OK, I will relent.

I may know who the "9 guy" is, if so, I have fished that water many times and it is certainly something I would NOT have believed remotely possible earlier in my career.

I have had several "double 50" days, and one "triple 50". The most 50s" personally (casting) was 4 to 54" though, with a couple nice 40s" too boot. The almost insane part was bagging them all before noon and then having to leave due to travel arrangements... I was literally shaking my head the entire way home. Fortune smiled on me again the next time on that same water with 2 more to 53" on the first day casting. An incredibly lucky 1 1/2 day run of 6 over 50...

I think a friend summed it up best after he bagged a 55.5" and a 56" (bump board) there on a different trip, "how the other half lives".

IMHO, these crazy catches are not because the anglers are any better than anyone else, it's a given that they have to know what they are doing to take advantage of these opportunitys. However, the water is always the main ingredient, and the anglers typically just extremely fortunate (lucky ) to have been in the right place at the right time.

It's pretty sad, (and really turns me off) but I've seen certain people get incredibly big headed over something that they should just graciously enjoy.

Spencer, I totally agree that a 50 in the boat is a great day anywhere... this ain't my first rodeo.

I think the "9 guy" is Mike Lazarus (who else could it be?). Like I said; there is no way I would have believed something like that was possible earlier in my career. I can remember a phone conversation with Dick Pearson about 5 years ago regarding a crazy sounding number of 50s whispered coming out of Lazarus's boat the previous year... somewhere near 100. Dick could not get his mind around it, and I still shake my head at that number, even though I believe it.

My friend with the 55.5 and 56 was Rich Delaney about three or four years ago. He caught those two fish within the first hour on the water one morning, they are still the two longest fish ever in my boat. He ended up with four 50s that week, 50, 51, 55.5, 56 (bump board). He also caught his first 50 that trip... and yes, he had a silly grin tattooed to his face all the way home.

I would like to reiterate that anytime you run across a virtually untapped population of adult muskies, it is obviously the water, and not so much the anglers. If you were to magically drop any of Minnesota's young guns on that water back then I have no doubt there would be some crazy numbers in every direction. It is probably hard for most people who fish with other muskie boats bobbing around them to relate to fishing something this incredible and hardly seeing another muskie boat. It was like living in muskie heaven at times... and yes, of course some days you still found the skunk.

I actually started fishing out there over 15 years ago and the first three trips (my boat total), we averaged 40 fish a week and 4 50s (that was back when I still kept records). If we could go back in time (and any of today's young guns especially) those numbers could be totally crushed. LOL, we did not even use GPS and pulled our #10s with 40lb. Dacron line.

Here is something you people may find interesting. During those first three trips on that water, we (me and Kenny casting) only had one follow-up, basically there was no nipping and they would slam anything that moved once you found them. That is how untapped and weird it was back then... it is still an incredible fishery today, but certainly not untapped anymore.

Edited by Jerry Newman 1/20/2011 8:59 AM