I lost a giant musky yesterday.

[scaleface]

A nearby lake has been stocked with musky and yesterday I hooked into one while bass fishing . Pitched a Yum dinger to a laydown and it bit . This fish was huge. I dont have a good guess  how much it weighed. I actually wore it down and had it boatside but had no way of landing it. I took some lip grippers and clamped it to its lower jaw and it surged . The hook came out and it was   gone . Then I noticed the blood dripping from my hand. It got me . Bass thumb is cute , musky hand is the real deal . I'm guessing this was a minimum 30 lber possibly 60 . I dont know, never caught one like that. On a side note The Piscifun Phantom performed phenomenally. 

[Susky River Rat]

My hands used to be that way all the time nature of the beast.  A solid 40” on bass gear will feel like a 60lb. If you caught a 60lb you’d have a record fish. Musky are very impressive fish. Now that I am 95% into bass I’m still waiting for all these 50” musky to bite me off at the boat ramps. It’s a shame you couldn’t land it and get some pics! Love seeing big muskys.

[scaleface]

1 minute ago, Darnold335 said:

My hands used to be that way all the time nature of the beast.  A solid 40” on bass gear will feel like a 60lb. If you caught a 60lb you’d have a record fish. Musky are very impressive fish. Now that I am 95% into bass I’m still waiting for all these 50” musky to bite me off at the boat ramps. It’s a shame you couldn’t land it and get some pics! Love seeing big muskys.

Like I say , I have no idea how to guesstimate the weight. I was more impressed with its girth than its length.

I just looked . The Missouri state record is 41 lbs. I might have had it.

[Susky River Rat]

@scaleface once musky get to 40” they start to get their shoulders on them. That’s when you start to seem them get girth.a 40 compared to a 45” musky becomes a whole different looking fish girth wise. I have no doubt it was probably  between that range.  Could it have been bigger 100% it could have.  I know everyone talks about 50” but, anything over 40 is a quality fish. Those fish are escape artists. I think a lot of it has to do with they have a bone structure for a mouth instead of cartilage. Unless you get s hook buried they are just skin hooked.

[scaleface]

Heres something . Last week I had a limit of bass under the slot 10 to 12 inch fish . I secured them with a cheap chain stringer near the fish cleaning station while I unloaded my gear to the truck . When I went to fillet the fish one stringer hook was open and the fish gone and another bass was just a head and backbone , it had been filleted. I wondered what did that , now I know.

[Susky River Rat]

Do you have otters? A musky would have tried to rip engulf it or rip it off and take it. They are blind in front of their mouth they wouldn’t nibble something apart. That os why musky strikes are generally so aggressive. They are ambush predators just like a bass.

 

edit. Could have been a turtle as well. 

[scaleface]

37 minutes ago, Darnold335 said:

A musky would have tried to rip engulf it or rip it off and take it.

Thats what happened. One bass missing the other ripped to shreds . Never seen an otter herebut they are arund . Dont think it was a turtle. I'm thinking muskie or catfish . One of my fillets have teeth marks that makes me think not a catfish.

[Will Ketchum]

5 hours ago, scaleface said:

Heres something . Last week I had a limit of bass under the slot 10 to 12 inch fish . I secured them with a cheap chain stringer near the fish cleaning station while I unloaded my gear to the truck . When I went to fillet the fish one stringer hook was open and the fish gone and another bass was just a head and backbone , it had been filleted. I wondered what did that , now I know.

My guess is a snapping turtle. If the stringer was along the shore, I don't think any predatory fish would be that shallow, but a turtle would. I had one persistently come after my stringer until I just had to remove it from the water.

[scaleface]

37 minutes ago, Will Ketchum said:

My guess is a snapping turtle. If the stringer was along the shore, I don't think any predatory fish would be that shallow, but a turtle would. I had one persistently come after my stringer until I just had to remove it from the water.

It was hanging in chest deep water . The fish cleaning station is built on a small dock.

[T-Billy]

10 hours ago, Darnold335 said:

@scaleface once musky get to 40” they start to get their shoulders on them. That’s when you start to seem them get girth.a 40 compared to a 45” musky becomes a whole different looking fish girth wise. I have no doubt it was probably  between that range.  Could it have been bigger 100% it could have.  I know everyone talks about 50” but, anything over 40 is a quality fish. Those fish are escape artists. I think a lot of it has to do with they have a bone structure for a mouth instead of cartilage. Unless you get s hook buried they are just skin hooked.

For sure, but time of year plays a big part too. Those females that have a good amount of egg production AND are stuffed full of schooling baitfish in the late fall through early spring get positively obese. That 48 in my avatar was a March fish just weeks away from spawning. 40#'ish fish, maybe a bit over. State record is only a couple inches longer, but that fish's girth is just absolutely ridiculous.

