Comment

Board Member Comment by Scott Kitchen on December 4, 2019 at 8:01pm

Greetings, 

I hesitate to write this, as I do not want to encourage folks to actually weight musky, but I think the problem with the girth and length estimates is that the girth is taken at the largest point, which is always the bulging belly that is not indicative of the true girth of the fish from nose to tail.  

Board Member Comment by John Pensyl on December 4, 2019 at 11:08am

Well put Tony. It's amazing the size of fish it takes to pull that scale down past the 40lb mark. I've been lucky enough to handle some mid 50" fish that were true 40lbrs. My 56" from last season weighed in at 46lbs and that fish looked to be the size of 2 of many of the 50" fish I've caught put together. Every inch over 50 is a whole new being with some of these fish and a true 40lb giant is an amazing encounter. That 4 from the article is a beautiful 35lb fish which is an absolute trophy and one of the heaviest 48s that can be caught anywhere.

Board Member Comment by Tony Scime on December 4, 2019 at 7:49am

John,

Exactly right. The one critique I've had of catch and release over the years is that anglers no longer appreciate and have no idea how large a 30 or 40 pound muskie really is. We always carried certified chatillion scale with us in the early harbor years and the heaviest 50+ inch muskie we weighed was 38 pounds (we used weigh sacks and cradles). There may have been larger ones caught, but they are few.

The one sad thing is that the angler might really believe, at no fault of his own, that he caught a 54 pounder when it was likely 20 pounds less.

Tony 

Board Member Comment by John Pensyl on December 3, 2019 at 4:41pm

One of the cool things about fishing 500 plus hours a season for these creatures here at home and on the St. Lawrence, carrying a certified chatillion scale in the boat and getting to handle, measure and weigh some absolute whales up to 57" over the last 10 years is that you get a really great idea of what these fish actually weigh. Theres a reason the Niagara never produced a weighed 40 pound fish during the catch and kill years even when many 50" plus fat fish were hung on the scales. Theres a reason Lake st. Clair has never produced a 50 pound fish and most years not even a 40lb fish is ever weighed in on the MOMC scales even though many many great lakes fish get brought in pushing that mid 50" mark . That reason is because a 40lb musky is a goliath of a fish. A 50lb musky is something that very few musky anglers will ever actually see and theres no denying it when a fish with those proportions is actually photographed. That fish would need another 10" in length to weigh anywhere near 54 lbs. Unless that 48 was stuffed with lead its calculated weight is about as far off as its calculated "measured" girth. Beautiful fish the angler should be proud of but let's not get carried away and embarrass those of us who call this river our home. We all know better.

Comment by Bill Hilts, Jr. on December 3, 2019 at 3:04pm

Check it out: https://www.muskyhunter.com/weight-calculator

We are not that far from Ripley's ...

Board Member Comment by John Pensyl on December 3, 2019 at 2:58pm

54lbs!! Heaviest fish in the history of the Niagara and heaviest 48 incher of all time!! Amazing!!

Board Member Comment by Scott McKee on December 2, 2019 at 11:51pm

Thanks for the mention, Bill.