PB muskie, Crazy catch!

[Bass Rutten]

[wall of text alert]

 Throwing around a finesse swimbait from the bank of a local forest preserve this last Tuesday and having one bass and one crappie to show for an hours work I decided to try a bottom presentation and tied on a 3/32 jighead with a ned rig in mind, I pick through my tackle box and select a black/gold berkley twitchtail minnow that I typically use for dropshot, thread it on and start casting.

 A few casts in I’m focused on the little minnow as it approaches my feet, twitching my rod to check the tail action and as I lift the lure the surface erupts in a frothing boil, now mind you this was literally at my feet so I feel I should get a pass for the noise I made upon seeing a set of jaws and teeth burst forth seemingly from out of nowhere. Upon realizing a giant fish just missed my lure I watched it as it swam to my left, and as any fisherman would do I pitched my lure back out in front of it, I give it a couple twitches and son of a biscuit she takes it!

 While fighting the fish I actually managed to get my backpack off and retrieve my fish grippers and after 4 or 5 minutes I finally got them onto her lower jaw. Keep in mind this was on my 6’10” ml expride spinning rod with, 8lb fireline, and 4lb yozuri hybrid leader, the jig luckily caught her just inside her left jaw plate out of the way of teeth.

 After a few quick pics and a measurement (42") I spent a full 10 minutes trying to revive her. I don’t think the fish was in the best of health, she had a beat up bloody tail which is strange for this time of year, and as you can see from the pic below was a bit deformed and rather skinny. When I let go her she stayed in the same spot for another 10 minutes, I tapped her side with my rod and she moved forward a couple feet and stopped, she was still sitting in 2 feet of water upright when I left so I’m hoping she made it.

[T-Billy]

Congrats on your PB. I agree that musky isn't healthy. I've never seen one that skinny, and to land it in 5min on that tackle is really quick. I've caight quite a few on my ned rod, with 6# XT, and it's normally a 20-30 minute fight with one that length. Looks like maybe it had it's back broke at some point.

[Deleted account]

Congrats on Quasi Moto Esox. Deformed spines is actually not that uncommon in fish.

[BrianMDTX]

Congrats on the PB musky! It beats mine, which is no musky lol! 

[Further North]

Congrats on the PB!


If I had to guess, that's a really old male, or an even older female.

 

[gim]

Definitely something wrong with that one.  But a PB is a PB, so good work.