would keep or release it.

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So what if he kept the fish. I am a big supporter of catch/release. But this guy is old, did his time, caught/released more fish that you and I could dream of. Taught us A LOT about muskies, and has done a tremendous amount of work to give us the muskies that we have today, including “catch/release”.

One fish out of the thousands he has caught/released isn’t going to hurt anyone.

KUDOS to him!