|
|
Posts: 174
Location: Wis. Rapids, WI | May 31st, Keyes Outdoors will be airing the 2008 Petenwell Musky Challenge.
Show time is 10:30 am on Fox Sports North. Check your local listing for correct channel. 
Edited by TForcier 5/25/2008 5:07 PM
|
|
| |
|
| 1 Hour until it airs, set the TIVO if you hsve done so already! |
|
| |
|
| wow, congrats to bob & randy for winning the tourny! |
|
| |
|
| keep up the good work, Todd!
who's shiny Tuffy was that in the first scene releasing a fish...?
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 2091
Location: Stevens Point, WI | I do believe I fished in that shiny Tuffy on the same body of water last year? Thanks for all your hard work Todd!! |
|
| |
|
Posts: 999
| I thought it was all in all another great episode but what in the world was Mike Keyes doing holding up Tom Becka's 53 incher???????? That made no sense to me. If I had a 53 in the net I sures as heck would like to hold it up myself and get a girth on her besides.
Mr Musky |
|
| |
|
Location: Green Bay, WI | It was a great show yesterday, but I figured this would happen...so here's an explanation on that fish.
My uncle actually caught the fish, not me. I don't know why they listed me as catching it--other than maybe because it was my boat, and they didn't know my uncle's name. I got the rod out of the holder and started fighting the fish while he got himself ready; but he actually reeled it in. He had never trolled before or really ever even caught a musky, so I took him fishing that day and that's what he caught. He actually lost a *bigger* fish about an hour before that, so we were quite lucky to get another shot at a fish! Incidentally, my uncle was the one in the blaze orange, holding the measuring stick. As for Mike holding up the fish...I really didn't even know that was going to happen until it did, so I was somewhat taken by surprise.
When we caught the fish, she had engulfed a the lure to the point that it was about 4-6 inches inside her mouth. Although I had two bolt cutters, a long needle-nosed pliers and several other miscellaneous release tools, I just couldn't seem to cut the last barb--we cut the other five, but I just couldn't reach the last one (by the way, everyone needs to get a hook pick--they really are worth their weight in gold). So we worked with the fish for about 15 minutes; cutting a barb, letting the fish rest in the net, cut another barb, let it rest, etc. But I saw Mike's boat out there near us, and knew that a mutual friend was fishing with him that day--so I called them to ask if they had a longer bolt cutter, which they did. So they came over to assist us, and Mike came aboard our boat and he and his partner Steve managed to cut the last barb and free the fish. Then we let her rest in the Big Kahuna for several minutes--all the while their cameraman was filming. I think the whole clip lasted about 8-10 minutes from what they told me, but they only used that short piece of film.
After the fish was released we tried to measure it in the net, because I was not going to take it out of the water again--she was massive, and very heavy to lift. I felt badly that we had not been able to free her from the hooks sooner, and didn't want to stress her anymore. So we were holding her upright in the net while reviving her, and we girthed her with the leader--and later measured the girth at about 27", but I am not even sure that we measured her at the fattest point. But the fish was so big that we simply couldn't get an accurate length as she measured over 52" with noticeable curves in her body, while we were taking turns holding her upright along side of the boat. The water temperature was only 36 degrees, so about 2-3 minutes with your hands in the water was all that you could take at any one time.
Anyway, Mike wanted us to get a true measurement and before I realized what he was going to do, he had lifted her out of the water. So we measured her as quickly as possible so she could go back into the water. With him holding her up like he did, the tip of the lower lobe of her tail went past 53", but I never pinched the tail to get the total length--simply because it wasn't that important and I really didn't even think about it, to be honest. I was just concerned about getting her back in the water as quickly as possible. So I really couldn't tell you how big the fish was, to be honest. She was at least 53x27, but might have been closer to 54" long if laid on a bump board (which we didn't have), and may have been larger around as well. But it was definitely the biggest fish I have ever had in the boat--and the biggest my uncle had ever seen. Not bad for his first musky, I guess...
But I want to stress that without Mike & Steve helping us, it would have taken much longer to free that last barb, and we may have in fact lost the fish. Both my uncle and I were exhausted after having spent 10-15 minutes trying to free her, all the while leaving her in the water as much as possible. It was truly exhausting--and quite frankly I can absolutely see why Tom Gelb had the problems he did trying to release the fish that died on him last fall. But as it turned out, this fish revived very well, and by the time she swam off she was virtually thrashing to get free, throwing water in my face. But as a result of that fish I can tell you that my boat is now 100% barbless--simply because it requires FAR less time to unhook the fish. In fact, Pointerpride and I caught two 30-35+ pound fish on barbless lures two days later; and both of them released in about 5-10 seconds. Folks can argue all they want about the virtues of barbed vs. barbless hooks in musky fishing, but I am absolutely convinced that barbless hooks reduce angling-induced mortality--simply by decreasing release time.
