Posts: 146
Location: Wayzata, MN | I'm not sure if this has been posted or not. I read it today on-line off the Orr Timberjay [newspaper].
~ Terry
Musky caught in Shag, where no muskies are native
By Steve Foss
It would have been a monster northern pike, which was what Tim Hartseil was fishing for last weekend on Shagawa Lake. But 15 minutes after the bobber went under and a big fish began a run the other way with Hartseil's 12-inch sucker minnow, he and his partner realized they were looking at a musky.
It turned out to be a 48-inch fish weighing 34.75 pounds.
In Shagawa Lake, where muskies are not native.
A DNR fisheries biologist said it's likely the fish escaped from a rearing pond and made its way to Shag through the Burntside River.
Hartseil who has been coming to Shagawa for fall pike fishing for more than 20 years said the fish just kept circling the boat and was difficult to land. He and his group had heavy enough tackle, but the fish made several runs along the boat before succumbing to the net.
Hartseil and his partner brought the fish back to the Shagawa Inn, where they were staying, and were told the fish looked like a hybrid musky, which is a cross between a musky and a pike. Hybrids happen sometimes naturally, and the DNR stocks hybrid muskies in several lakes, though not anywhere around the Ely area.
The fish broke a scale at the resort, and Hartseil and his buddies began a search around Ely for a certified scale that went over 30 pounds. They finally found it at Zups, and the fish has spent the week there in the deep freeze, where the curious have been gathering in good numbers to see it.
The hybrids don't grow as large as pure muskies, and Hartseil thought he'd tied the state record for the hook-and-line hybrid musky catch.
Doug Thompson, DNR assistant fisheries supervisor in Tower, said he and others there believe the fish is a pure musky, based on photos that allowed them close looks at the fish.
Thompson said that, ocasionally, muskies reared at the Wolf Lake ponds along the Burntside River jump the nets when they're being harvested for stocking and end up in the river. He said there’d been a verified musky catch several years ago on Shag.
In any case, a 35-pound musky is the fish of a lifetime for most anglers, and Hartseil said he's going to have it mounted.
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