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Posts: 113
| Thoughts on the next WR. |
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Posts: 2112
| Of the three choices I had to go with the last...never is too strong, In my world I'd say it's very very unlikely that I will ever catch a 58", seeing one well unsure and something I'd have a hard time saying ... I've seen some absolute donkey's ...possibly 58" maybe who knows.. but knowing what a rare beast that is.. they were more like just extremely wide 55-57" class fish? |
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Posts: 1362
Location: E. Tenn | I had to go with the last choice as well... They're out there, but few and far between.
My best chance of catching one that large might be to follow the crappie guy in the 14' boat who swears he saw one "poking his head out from under the boat, and when I turned around to look you could see his tail on the other side".
All kidding aside, we still keep casting, trolling, and hoping.
Edited by miket55 8/19/2026 12:58 PM
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Posts: 7142
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | I think I have....off Sunset Island on Eagle. 2' wide and looked 60". Was probably a 32" pike but I was pretty excited! |
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Posts: 1718
Location: Brighton CO. | Years ago on a trip to Minaki we had a trailer brake down and by the time we made it up there we only got to fish four days and of course on the last night we saw a fish that would go 58", my Dad looked down and there it was just sitting there by the side of the boat. We made a few casts and left it alone. We come back a little later right before dark and she followed our lures but never come close to hitting. I was throwing a 13" Ghosttail. We found out later that the next spring a Walleye fishermen got 58 1/2 a mile or so from we saw it before the season was open. My Dad and Grandpa saw some vary large fish in Wisconsin in the 1940's. I have no guess on how much a fish like that would weight? Was it a record fish? Not even close! I would love to catch a fish like that.... I need a passport and start fishing in Canada again. |
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Posts: 1718
Location: Brighton CO. | I forgot it was a July fish the date? The date Friday the 13th! |
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Posts: 2392
Location: Chisholm, MN | I've seen 2 58" fish (pictures being measured), that I can remember off hand in the last couple years from northern MN. They weren't nearly fat enough to be WR. I can think of a few others that are legitimate from MN and around the continent too. |
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Posts: 12
| If one does exist I think it's in Eagle. I talked to some locals and guides and they all claim to have seen atleast one at one time or another thru the years on there or atleast close to it. |
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Posts: 1296
Location: Stevens Point, Wi. | I'd have a better chance of finding bigfoot or the hodag. |
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Posts: 8877
| I had one that was all of 54” up on Eagle. Safe estimate based on having said fish up 13 times over the course of a week. A guy I know got a 54.5 on the same spot the following week. Same fish? Who knows? We’ve had a few 54’s in the boat up there actually. (Not caught by me). The biggest I have ever seen was just in a different class entirely…. Nose up on the bait, flat sunny day…. That fish didn’t even swim the same.. 58? I’ll never know. |
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Posts: 8877
| Sooo… will I ever catch a 58” er?? While it’s not likely it’s certainly possible if I keep fishing Eagle. Been at this for over 20 years, and that’s the only fish I have ever seen that made me wonder if my gear was going to hold up or not. |
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Posts: 1528
| Cannot check the first two boxes, but don't like the definitive nature of the third. If it had the qualifier of "probably", I would check box three. While I have hardly muskie fished the last couple of years (new challenge is fly fishing the driftless), I still do my very late fall monster quest. In ten years I have only caught two fish, both well over 50, but not near 58 at all. Very low density fishery, but much bigger fish do exist there. Not willing to say never, yet. |
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Posts: 1718
Location: Brighton CO. | I've lived out west most of my life, (California, Colorado) but spend a of vacation time in the Northwoods and caught my first Muskie 49 years ago. I catch Trout with my ultra lights, catch Walleyes and Smallmouths in the front Range of Colorado and have a few Bass and Panfish spots from shore. I also wanted to catch some Carp both and reg. tackle and a fly rod.
