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| I just thought this was really cool. Enjoy!
Some of you may recall the story of the giant set of musky jaws found on the Chippewa Flowage on October 31, 1998 (story here). According to Frank Pratt, the Hayward Area Fisheries Manager of the Department of Natural Resources, the jaws were most likely from a giant musky which had for some unknown reason, died in the mid-summer of 1998. Pratt aged the musky at fifteen years old based on a particular bone that remained attached to the skeletal jaw. The jaw was enormous with a spread in excess of nine inches and featured a fearsome set of teeth, some of which exceeded 1-1/2 inches in length. What's most impressive is that Pratt, based upon a formula that is used to determine the length of muskie's based on their jaw dimensions, determined the musky to range in length from 58 to 70 inches! A potential world record musky? Who knows? But keep in mind that the current World Record Musky, caught by Louie Spray, out of the Chippewa Flowage, was 63-1/4 inches long. So the JAWS musky, which washed-up on shore in October of 1998, certainly was in the world class category. The actual JAWS are on display at Ran D's restaurant on highway B, near Round Lake. Do other such mammoth muskie's swim to this day in the mysterious, dark waters of the Chippewa Flowage? It appears so.
Just a few short weeks ago, on September 14th, Tony Wujek and Dan Olzoni of Shorewood, Illinois, guests of R & R Bayview Resort on the Chippewa Flowage, had an experience which few musky fishermen would ever imagine. They were fishing for muskie's at midnight with a sucker on a quick set rig, under a full moon, on the Flowage. Eventually, they had a hit on the sucker. Tony gave the fish a little line and then set the hooks. The battle was on! Tony, who has caught many catfish in Illinois, remarked to Dan that whatever grabbed his sucker was fighting like a catfish, rather than a musky. Catfish are rare on the Chippewa Flowage. Tony continued to battle the fish at the end of his line while making progress. Suddenly, without warning his progressed stopped. "I thought I was snagged" Tony said. "Until it starting jerking and yanking. Then I knew I had something big, but then my line kind of slackened a bit and a giant form appeared on the surface about twenty feet from the boat". "It was hard to see much but the full moon was out and there was a lot of sloshing. It was shaking whatever it had like a ragdoll." The whatever turned out to be a catfish that had grabbed Tony's sucker. Tony added, "suddenly it let go of whatever it had and I could reel my line in again. As I worked it near the boat we put the flashlight on it and I was right! It was catfish! A big catfish!" Dan chimed in: "I grabbed the net to bag the catfish and boom! This giant thing (musky) comes up out of nowhere and grabs it again, next to the boat! It kept shaking and shaking the catfish". "It wouldn't stop. It wanted that catfish. It was huge! There is no way our net could have ever handled it" Tony stated, "It tried to take the catfish down deeper, but I kept the tension on the giant musky. It eventually let go. We netted the catfish and brought it in to the resort, because we didn't think anyone would believe us. It was actually a scary experience to see something that big in the water."
Luckily Tony and Dan brought the catfish in, because the catfish was discovered to be a pending catch and release unlimited line class world record! It measured 36 inches in length with a 20 inch girth and weighed 18.3 pounds. The bite marks or wounds were clearly visible on the belly of the catfish and were compared to that of the JAWS on display at Ran D's restaurant. The verdict: It appears that the musky that grabbed Tony's pending world record catfish may have been slightly larger!
So how big was that musky? Tony and Dan both agree that the musky that grabbed the catfish was so large that it could not have possibly fit into the largest of Beckman nets. Tony said, "We had the flashlight shining right on that monster and it was so long that we were never able to see the end of the fish even though it was right next to the boat! The length just seemed to keep going forever! I couldn't believe what I was seeing."
According to musky guide and researcher Larry Ramsell, the bite mark on the catfish was so large that it appears that only the front third of jaw registered on the catfish. "The jaw most likely eclipsed the width of the catfish", Ramsell stated. A measurement of the width of the front third of the jaw exceeded 6-1/2 inches. That is slightly wider than the width of the front third of the JAWS musky on display at Ran D's. Ramsell added, "just to give you an idea of how large that catfish eating musky might be, consider that the jaw spread of my 44 pounder is about 5 inches wide at its' widest point. This musky is obviously much larger. What is most impressive about this musky is that it was able to place its mouth around the fat, twenty inch girth of the catfish. It would take a musky of world class size to do that."
