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| I guess I should rephrase my question a bit. I've done well on numbers the past few falls. I've started to get into some nice size, but to be honest, I've likely hit the peak size for the water I fish regularly. So I'm starting to get an itch to try for something bigger. ie 50# class fish. I've gotten to a point where I'm willing to give up the numbers to focus on a true trophy class specimen.
The journey and chase of such a fish is what really interests me more than anything else. The chase is why I love this sport. So for me, this is just something new to chase with different rules, harsher odds, but bigger rewards.
I appreciate all the concern for my catch rate though.  My sanity really appreciates it.
Edited by Brad P 12/15/2016 2:05 PM
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| Brad P - 12/15/2016 2:04 PM
I guess I should rephrase my question a bit. I've done well on numbers the past few falls. I've started to get into some nice size, but to be honest, I've likely hit the peak size for the water I fish regularly. So I'm starting to get an itch to try for something bigger. ie 50# class fish. I've gotten to a point where I'm willing to give up the numbers to focus on a true trophy class specimen.
The journey and chase of such a fish is what really interests me more than anything else. The chase is why I love this sport. So for me, this is just something new to chase with different rules, harsher odds, but bigger rewards.
I appreciate all the concern for my catch rate though. My sanity really appreciates it.
what water bodys do you feel you have conquered as far as big fish?
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Posts: 62
| Are these stats representative of what's out there?
http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/cnr_images.asp?view=lstats
Could be a censored sample since not all submit to the contest . . . ???
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Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | tomcat - 12/15/2016 1:08 PM
So, does everyone just discount the claim made by Rich Clark of his 60" ? not stirring the pot. i remember reading about it 5 years or so ago.
I'm certainly not.... |
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Location: 31 | I'm not discounting Rich Clark's clients magnificent fish either but I would still like to see pictures of a genuine 60” on a bump board someday. Maybe I'm just being overly cynical, but after getting slapped around with the record BS and seeing some obvious fakes get paraded around online and in the press… that's just my mindset anymore. One thing when you're talking about a genuine 60” is that a lot depends on who is measuring, and how it's been measured. In my view other than a bona fide muskie fisherman using a bump board, you can almost always discount the length claim to some degree on released fish because they're just not equipped to measure them accurately. Although I don't think this fish was 60”, I've always found this picture to be intriguing... the extended cab pickup truck look.
Edited by Jerry Newman 12/17/2016 9:50 AM
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Posts: 67
| There's been a few 60"+ caught over the last several years , The ones that i know of the gentlemen that caught them do not want the attention . Be prepared to spend hour upon hour searching on any body of water. Lot's of fish being claimed to be 55+ but like was previously stated it depends on the person measuring , if it's not on a hard bumpboard ,,,,,,well it's " nice fish "
Edited by Trophyhunter1958 12/17/2016 7:45 PM
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| Curious if Larry could update us? What can you tell us about Rods fish? |
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Location: Brighton CO. | Just a few olds and ends here. In the old days my dad and grandparents would see some old giant Muskies in small Wisconsin lakes there were way less Muskies and less intelligent fishing pressure an if someone hooked one of these fish it would smash primitive fishing tackle. There was one 50 # Muskie that showed itself off a point and one time someone pointed out to my dad that's Louie Spray. Louie come from Hayward over to Vilas if he knew of a big fish. I think Louie shot and poached bought and all that but he also tried to catch big fish on the up and up. Len Hartman was on to something with his deep trolling and smaller Bug lures but he loaded his fish. He did get 47 pounder and who knows how big those fish he passed off as 60 pounders. (maybe lots of 40 pounders) In lens book "Before I Forget" There's a chapter Cool and Challenging : The Manitou. In that chapter there's a guy I fished with once in Wisconsin Tom Stark. Tom paid to have bigger boat put in the for the most part fly in lake. He caught a lot of large fish and he weight them before releasing them. Very heavy for there length. I think a lot of fish that live long enough to get 60 are past there prime. The late Tom Gelb and Peter Haupt caught large Wisconsin Muskies row trolling or casting deep in the very late fall and would average only a fish a week.
They caught bigger then the rest of us but you can't catch a sixty of it's not there. Who knows what's in some of these larger systems where a giant Muskies has never seen a lure. I fish in the late fall looking for a giant ,but also fish small parts of large lakes in the spring with small rods and lures perhaps some monster full of eggs will smash my ultra light or spool me. One big adventure out there |
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Location: Hayward, Wisconsin | Cedarstrip:
Since you were incomplete with any details of what you were referring to, we should clear that up for the other board members and viewers. Rod (my cousin and one of primary people responsible for creating one of the best muskie fisheries on the Planet in Minnesota in its recent "heyday" before his retirement from the MN DNR in 2012) has enjoyed nearly a lifetime of chasing muskies on Eagle Lake, Ontario, as well as in Minnesota and elsewhere.
What I can tell you about the fish in question is that I wish I had been there. Rod has caught just shy of 5000 muskies (9 short) in his career, but THAT ONE actually screwed up his mind! He went home a few days early after catching it and was over half-way there before he realized where he actually was! A REAL "mind bender"!!
While he obviously has caught and handled many dozens of giant muskies during his career, including catching a number in the 50-pound range from Eagle, THAT Eagle Lake fish was by far the biggest and undoubtedly "World Class"! We will never know exactly how big it was as he was alone and after admiring it boatside, in the water, he did as he always did and reached down and cut the hooks and watched "her" swim away to continue to add giant muskie genetics to the Eagle Lake fishery!!
Edited by Larry Ramsell 4/14/2026 1:47 PM
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