Park me on the end of a pier with a ultra light and 16th oz jig and twistertail and a cup of coffee or pop or beer I'm one happy guy. Yes love all muskies but spending the time looking for the biggest fish possible. A couple things to think about, how big do these fish get? Do they really show themself's? We all have seen pictures of 54,55 inchers that are 50 pounders. Or the long 60inchers that have 25 girth by forula is 45 pounds. What are we seeing with our eyes or sonar? The giant water where a large muskie may never see a lure in it's lifetime? Or larger water that's fly in that has few resorts? We all want to see what's really out there and how to catch it. |
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| I have never seen anything close to that. 50" yes but not 58". One story I remember was from two of my nephews. They were fishing the chain I live on in Northern WI and swung by the dock to say hello. As luck would have it, the younger one caught a mid thirties while talking to me. But, the story came from early in the day on a different body of water. The younger one had a giant follow. It just watched on the figure 8, so he started running around the 17' tiller and the fish followed for at a least two laps before fading away. One is a steam fitter, the other is a carpenter, both jobs require a lot of measuring. The older one has a PB of 56" on Green Bay and has boated many others over 50". Both said if there is such a thing as a 60" fish, that was it. The one not running was trying to reference the fish against points on the boat as it went past and said it was clearly well over 50". But they both also said the fish never really seemed like it was going to strike, just curious. |
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Posts: 1718
Location: Brighton CO. | With modern tackle big nets it's not the fight it's getting them to hit! All the giants my Dad and Grandpa saw were not chasing lures but just swimming by the boat or they looked down in the water and there they were. |
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Posts: 8877
| In the relatively few waters where a few of that caliber do exist, we're usually not fishing where they feed or with anything that would be that appealing to one if they did happen to be around. I believe that on the rare occasion that we do encounter one it happens along the "travel routes" between where they feed and where they hang around in between. We could figure those areas to be adjacent to big areas of deep open water in the main lake basins where there is suitable forage, like lake trout or ciscoes. But if they have access to that kind of deep water forage, why would they bother to chase down anything we have to offer? Meanwhile most of us are flinging lures at weed edges where I don't believe the biggest muskies really inhabit once they get to a certain size. I suppose you could target them specifically if you wanted to spend all your time fishing in 30 feet of open water and trolling for days on end. Personally, I like to cast, and I like to do it when I'm casting at something I can see. |
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Posts: 1528
| esoxaddict - 8/22/2026 8:17 PM
In the relatively few waters where a few of that caliber do exist, we're usually not fishing where they feed or with anything that would be that appealing to one if they did happen to be around. I believe that on the rare occasion that we do encounter one it happens along the "travel routes" between where they feed and where they hang around in between. We could figure those areas to be adjacent to big areas of deep open water in the main lake basins where there is suitable forage, like lake trout or ciscoes. But if they have access to that kind of deep water forage, why would they bother to chase down anything we have to offer? Meanwhile most of us are flinging lures at weed edges where I don't believe the biggest muskies really inhabit once they get to a certain size. I suppose you could target them specifically if you wanted to spend all your time fishing in 30 feet of open water and trolling for days on end. Personally, I like to cast, and I like to do it when I'm casting at something I can see.
Bingo. |
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Posts: 1718
Location: Brighton CO. | Or large fish from my story above was a real tourist fish everybody and there brother spotted this fish on Muncer's Reef and it was it was caught in 38 feet of water in the channel bay the railroad bridge in June before the season opened by a walleye fishermen.) Back in our Minaki days a lot of big Muskies were caught in deep water on small lures by guys targeting Walleyes. Fish in 38 feet of water with a minnow or troll a reef runner.... |
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Posts: 424
Location: Selkirk, Manitoba | I've seen two that I would consider to be in that calibre - definitely in the 55+ as we are talking fish that are dimensionally so much bigger than a 50, which frankly I love seeing of course, but not shockingly huge like the two fish I've seen (I have caught a 60" sturgeon in the same waters, so have a reference). First one was in a very short narrows between two big basins with current coming back into one of the basins on reverse-seiche. Was up against a giant boulder and clear as day with the sun shining on it. Casted double tens and it started to follow it. When it got close to the boat it got interested in the trolling motor and then kept going and sunk into the depths. I have a big net, this one would need all of it and then some. The 10s looked like a wee mepps compared to the fish, barely a morsel. Dimensionally I would say could easily swallow a duck, gull, probably could take on a loon.
The second one that was a twin to this one (could have been same fish given same system, but several miles away), was also in a short narrows between two bigger basins laying in some weeds on a sandy-ish point mixed with some boulders. We were covering ground probably a bit too quick with trolling motor and I casted my 10s in the direction of travel (not wise, but wanted to get an angle where there was an opening in the cabbage). As 10s were coming to boat because of the movement I thought my lure had come over a big log as it came into view - not a log. It came to the boat and sunk down below it as we went over it. Fish was so big (and in this case water a bit murky) that it just didn't really register that yes, that was an absolute giant musky. Doubt crept in given so brief an encounter. However, we hit the spot a bit later and my partner raised it and yes, absolute giant. A front came, and we proceeded to have a great day. We caught two smaller ones in that same area, I got a follow from a 50 class fish on another prime island point, next spot had a 40 class follow, next cast caught a 50, and on the way to the "big one", caught another low 40s fish which took us to dark. We never could hit the spot again that day given another storm brewing (and dangerous there in dark), and that feeding frenzy seemed to have the muskies satiated the next day - just a few lazy follows. Never saw either fish again but those spots always on milk run of course. I did see a low 50s fish near where the first one was located, definitely over 50, but nowhere near the dimensions of the fish I saw.
As far as 58s there, one had been caught in the area we saw the second one a couple years before - so same one? If so, how big now?
Edited by Angling Oracle 8/23/2026 10:26 AM
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