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Location: The desert | How did it go? |
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Posts: 311
| I just talked to Rick Lax, and he said Tom Betka did an awesome job with the presentation................ |
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Posts: 144
Location: Green Bay, WI | Tom obviously spent a ton of time on this presentation. It was excellent, a real eye opener, particularly with the VHS info. Thanks Tom.
I was a little disappointed that nobody from the WDNR was there to take this in. |
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| I just wanted to say, WOW! Awesome job Tom!
cant wait to see the presentation uploaded so everyone can see it
Got to run for now, just wanted to drop a quick word to say thanks to everyone!
I am still in awe of how today went.
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Posts: 355
Location: Wausau, Wisconsin | I will do my best to have it on my site tomorrow night. My tripod was broke so my footage is horrible (and I'm not Sloan), but I'll do the best with what I have.
I thought this meeting was an awesome representation of how much musky anglers care about their sport. In addition I believe a lot of people deserve an applause for their work. There was some very good information on VHS. I think there needs to be a concious effort by us to use this information to make a change rather than tossing it out the window now. Be it the responsibility of all of us to send emails to who need to hear our voice. Who has these names?
Thanks everyone! |
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Posts: 512
Location: Appleton | I would like to first thank Tom for all the hours he must have spent gathering and processing all that information. I know I'm much more informed on the threat of VHS now than I was before his presentation. I would like to also send a big thank you to Pete, Justin, Lee, Dale, and any others that traveled great distances to help this cause. I respect that all of you would show up in support of this effort. I'm hoping that today we did something for the better in the case of the GB muskies and all other musky fisheries. Tom I'm sure you have all the contact info from those in the DNR. Could you please post that info. so those of us that feel the need could drop them a line. Thanks again to all involved. |
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Location: WI | Knowing first hand what Tom was up against in his information gathering makes it all the more impressive. And I will be the first one from the "cult of silence" to throw myself under the bus on this.
But Tom respected our wishes, knowing it was going to be an uphill battle, and I for one feel terrible about this, sorry Tom. I know we made your work that much harder, but I think as an end result I think it turned out that much better, and Tom has EARNED my respect because of this.
Rick Lax's mounts blew me away today, and I know I wasnt the only one, I look forward to people getting to see his work at the shows this year. The best I have ever seen!
Justin, cant wait to see it! Thanks for coming out and doing that.
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Location: Yahara River Chain | I concur with the above comments. Its clear that Tom did a tremendous job of gathering what limited information that is out there. He presented it with clarity and great insight and understanding.
Tom, it was great to finally me you (as well as many others) and get see many that I have not seen in some time.
Gerard |
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Posts: 512
Location: Appleton | I would have to agree with Shane, Rick's mounts were something special. |
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Location: The desert | Sounds like the meeting went real well. Way to go Tom, sounds like the powerpoint was a big hit.....but I might have already knew it was going to be....  |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Thanks for all the kind words guys--glad you enjoyed the presentation. I certainly enjoyed giving it. Here are some contacts:
General DNR staff directory page:
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/staffdir/PersonnelListing.asp?ReturnSear...
Green Bay Area Biologist David Rowe:
[email protected]
Area Fisheries Manager (David's boss) Mike Donofrio:
[email protected]
Regional Fisheries Manager (Mike's boss) George Boronow:
[email protected]
Wisconsin Musky Management Team Leader Tim Simonson:
[email protected]
The Big Kahuna when it comes to Fisheries... Mike Staggs
[email protected]
And finally, the Big Kahuna when it comes to the entire DNR... Matt Frank
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/aboutdnr/secretary/
Wisconsin State Senator website:
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/w3asp/contact/legislatorslist.aspx?hou...
Wisconsin State Representatives website:
http://www.legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/contact/legislatorslist.aspx?h...
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Posts: 40
| In my opinion the afternoon was a huge success. Tom did a phenomenal job and the turn out was great. It was a pleasure talking with everyone as well as seeing Tilky’s reaction to his reproduction. My wife also enjoyed finally putting faces to the many names she’s been corresponding with via e-mail. 
Overall very informative, a fantastic turn-out and worth the 3 hour drive.
Rick Lax
Lax Reproductions
www.laxreproductions.com
Attachments
----------------
 GB 1.jpg (27KB - 163 downloads)
GB 4.jpg (33KB - 152 downloads)
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Thanks Rick--and thank you for driving down, and for all of your support for MI and the Titletown functions.
And that reminds me...OH MY GOD were those mounts gorgeous! Tilky's fish is unbelievable, and I absolutely fell in love with the 53" replica mounted in the same fashion. I cannot believe how realistic those fish look!
