TWMT Final Results

[Scott McKee]

Ten entrants landed three  muskies, two of which were measured, in today's Tim Wittek Memorial Tournament.

Sean Leary caught a 37" and a 39" ten minutes apart this morning to claim the Wittek.  Congratulations to Sean and his partner, Mike Rowan!  Sean caught his fish  casting gooey, rubber things.

Dan Lacko had a follow early.  I caught a big fish, but...

Sunday morning during the TWMT I dropped a big fish.  I didn't "drop" the fish in the sense that a big musky came unbuttoned during the fight unseen, or came unhooked tantalizingly close to the boat during the netting process.  I dropped what was most likely a 50-inch musky while removing her from the net in the most common definition of the word.  Thankfully she didn't plop into the bottom of my boat.

I was pulling a Musky Candy in 24' of water along a drop off when line started peeling from my reel.  I jumped up and grabbed the rod as Carrie put the kicker in neutral.  Whatever had hit my lure was slowly coming to the surface.  I said something like, "don't worry about it, it's not huge." With about 70-feet of line out I sort of surfed the fish to the boat.  I hoped it wasn't a big walleye coming in with its mouth open.  (I've had this happen before, the swimming fillets fooling me into thinking it was a fish a little higher on the food chain.)

Half a cast from the boat I could see the fish was bigger than I thought.  Carrie said something to the effect of, "it's not a small fish," as she scooped her with our Beckman.

One look in the bag I said, "that's 50." Of course net proclamations don't make muskies 50-inches, but she was a really big musky.  She could have been 49", or 49.5" or maybe 51". I'll never know.

The hooks pulled in the net which is always a plus. Carrie wetted our board and grabbed her phone.  I grabbed the fish's gill plate with my right hand, just like I usually do.  As I was pulling her up towards me and before I could slide my left hand under the musky, she went bananas.

The thrashing fish twisted my wrist counterclockwise and when it seemed she might break my wrist (or my arm), I dropped her overboard.  I grabbed the net and attempted to re-net her, but she swam just out of reach and then bolted to the depths.

Most of the time when you catch, or envision catching, a huge fish there's some kind of fight associated with it.  Not this time.  I surfed her in. She played possum the entire "fight" until I tried to make her famous.  She reminded me of a 49" I caught in the harbor years ago I swore was a sheet of plastic.

Afterward, I had to laugh.  My Phillies came really close to winning the World Series this year, quite unexpectedly, only to fall to the Astros.  In my wildest dreams I never expected to see them make it this far in the playoffs. (I am so proud of my guys.) I never expected to catch a huge musky today and walk away with the Wittek. The Phillies couldn't hit.  I couldn't hold.  What a weekend.  Oh, well. Congratulations, Dusty Baker, and Sean and Mike!

[jojo wilczewski]

Congrats Igg nice fish it counts in my book

[jojo wilczewski]

Congrats to Sean n Mike also they are machines out there

[John Jarosz]

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone, even you, Scott! That's fishing at its finest

[Stephen Glassic]

She possibly remembered from being caught and released in the past and decided she should save her energy for the escape. She may be destined to be the Queen of the river.

[John Miller]

Great job guys! Scott the only way to get over that loss is to catch another giant. Hope to see you on the water.