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Posts: 93
| In one day fishing Lake Vermilion, I lost three 50+ inch fish, and the largest had to be over 55 inches. The big one was hooked by my guide, and he mistakenly gave me the rod to reel in..... Not good. I had the monster right at the boat and poof! Gone. Since the guide's a good friend of mine, I allowed him to yell at me. The experience still haunts me and get's under my skin thinking what if I boated those 3 fish. |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Very common. If the client wants me to fish, I ask in advance if they want to fight any fish I hook. many do, so it's not strange at all. |
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Posts: 275
| It blows my mind that people would actually want to fight a fish that someone else hooked........My wife has no interest in catching a musky but goes out with me for an hour or two here and there (mostly to shut me up). My dad told us that if I hook one I should let her reel it in and she beat me to the punch saying that it wouldn't count as her catching it! To each his own I guess.
Jaimy |
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Posts: 994
Location: Minnesota: where it's tough to be a sportsfan! | Don't beat yourself up too hard, I don't know anyone that fishes Muskies that has not had a fish "magically" come unbuttoned. Just the number of "crushed" treble hooks over the years, makes a guy wonder how we ever do land one of these big fish. The only thing you can do is go at them again! no mercy and refuse to take NO for an answer. I do believe in putting them in the bag as soon as possible. I see allot of guys once they realize it is a quality beast give more than they take for a few seconds or so. I say we finally have the equipment to handle these fish, give 'em Hell! |
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Posts: 656
Location: Forest Lake, Mn. | I'm going to respond from a slightly different viewpoint and ask you, "what did you really lose with those fish that you didn't boat?" Ok, you didn't land the fish or boat it. But you hooked 2 big fish and fought another one too and got them close enough to the boat to see them and estimate how big they are. FUN!! You still had the fun of seeing them, you had the fun of fighting them for awhile.
Considering that you would have released the fish anyhow, then what exactly did you "lose?" You lost the pictures of the fish and some accurate measurements. Is that really the important things or is the fun of fighting the fish more important? Only you can answer that for yourself. I assume you had fun fighting the fish. So is getting pretty pictures and accurate measurements that much of a loss?
What I'm trying to suggest to you is not to beat yourself up because the fish didn't end up in the bottom of a landing net but rather enjoy the fact that you had some great fun with 3 big fish. I would also venture to guess that these 3 fish might stick in your memory more because you didn't land them. I know that some of the best muskie memories I have are fish I never even hooked but only saw follow... they were BIG. These tend to be the fish that haunt our minds and inspire us to chase them even harder.
So, did you really lose all that much by not landing these fish or did you have a ball with them and still have a great day on the water??
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Posts: 93
| Absolutely! I'll take a day with big fish on the line and losing them, over catching dinks all day! |
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Posts: 2894
Location: Yahara River Chain | Excellent points Mr Poop. I'll add one more. If these fish wouldn't give it their all to get away when we hook them, would we even angle for them???
One more thing, after reading the topic, I though it was a something started by dfenner 
Edited by muskie! nut 8/13/2013 6:41 AM
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Posts: 93
| The reason I wrote this was to ascertain about similar musky mishaps, not get advice. I love stories like this. Let's hear yours! |
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Posts: 7039
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | fishpoop - 8/13/2013 12:21 AM
I'm going to respond from a slightly different viewpoint and ask you, "what did you really lose with those fish that you didn't boat?" Ok, you didn't land the fish or boat it. But you hooked 2 big fish and fought another one too and got them close enough to the boat to see them and estimate how big they are. FUN!! You still had the fun of seeing them, you had the fun of fighting them for awhile.
Considering that you would have released the fish anyhow, then what exactly did you "lose?" You lost the pictures of the fish and some accurate measurements. Is that really the important things or is the fun of fighting the fish more important? Only you can answer that for yourself. I assume you had fun fighting the fish. So is getting pretty pictures and accurate measurements that much of a loss?
What I'm trying to suggest to you is not to beat yourself up because the fish didn't end up in the bottom of a landing net but rather enjoy the fact that you had some great fun with 3 big fish. I would also venture to guess that these 3 fish might stick in your memory more because you didn't land them. I know that some of the best muskie memories I have are fish I never even hooked but only saw follow... they were BIG. These tend to be the fish that haunt our minds and inspire us to chase them even harder.
So, did you really lose all that much by not landing these fish or did you have a ball with them and still have a great day on the water??
