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Just caught a 55"

Posted 11/24/2011 12:41 PM (#525841)
Subject: Just caught a 55"

Posts: 43

Location: Bonn, Germany

Hi you muskie guys!!!

I´m the guy who recently caught this monster pike up here in Germany.
Please excuse my english, I wish it would be better. :-D And also sorry that it is "just" a pike, but I think it´s a pretty cool story...;-)
So, all I can say is that one of my biggest dreams came true: catching a muskie-sized pike over the magical 40 pound mark...

23. of September:

I have been fishing by my self on one of my local lakes here in Germany near Cologne.
The aim in this season was defenetly catching a monster over the magical 50 inch mark because I had a few monstrious followers in early season that didn´t bite.
But my time was rare. I´m a student of dental medicines and the new semester started on october first. So I was busy to catch a big one before university starts.
On this special day I was sitting in my boat and had already fished a few spots without results. So I said to my self: "If you want to catch a big one, no a real big one, throw a real big lure!!!"
So I changed the magnum bull dawg into a pounder bull dawg (super magnum pro dawg) and started throwing it.
My fishing gear is always muskie gear because I really love the style of fishing and if you are fishing big baits you naturally will catch bigger pike! The rod was a St. Croix Sling Blade (not perfect for pounders but it works ) with a Revo Toro Winch 61 reel spooled with 80lb braided line and as a leader a 100lb Fluorocarbon leader.
So I pulled my pounder dawg through the open water. The water column were something between 25 to 30m or 100 ft.
I worked it in 6m (18 feet) in the water column. At the end of the retreve I saw my lure at the boat and pulled it with an parallel figure L, like I always do, away from the boat. Right at this moment I saw this massive pike chasing my lure. The rest happened in slowmotion. I saw her swallowing my hole pounder. It was totally away and this means everything when you fish a pounder and a fish has the complete lure in its mouth!!! When I´m now looking back at this picture in my head I´m always shocked

So the fish had the lure in its´mouth and the lucky thing was that she swam away from me. So I was able to set the hook against her swimming direction. And this is very important when the fish strikes boatside.
So you can imagen how I was praying to god in my little boat that I can net this monster fish by my self.
I saw that the big fish was hooked good and I kept the line tension strong to have the oportunity to net the beast as fast as possible.
With the thumb on my spool I didn´t want her to take line and she shaked her head so crazy that I was scared.
I directed the fish one time around my boat (45seconds, not more) and was happy to net her on the bow of my boat with a big landing net ( Fox Rage Speedflow Xl).
The first thing I thought was: "My first 40 plus pounder!"
After I realized what I caught I called two of my fishing buddies, who were fishing from shore, to take pictures and some measurements. I drove with my boat (fish in the net in the water) to shore and we did the measurement.

First I thought we are doing something wrong, because couldt this length really be?
After a five time measurement the impressive length was 55.3" inches (140.5cm) by 27" girth!!!
This was soooooo craaaazy I couldn´t realize...

On this point I have to say sorry for the pictures we did but in my opinion it is not important that you have the best pictures. The most important thing is that a fish of this size is healthy and physikally able to be released save and well!

So I said to my buddies: " let´s take some pictures for thirty seconds and than we will release her quickly!"
The great thing was that she swam away like nothing has happened. And this is the best thing and the monst important thing that could happen: to release a possible catch and release record with nearly 50 pound well
And thats all. I did it!
Joe Fittante will do a replica of this fish for me and in a few weeks this monster will hang on the wall right next to my other replica (47incher) I receved a week before I managed to catch the 55 incher.

My next dream, or the dram I had for the last few years, is to come to the US or Canada to catch a nice, no a big muskie. Hope to get the chance next year.

Also thanks to you guys because most of my knowing of bigbait-fishing I got here in the last two years...

I wish you a good winter-season, regards

Flo