So thanks again to Keyes Outdoor for helping to successfully release a huge fish, and I am glad they had a good experience at the Best-of-the-Best fall tournament. They definitely have one of the best outdoor shows on TV, and our Titletown club was very lucky to have them participate in the tournament last fall. They are great guys and great competitors--and hopefully they will come back again this year!
I hope this clears things up a bit regarding that fish...
TB
Edited by tcbetka 6/2/2008 8:49 AM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 999
| Wow what a story Tom! That is awesome!! That is one heck of a first fish for your uncle!!! Congrats!
Mr Musky
Edited by Mr Musky 6/2/2008 11:01 AM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 35
| I was in the boat with Keyes, Tom & his uncle were having a hard time and called us over. Thank God Mike was there to help out. They put aside thier fishing & filming to help out a fellow angler and saved a monster muskie for someone else to catch. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 999
| I didnt' mean to come across in a negative way it was just kind of odd that Mike was the one holding the fish and releasing it. And with a great story we all know why. It's nice to hear that other boats are out there to help out.
Mr Musky |
|
| |
|
Posts: 282
Location: north west wisconsin | so who did they say won it?
Guest
Posted 5/31/2008 12:20 PM (#320366 - in reply to #319554)
Subject: RE: Petenwell Musky Challenge on Fox
wow, congrats to bob & randy for winning the tourny!
Edited by floydss 6/2/2008 4:07 PM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 113
Location: Green Bay, WI | Jeremy Fusek and Bob Arvey of Green Bay won the tourney and the 5000 dollar first prize. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 282
Location: north west wisconsin | they did not win the pmc, they have the names mixed up travis and jimmy won it
Edited by floydss 6/2/2008 7:31 PM
|
|
| |
|
Location: Green Bay, WI | Mr Musky - 6/2/2008 3:30 PM
I didnt' mean to come across in a negative way it was just kind of odd that Mike was the one holding the fish and releasing it. And with a great story we all know why. It's nice to hear that other boats are out there to help out.
Mr Musky
No problem. I didn't take it negatively at all. What you didn't see after Mike put it back into the water, was that we continued to revive her for another 5-10 minutes or so until all her fight returned. Mike, Steve & Tilky headed back to fishing on their own.
But I agree about asking for help out there, if needed. There are many guys out there that are ready to help if asked. We certainly could have released the fish *without* asking those guys for help, but IMO that would have been foolish. If you intend to release the fish, then you have to put the fish before your ego and ask for help if you need it. We needed it, we asked for it, and we got it. The fish seemed to do well, and I guess the end justified the means in this case...
TB
EDIT: Almost forgot--Jeremy Fusek and Bob Arvey won the Green Bay tourney. I don't know who won the Petenwell tournament.
Edited by tcbetka 6/2/2008 6:17 PM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 82
Location: Central WI | The winner's of the Petenwell Musky Challenge are actually Jim Ostrum of Nekoosa and Travis Plantico of Wisconsin Rapids.
Keyes Outdoors put the wrong name on their photos !!!
I guess it was just a short segment of the show and then they switched over to a different tourney? I didn't get to see the show yet, but I do know that Travis and Jim won the PMC.
Chris |
|
| |
|
Posts: 941
Location: Freedom, WI | Was that last years PMC. The other tourney was last falls Best of the Bests from Oct. which I was in, I know because I saw myself on TV  . |
|
| |
|
| it featured the 2008 PMC and the 2007 BotB tournies.
|
|
| |
|
| WOW TB THAT WAS ONE HELL OF A FISH NO MATTER WHAT GREAT JOB I thought It was a good show to help musky tournys grow and especially ones that give back. Nick C |
|
| |
|
| Saw the episode. It was kinda chopped up for sure. One minute Keyes and Co were trolling 3 rods apiece prefishing on a super dark, super windy day, the next they were in the tournament (2 lines each), then another snippet of three rods apiece on a bright sunny morning, and then the awards ceremony at the end.
Curious why they didn't have the names of the BOTB winners. Unless I'm remembering wrong, I thought they just had quick 5 second handshake snips showing 3rd, 2nd and 1st place, but no names. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 273
| Keyes show may have been a little cut up this episode, but I can't imagine how tough it must be to get clean footage especially during tournaments. I am glad they showned these 2 tourneys since both are giving back to the fisheries as muskysucker said. Hopefully more tournaments in the future will will get better at putting money back into the waters they in the future.
Jeff |
|
| |
Petenwell Musky Challenge on Fox