One of the best posts I've seen in a long time! |
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Posts: 720
| Paul,
What a great response. You're one of the best reasons to participate in this great sport. I agree with Slamr 100 percent. |
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Posts: 696
Location: Northern Illinois | I had a bad experience where my Uncle raised a big fish that we deemed as 46-50. We let him cast at it for a few throws then we started throwing. I threw a orange/black pacemaker out back and sure enough it hit right away. I waited til I felt weight and set the hook hard. Fought the fish all the way to the boat and it was netted!!!! I was so pumped. I cut the hooks to not stress the fish. Reached in grabbed it and as I was pulling it up it shook 3 times and went right back into the lake. Talk about a weird feeling. Yeah, I caught the fish but I had no pictures and no size to back it up. We ended up just saying it was 46" which I still feel to this day it was bigger but I will never know. |
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| I dropped a nice fish in the water during the PMTT that was on the larger size and also lost a couple giants with Marc Thorpe out east one day. They make me smile at this point, fun times. I have also been fortunate to land some really nice fish, but seem to enjoy the memories of the mistakes a bit more. BR |
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Posts: 3147
| It wouldnt be a sad story If we could still shoot em like they did in olden wisc,,Now you could put that lazer dot right on the gill plate,,,I say let us shoot em before the Minnesota darkhouse starts spearing them |
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Posts: 8782
| The only ones that should ever bother you are the ones that you know you screwed up and knew better when you did it.
The ones that get off when there's nothing you could have done? That's fishing. Unless you're out there trying to catch your next meal, who cares? |
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Posts: 122
| I hooked into a 40 incher and boated it easy deal this last weekend. The next day had around a 40 incher come after the lure four times... finally got her to strike working hard on my figure eight... she missed the hooks... afterward I thought WOW that was more fun then the one I boated because I had to work for it! Good luck... who was the guide... I have bad luck on vermilion thinking I should use a pro and one to use new lures we are making (caught some small guys on them) want to see if they hold up to a big fish we would let the guide reel the fish in. We emailed a few guides no email back |
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Posts: 182
| fishpoop - 8/13/2013 12:21 AM
I'm going to respond from a slightly different viewpoint and ask you, "what did you really lose with those fish that you didn't boat?" Ok, you didn't land the fish or boat it. But you hooked 2 big fish and fought another one too and got them close enough to the boat to see them and estimate how big they are. FUN!! You still had the fun of seeing them, you had the fun of fighting them for awhile.
Considering that you would have released the fish anyhow, then what exactly did you "lose?" You lost the pictures of the fish and some accurate measurements. Is that really the important things or is the fun of fighting the fish more important? Only you can answer that for yourself. I assume you had fun fighting the fish. So is getting pretty pictures and accurate measurements that much of a loss?
What I'm trying to suggest to you is not to beat yourself up because the fish didn't end up in the bottom of a landing net but rather enjoy the fact that you had some great fun with 3 big fish. I would also venture to guess that these 3 fish might stick in your memory more because you didn't land them. I know that some of the best muskie memories I have are fish I never even hooked but only saw follow... they were BIG. These tend to be the fish that haunt our minds and inspire us to chase them even harder.
So, did you really lose all that much by not landing these fish or did you have a ball with them and still have a great day on the water??
Mr. Fishpoop has it right. You gained so much more than you think you lost. The monsters that I lost or had follow keeps the fire burning. Did I tell you about the fish I lost the night before last...? Botchie balls!
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Posts: 3147
| Poop
come to the Muskies inc picnic tonite tues 8-13 6:30pm at Minnehaha falls,,everybody would like to see you |
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Posts: 656
Location: Forest Lake, Mn. | @Group
Thanks everyone for your kind comments in support of my post above. That makes me feel good tonight and means more to me than you could know!!
I've always tried to look at fishing, and muskie fishing in particular, from a philosophical or even a spiritual point of view. "He leads me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul." With more to the muskie game than how many inches in the boat. But that is just me and may not be for everyone else.
@Happy Hooker
Sorry I didn't see your post about the picnic until now, 11:45 pm and the picnic is over already. Thanks for the special invite. If I had seen it in time I would have attended. I'm trying to get myself back into the game again and it's been a struggle to do so. One of the things I'm starting to do to try and get back into it is to post more and read more on this message board again. I did buy a license this year but I haven't got the boat out of the garage and at this stage of the season I don't think I will either. I'm still struggling with depression but I'm ok too.
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