Go to http://chippewaflowage.com/jaws2.html if you'd like to see pictures of the catfish. | |
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Posts: 7123
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Great article, I believe it was in Musky Hunter Magazine maybe 3 years ago? | |
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| umm....what kind of catfish was it????? | |
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Location: Washington, PA | Slam, this brings back memories of that nort on the goon.................GOOOOOOOOOOONNN | |
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Posts: 691
Location: nationwide | Esox2,
The "jaws" story broke in October . . . . . that November we were shorefishing an area, the same area where the jaws were found, and found the top jaw and backbone of this fish. I walked over the backbone in the water several times before I looked at it closer. I originally thought is was a lilypad root. It was very large and just the spine measured real close to 50 inches, without the tail and top jaw. The top jaw had teeth on it about three quarters of an inch long. I had the top jaw hanging on the wall of my garage for a long time and I think I have pictures of it someplace. Scott Allen had the backbone and I would believe he still has it. So I believe this story.
The catfish story I have not believed since I saw the catfish at R&R Bayview. My reason for this is simple. When a musky hits another fish it does not make nice even cuts in its' prey. There are slashmarks, holes, cuts and marks where the little teeth have also grabbed and as the prey fights for its' life against the muskies teeth it only makes it worse. There was none of these telltale signs on that catfish. After turning the catfish over in the water with a stick (it was laying next to the dock at R&R) there were no signs of anything on the top of the fish . . . . . . . hmmmmmm, kinda hard for a muskie to grab a fish and hold on from one side. So I have never believed this story.
Corey Meyer | |
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Location: The Yahara Chain | It was a state record blue catfish. | |
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| ok, i was gonna say. 'world record'. that thing would have to gain another 100 and some lbs lol | |
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| Got a question. If they brought this catfish in, how is it a catch and release record? | |
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Posts: 1939
Location: Black Creek, WI | Cool Story! That's the stuff that Legends are made of. Gotta love the mystique of muskies!
But, that story makes me wonder. Can we really estimate the size of a fish by the jaw width? Seriously.... does anyone have some data for 50 inch fish? I bet there is a wide range of jaw widths for 50 inch fish. There are those classic "shovel heads" and then there are those "football" fish (small head with big body). Same length... but completely different builds and presumeably jaw width as well.
For example... I once caught a 36 inch pike with a perfect musky jaw print (wound) on it. TR and I measured it at 8 inches across. Do I think the fish that made that bite mark was the next world record musky? Nope. But I bet that it was a real dandy of a "shovelhead".
Any taxidermists out there? Perhaps they might have feel for how much variability their is in musky jaw widths?
jlong
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Posts: 440
| The good old catfish story. Love to hear it every time. I did catch a 19" bass one time that had some teeth marks the were 5-7 inches wide.
Edited by ChadG 3/31/2005 12:07 PM
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Posts: 723
| I have also caught some mid 30s fish that have been pulverized pretty good, always wondered what big brute was picking on them. I have also heard a good rule of thumb is that a musky will try to eat anything to about half their own size.
About the story though, what was said before about the teeth marks on the belly being a little too perfect without a lot of other rips or scratches, just take a look at your suckers after being mauled, they really aren't that pretty anymore. I would think a World class ski would leave more of a mark especially when it was thrashing for a while. dunno, could be though. I probably would have gone for the nearest grab of the gill instead of a net, pictures are a lot cooler than stories. | |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I measured a 52" fish once corner to corner open mouth flared gills. It was about 7", as I recall. Way wider than the top of the head, those fish can flare the yap quite a bit. That said, a 58" fish wouldn't be that much of a problem in Wisconsin, Greg Bohn got one not too awful long ago that was what, 56" or 56.5" I think? | |
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| My biggest fish had a 12 inch Legend Plow T boned across its mouth and easily could have left bite marks that were 7 to 8 inches across. That fish was 54 x 27 and released three years ago. She could be 58 inches by now. 
I have seen two fish in the Chip during my lifetime that where approximately sixty inches long, but not in many years  | |
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| This story was advanced by a local who always seems to have "big fish" stories. After seeing photos of the catfish, I too am a little suspicious of the tidy bite marks left by an alledged super tanker that was thrashing the fish, let loose and came back for a second round of tug of war. The wounds on the catfish seem way too surgical in my opinion.
Ironically, last year year while at a historical bar on the Chip, the same guy comes in holding a dead (and rotten) approx. 10 lb walleye with what he claimed to be similar bite patterns of a monster muskie. Again, the bite marks were way too perfect to be believed. I'm no Quincey Jones, but predetors aren't that careful at meal time.
The Chip has been and continues to be a world-class body of water for muskies, but it struggles with it's own legacy at times, and "marketing" efforts like these stories smell of ... uh, well... fish.
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| CSI Hayward Tee Hee  | |
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Monster Musky tries to eat WI State Record Blue Catfish