But it was also nice to meet your family. By the way--great movie...you definitely need to check it out!
TB |
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Posts: 999
| Excellent Job Tom! You did an excellent presentation! I thought the Trolling vs. Casting deal was going to ugly but thank god it didn't! Also, Thanks to Pete,Greg,Russ,Dale,Shane, and everybody else that spoke.
I seen a quick 10 second deal on the Channel 2 news this morning and that was it. I recorded the Channel 5 news last nite at 6 and 10 and 8 this morning and so far they haven't showed anything on us. Maybe tonite. Also does anybody know if Ryan Dempsey's fish is being displayed anywhere? I cannot get over the size of that cow! What a tank! I'd love to show other's if it is displayed somewhere.
Thanks Again!
Mr Musky
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| Mr Musky, Ryans personal one, (the one we had there), he is actually in the process of re building his bar downstairs to incorporate the fish. So thats the only place you will see that one. But I think there are a couple more of that fish out there, as I have seen Joe using it in his booth before, and I believe Eric Hattaja who was with Ryan when he caught it, also uses Ryans fish at some shows.
Ryan called me when he got back to town this afternoon. He was actually a little disappointed on how the mount turned out. The repo is actually a couple inches shorter than his fish was, and a smaller than actual girth.
But Joe didnt have anything close as far as a mold so he did the best he could.
And after I told him about Rick Lax's fish yesterday he said he will be in touch with Rick soon about getting another one done. |
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Posts: 999
| Thanks Shane.
I just cant even begin to imagine hooking into something like that! That is truly a special fish! Just another reason why the size limit increase is so important! Just think in another 5 years from now what it's going to be like! I cant wait!
Mr Musky |
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| Mr Musky, His bar wont be finished for awhile, I am going to talk to him about letting us use it again before it goes into its permanent resting place. Perhaps in one of the upcoming educational seminars we are trying to plan, I will be sure to let you know if this happens.
I really hope he gives Lax a crack at doing it. I dont want to turn this into another Lax,/ Fittante argument, as I really love both of their work. I recommended Fittante to Ryan when he caught the fish. But think about how much of a different fish a 48 is compared to a 50. And once you start talking Mid 50" fish, the difference is magnified that much more. A few inches is a world of difference at that point.
You said it all with "Just think in another 5 years from now what it's going to be like! I cant wait!"
you want to talk a world of difference in fish, a 50 to a 54, thats why we have been so passionate on this issue. To think of what the bay could become if a few more fish were left to grow, it would be a lot better opportunity for others to experience what it is like to catch a fish of that magnitude.
Dead fish dont grow!
Now that the 29th is behind us, doesnt mean its time to let up. We need to keep attacking this issue with even more energy. The real work is just beginning,"again". I hope everyone takes the time to send and email off to the people Tom had listed.
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| Forgot to add, the Dempsey fish repo measures 54" the girth is pretty close. So for those who were there to see it, that is what a Green Bay 54" could look like. |
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Posts: 170
| Shane (or anyone?)...With regards to sending e-mails to the contacts listed above, are there any "hot buttons" that should be emphasized, or just a "general support" type response?
Any particular contact person who can "do something" or would this be a shotgun approach to all of them?
Thanx,,,
I wasn't in Green Bay, but sure wanted to be...as a matter of fact, have yet to fish the bay, but will this year...poking around looking for casting spots. I like looking for those needles in them big haystacks |
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| Here is Ryans email to me the day after he caught it, thought some people might get a kick out of it.
Shane,
Hope everything is well in Arizona. Hopefully you found some muskies to chase down there. I just thought I let you know. Remember the million dollar fish you said was in the Fox river.... Well I caught it! Sun. night at fiveoclock she hit a #18 Rapala being retreived over a 10ft shelf off the main river channel. The musky calculator says it should weigh 78.5 lbs. I believe it too. Both my arms to hoist it up. 56" 33.5 girth The taxidermist says there isn't a form big enough to mount it by 3.5 " on the girth. Custom job he said $$$ oh well. Will be worth it Musky season wasn't open as you know so back she went. I havn't shown anyone these pictures yet. Was out of town since I caught it, and is now just sinking in. I really want you to see this fish. Who knows, it might just be enough for you to move back. Ha Ha I'm not going to go public with this fish until well after the musky opener. I thank you for what you taught me, I owe ya a beer if you ever get back this way. -Sincerely Ryan |
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Posts: 999
| Very impressive E mail to say the least, I can imagine when you got it, you were like sure, I bet you did! Ryan and Eric took great pics so I am in no way under estimating the size of that freakin hog!!! I'd also like to know how many other's have been caught that size but we have not heard of. Then again, there's no need to hear. We know their there!! If your going to our musky club banquet in February maybe that would be a good place to take that fish. Or the New London Show.
