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| Yesterday i got a good hit and whiffed on the hookset, reeled in nothing but a scale. This has happened to me a handful of times in the past, but this one was the biggest scale i've seen yet, was about the size of a dime. So i'm left pondering the question: How big was this fish?? Would that scale be the size of say a high 30's/low 40's fish, or a mid to upper 40's, or bigger? Anyone here a biologist who's scraped some scales off fish before? Maybe I'll find out when i go back to that spot today...
Edited by phishmasta 11/8/2012 4:33 AM
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Location: midwest | Carp? |
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| sounds like a carp scale to me |
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Muskies have fairly small scales compared to their body. That's why they have more of a "skin" look rather than a "scale" look to them.
A scale the size of a dime would be beyond huge and a long shot that your scale came off of a muskie.
That is just my opinion though ... |
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Location: Freedom, WI | Happens on on Green Bay when working the shallower water. You happen to snag a carp board goes down bait comes back with a big scale. |
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Location: The desert | Dime size is definitely not a musky. As stated before, likely a carp. If it helps, I'm a biologist and have scraped and aged many scales off of many fish. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | ...and Pointer knows a little about snagging Carp on Green Bay!
TB |
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Location: The desert | tcbetka - 11/8/2012 7:58 AM
...and Pointer knows a little about snagging Carp on Green Bay!
TB
You're the musky snagger! That was one fun fish though! |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | At least it *tried* to bite--and it was the right species too!
Goes to show you how well you can do with barbless hooks though, if you just fight the fish properly...
TB |
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Location: The desert | tcbetka - 11/8/2012 8:07 AM
At least it *tried* to bite--and it was the right species too!
Goes to show you how well you can do with barbless hooks though, if you just fight the fish properly...
TB
Yep, but self deploying trolling motors are a pain in the butt! Before we saw the fish I think WR was tossed around... |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | I do remember thinking it was *at least* that big...
HA!
TB |
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| Ya i thought about it possibly being a carp but ruled it out because the "hit" was on a glide bait that was 1-2ft down over about 8-10 ft of water...Maybe it was a big drum, my buddy caught one that was like 25lbs last year on a bulldawg, and it ate it, wasn't a snagging. There have been a lot of muskies on that spot lately though... |
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Location: The desert | phishmasta - 11/8/2012 8:27 PM
Ya i thought about it possibly being a carp but ruled it out because the "hit" was on a glide bait that was 1-2ft down over about 8-10 ft of water...Maybe it was a big drum, my buddy caught one that was like 25lbs last year on a bulldawg, and it ate it, wasn't a snagging. There have been a lot of muskies on that spot lately though...
When you run a glide bait into a rough fish and it swims off it is going to feel like a hit, especially when you get enough hook into it to pull a scale. It may not be a carp but it is some sort of rough fish. It is, in no way, shape or form a musky. Depth the bait is running is irrelevant. I would bet my life savings (ok that isn't a lot) on it. |
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| Pointer, just out of curiosity, the biggest musky you've handled, about how big were the scales that you scraped off it?? |
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| For muskie scales to come back as big as a dime that would have to be one mighty large fish. Probably over 50". I used to have scales of a 48" in my wallet and while they were big they weren't dime sized. I'm guessing you hit a small or largemouth buffalo, which have enormous scales and silver pigmentation. And yes, hitting another fish broadside will feel like a short hit. |
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Location: The desert | phishmasta - 11/9/2012 12:57 PM
Pointer, just out of curiosity, the biggest musky you've handled, about how big were the scales that you scraped off it??
A couple millimeters. Muskies dont have dime size scales. |
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Location: lake x...where the hell is it? | id bet on carp...it happens to me a few times a year. i have gotten scales the size of half dollors before....so thats why it felt like a fright train. |
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Location: Freedom, WI | Got a couple of Carp on back to back cast a few years ago in 3' of water with a glide bait they fight real nice. A few years ago carp bow fishermen found muskies at night very shallow on the Bay, I am thinking carp make a nice meal for them. |
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Location: Minnesota | Been there, done that... Had an awesome hit on a DCG last year... set the hook... had a brief hard fight to a point where my partner had to scramble for the net... then it ended... I was so p!ssed thinking I had lost a big one... reeled the lure back to the boat only to see a huge scale (about quarter sized) with the barb completely through it in the middle... had a heck of a time trying to get the scale off... definitely was a Carp...
Also managed to snag a Sheepshead in middle of the upper back with a Mag Dawg... the hook went completely through its back... Thats how bad my luck was at muskie fishing as that happened in 2 straight outings... |
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Location: Leech Lake, Walker MN | One thing is your hooks are sharp it does not happen to people who's hooks are not sharp.Go on back
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Musky scales