 

OH state record 50.5" 55.13#. 

 

[Tackleholic]

7 hours ago, scaleface said:

Heres something . Last week I had a limit of bass under the slot 10 to 12 inch fish . I secured them with a cheap chain stringer near the fish cleaning station while I unloaded my gear to the truck . When I went to fillet the fish one stringer hook was open and the fish gone and another bass was just a head and backbone , it had been filleted. I wondered what did that , now I know.

Going back to 1954, yes, I do remember.  Lynx Lake in Wisconsin, staying at Lynx Lake Lodge with my parents.  I left a stringer of fish attached to the dock and went to the lodge for lunch.  When I came back I saw two large Muskies swimming away and all my fish were in shreds;  that was my first case of "Muskie Fever".

[scaleface]

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

That 48 in my avatar was a March fish just weeks away from spawning. 40#'ish fish, maybe a bit over

Mine wasnt as big as that monster maybe 2/3. Its hard to speculate . I got a good look at several times. I caught two years ago about 35 inches and weighed around 8 lbs. They were long and skinny. This fish was a lot bigger.

 

I have a large net that I bought after hooking a big sturgeon two years ago . I was on a steep bank and could not land that fish either. I'm going to start taking it . Just didnt think I needed it for bass fishing.

[gim]

9 hours ago, Darnold335 said:

If you caught a 60lb you’d have a record fish

That would also be a new state record here.  60 pounds is actually not far off from the world record.  

 

My vote would also be snapping turtle on the stringer fish.  I've had them latch on to panfish hanging off a dock before.

[Susky River Rat]

@T-Billy I understand time of year etc. still a 60lb fish would be a record. We are also far from peak weight season. I spent years only targeting musky nothing else. I have enough musky gear to feed a small family for a year if I’d sell it. 

[PaulVE64]

I've see some impressive musky but never hooked into one

[scaleface]

15 hours ago, gimruis said:

My vote would also be snapping turtle on the stringer fish.  

I've had turtles eat fish off stringers before. I dont believe this was a turtle .The fish were only there a  few minutes . One was gone the others shredded by something that had teeth.

[Bankbeater]

Were you around grass?  This time of year I see a lot of musky in the grass waiting to ambush prey.

[Further North]

Cool story, and fun!

...it's worth noting  - and not to take anything away from @scaleface's achievement - that bycatches of muskies and pike on rigs that are not set up for them are gifts from the fish gods.

I think they do it to try to entice more people to pursue esox. ??

[T-Billy]

21 hours ago, Darnold335 said:

@T-Billy I understand time of year etc. still a 60lb fish would be a record. We are also far from peak weight season. I spent years only targeting musky nothing else. I have enough musky gear to feed a small family for a year if I’d sell it. 

Yeah, I understood your point, and agree that their girth gets exponentially more impressive as they get longer. I was just making the point that they don't need to be 40" before they get "shoulders on them". I'd say this 30 something qualifies.

 

[T-Billy]

On 8/19/2023 at 5:48 AM, scaleface said:

musky hand is the real deal .

Funny you should mention this, my guide buddy and I were discussing this the other day. He texted me this pic. LOL. I've seen them look worse. Teeth aren't the only hazard. Those gill rakers will get ya too.

[GRiver]

Had musky in Nc, here we have Gar. They are pretty toothy too. 

[scaleface]

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

Yeah, I understood your point, and agree that their girth gets exponentially more impressive as they get longer. I was just making the point that they don't need to be 40" before they get "shoulders on them". I'd say this 30 something qualifies.

 

The one I put the fish grips on was in that size range. 

 

 

My hand is healing up nicely.

[gim]

I’ve experienced those gill rakers before too. Not this season, but last year a sizable tiger got me. If you look at my left hand in the photo you can see it. I had caught a bigger one earlier that caused it, so this one I switched hands and put my right one under the gill plate instead. Sometimes they thrash when your hand is there and it’s like sandpaper chewing away at your skin.

[Further North]

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

The one I put the fish grips on was in that size range. 

 

Fish grips are a terrible way to handle any esox, just so you're aware in the future. 

48 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I’ve experienced those gill rakers before too. Not this season, but last year a sizable tiger got me. If you look at my left hand in the photo you can see it. I had caught a bigger one earlier that caused it, so this one I switched hands and put my right one under the gill plate instead. Sometimes they thrash when your hand is there and it’s like sandpaper chewing away at your skin.

That's why most of my muskies never come out of the net.

[gim]

52 minutes ago, Further North said:

That's why most of my muskies never come out of the net.

How do you take a photo?