Mr Musky |
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| Jim, Justin Gaiche will have the video up on his website, as soon as its done we will make sure to get some links to it, and Tom will also have the complete powerpoint presentation uploaded soon too, I think once the people who could not be there get to see it, will really get the ball rolling again.
As far as the emails, I would like to differ this to someone with a little better handling of the prose. My best advice would be to speak from the heart. After seeing the presentation, I am sure everyone will be able to find their own words.
Ryans fish was caught casting. It truely is a caster paradise once you put the puzzle together. I think I mentioned this yesterday, but in a typical year down there I cast 90% or more of the time. Most of the people fishing the River targeting musky are very new to it, its BIG water, its going to take people awhile to learn it and trolling is a great tool to cover large areas of new water, you will see more and more casting in the future. Thats why I have to laugh at the suggestions that catching them trolling is easier, I consider myself a fair troller, done alot of it out there, but all of my best days out there have come casting.
Mr Musky, I can say, yes. I do know of other fish that have been caught that were as big or bigger than Ryans fish. This is what I meant when I said we made Toms job that much tougher. You will never see or hear of these fish. The guys who catch them are guys who are as tight lipped as they come, as they are not in it for anything. There is a small group of guys who have been fishing muskies out there much longer than anyone thinks. Through the years there have been some awesome fish caught out there every so often. There was one of these guys there yesterday that I know who caught a "barred" 57, of similar dimensions, 5-6 years before Ryan caught his. Look at FUSE's fish that was caught right before Ryan caught his that year That was another Monster that wasnt mentioned. It was really Fuse's fish and Ryans fish that really started bringing attention to the River.
Both of these guys have become top notch musky fishermen, but at the time were both mainly walleye guys. both have since told me they really wish they would not have put those fish "out there". both have put a bunch of big fish in the boat since then, but they learned from their experiences. In my perfect world I wish more people would also learn from these experiences. Here is part of a post by Reef Hawg from Petes board thats makes more sense than I think I could.
"Catching 50+" fish on Green Bay is not a startling revolation of 2007. Been going on for a fair spell now(better than 7 years for the spots, and 10-15+ for the greenies), just not alot of attention to it till now. Of course the fishing has gotten better and better, but posting photo after photo of 50" Muskies from Green Bay on Internationnally read websites, will not lessen the chance for even more exploitation and fish being killed. Long story short. When you guys get on the hot bites next summer(as several other quiet types have), on other areas of the bay... keep that to yourselves or your own group. Don't let the killers in on it. They read these sites and look at pics for info on wheres, whens and hows. They could care less about our sharing for educational purposes along with our grandstanding for size limits. Bottom line, catch a monster next summer on some reef complex out there, enjoy it and maybe decide not to share with the world and keep the cat on a leash for just a spell longer."
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| Forgot part of the Reef Hawg post here is some more.
"While I have not been fishing there nearly as long as you or some, I also hate the Johnny come real lately, hypocritical mentality, that posting reports about every big fish catch on anmy website they can find, really cannot do any harm, and won't be detrimental, in some way, to each of our fishing there. Then toss arms up in disgust when pressure arrives and some fish are kept due to their very own foolish exploitive ways. I know it is fun to catch big fish and be proud of it, and sharing is a big part of it. However, big fish are rare as a whole anywhere and when the pics are shared with the nation the day of or after the catch, it doesn't take long for people from all over to come help catch the next one.... Just be aware of that."
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Posts: 999
| Reef Hawg could have not said it any better! I've been musky fishing for quite sometime, live in Appleton and I never gave the Green Bay fishery even a hint of thought until reading the spring walleye reports that one day when Ryan's fish was posted. I would have never thought these needle in the haystack fish were actually catchable! Little did I know at that time. So in regards to the post that Shane shared with us about Reef Hawgs post, I agree one hundred percent if you care about the fish and if you get onto something hot, there's no need to share it with the world unless you enjoy fishing with lots and lots of company!! The most enjoyable part of musky fishing to me is figuring the pattern out. How rewarding is it after all the time and effort to capitalize on something you thought of and tried and the been successful!!! Pretty darn sweet in my boat!!
Mr Musky |
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Location: Green Bay | Just wanted to say thanks to all who helped organize the meeting and especially to those who put in the extra hours of work to make such an awesome presentation. I know i left with a greater awareness of VHS and the problems we face. I ran into Senator Cowles after the meeting at a local store, and talked with him for a few minutes. He seems to have a genuine interest in helping us achieve our goals. He did bring up a valid point that he wished he would have brought up at the meeting. He thinks that we should have more of a uniformed or a single goal in what we really want. He thinks we should either push hard for the 54" limit OR the catch-n-release moratorium. If we present two options , maybe we confuse people or cause them to be more passive. If we present ourselves as wanting the CNR we could always "fall back" on the 54" limit if it fails. Just a thought....i think there is some merit to it but would like to know what others think.
I agree with Shane that this momentum needs to continue and will continue to voice my concerns with the people that Tom provided. Every little bit helps! |
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| Sounds like things people making great leaps!! Good job. I've fished the river since 2000 and have never posted a picture but have noticed that a greater number of people post fish from GB than anywhere else i've seen. Even diehard fisherman. I never understood that but to each his own.
Thanks |
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| Mr Musky, I will talk to Jomusky, I know we were looking for speakers for the upcoming year, maybe Ryan could come down and speak at one of the meetings. Otherwise I will check and see if we can use it maybe at the banquet. I just hate moving that thing around, it is very heavy, and awkward.
And I was already going to talk to him about getting a booth at the New London Show so that is a possibility as well.
Gillyman, I do know what you are saying with the single goal in mind, but in my opinion, I think the presentation was geared more towards getting the information out there, then let the DNR make a decision as to what would be best for the fishery as a whole. with the recent info that Tom has put together regarding VHS personally I would hope, especially at the stage of this reestablishment I would think the moratorium is a no brainer in my eyes, at least for a couple years untill we can see what the full effects of VHS are going to be. But I would like the DNR to make that decision, not me.
I will be sending Sen. Cowles a thank you message, I hope others do as well.
One last thing I wanted to say, I have heard a bit of talk on "why dont we just buy ourselves a politician like they did for the early season they backdoored on us?"
Bad Idea! The precedent that was set there is one I will not support. In fact if it did start down the dark path you are going to see skid marks leaving as far as my voice goes.
This is not how to get things done, and I for one would hate to stoop to that level. I still want to be able to sleep at night.
We can do this, and I know its not easy, and is a very long, very frustrating process. As Russ addressed at the meeting, dont give up on the process, the hearings, the conservation congress. Instead, lets try and assist these entities. Instead of blasting them and trying to figure out ways around them. |
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Location: Yahara River Chain | Shane Mason - 12/31/2007 7:48 AM
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One last thing I wanted to say, I have heard a bit of talk on "why dont we just buy ourselves a politician like they did for the early season they backdoored on us?"
Shane, I know I said that a few times last Saturday at the meeting, but I did so as a joke. It just boggles my mind that we pay good wages to highly educated personal and then we have some representative that feels he knows better that those guys do. It just froths me that it happened that way and in the tourism committee no less.
I too agree with the moratorium on the Fox/Lower Bay just because of the uncertainty of VHS. It if get as bad as it did out east, then it should be shut down to harvest till we can figure out what we have out there.
I gave Tom my card with an invite to come to Madison if he should ever want to present that proposal to the NRB. I hope we can do that or at least give it a try and be proactive on this rather reactive on this issue.
Gerard
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Gentlemen,
Great job, Tom. I'll get the entire presentation archived here as soon as is possible; the sheer size of it will not allow me to simply post the information as a PDF.
It's the 'information age' now, gents, and decrying the fact it's here won't solve anything. Emails, cell phones with instant pictures sent out immediately, and all the electronic communication advances out there make it so. To 'blame' the communications medium out there is akin to blaming over the history of Muskie angling word of mouth, newspapers, radio, TV, magazines, and finally...the Internet. Bay of Green Bay wasn't going to stay a secret anyway, witness Wabigoon and Lac Seul, Sabaskong and Minaki. Those waters were pretty much empty when I first tried fishing there, yet through In Fisherman, Newspapers (that's how I found out about Minaki when the only way there was a gravel road) and Muskies Inc.; the single most conservation oriented group of Muskie anglers out there, the word spread and the anglers arrived. A new segment should be added to the saying, "Don't shoot the messenger." to include "or the means by which the messenger arrived." Interesting that efforts to actually DO something to expand conservation measures are so concentrated to the very same medium.
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Posts: 113
Location: Green Bay, WI | I have to agree with Shane about the process. People want something done right now and with the way things went last year with the 54" proposal of course people are frustrated. We have to stay vigilant work within the system given us and keep plugging away. Its the only way. There are no short cuts.
I applaud the guys who got up there and talked on Saturday. Especially Tom great job. I look forward to working with these guys in the future.
Jay Zahn
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