Winter Mn Muskie

[dickp]

Hi.Was just watching WCCO Tv 6 PM news (Mpls.,MN)Someone apparently caught a 40lber thru the ice today on a Metro lake.Didn't look real healthy to me but they said the guy gave it 'CPR'.Full story at 10PM they promised.

[Jim McCullough]

Any more info on this one Dick?

[Murph!]

I just saw the story. Very nice fish, they said it had a 28 inch girth and it looked like it did. Guy released the fish. He wouldn't say what lake he caught it from but when asked if it was Minnetonka he had a sheepish look on his face, and then said he wasn't giving up the name of the lake. He said he got the fish through a 7 inch hole.

Good luck, Murph!

[dickp]

Hi Jim.No I missed the 10PM news but Murph posted on it.Great he released it!Pic I saw had snow etc on it and I wasn't sure.Guy was from Excelsior and suspect it was Minnetonka.

[fishpoop]

Did they give the guys name? Was wondering if it could have been one of our local Muskie Inc boys? I missed the news also.

[Chris J]

Dick,
Go to WWW.FISHTHELAKE.COM. At the top of the home page there is a discussion forum. Go in there and then to the Minnetonka section. There is a picture of an impressive fish from 'Tonka that spent a considerable amount of time on the ice. I hope that isn't the same one you saw on the news last night. Do you recognize the guy from the news? If that is the guy and he released the fish I don't think that critter made it.

Chris

[dick]

Hi Chris.Nice chatting the other day.
No,if you are referring to the one they were talking about being a northern(definitely a muskie.),that wasn't the guy or the fish.Fish on TV was bigger.

[brett]

I saw the 10pm news last night and must congratulate the angler on a very nice fish. Especially pulling it from such a small hole. However, if you saw the photo, this is why we should not fish for muskies thru the ice. The fish looked like a block of ice. Snow all over it, frozen fins, eyes, slime coat (probably gills as well) don't make for very healthy releases. I commend the guy if he did release it, but I wanted to make this point because there has been some discussion about ice fishing for muskie on the boards and this is the first example that has popped up of what happens in conditions below freezing. If you do ice fish for muskies, go prepared with a 2-man portable ice fishing house, like a Fish Trap Guide or Otter Lodge, that you can drag over to the hole and get heated inside before you bring the fish out of the water.
Had to get that off my chest,
Brett

[Kid Derringer]

I saw it to at 5 AM on ch #4.

Looked like some blood coming from the gils.
He said he reached down and pulled it through the 7" hole then layed on it on the ice until it stopped fighting?
Nice fish.
Short and very FAT!
Reporter said he gave it CRP?
Then explained what CPR means to the viewers, then RJ Fritz aked him some questions, but he did not tell where he nailed it.
He said it DID NOT come from Minnetonka, but had his tounge in his cheek and did not look at RJ or the camera?

Hope it lived.
Nice look'en SKI!

T.


www.muskytomsguideservice.com

[Murph!]

I went to the web site and don't believe it is the same fish. The report stated that they kept that fish. The angle holding the fish in the picture is a different guy than the Channel 4 report.

Good luck, Murph!

[stealth]

I saw the news cast and was waiting for the big story on how a 40 lb 28 inch girth was brought out of a 7 inch hole. I was expecting something creative. I believe he said he pulled real hard on in it.

The Fish was BIG, snow all over it like it had spent some time on the ice. He said he simply released it back down the hole and its back in the lake swimming.

I Doubt it

Its just not a 7 or 8 inch hole, it is a cylinder 12 to 16 inches deep from the ice. Okay maybe if you could turn its head at the bottom= of the ice hole and turn his body verticle to the ice, reach way down to get a hold of it and yank real real hard you could get it through but what shape would it be in?

It also stands to reason you would need to exert as much force to get it back through the cylinder into the water. How did he do that?

The picture showed his big fish, monster gut.... with a pickup camper on stilts in the back ground. Didn't look like a shoreline picture.

Its seems a little fishy to me.

[fishpoop]

I was wondering, should the Mn. muskie season be closed during the winter? Would there be enough support for it? Is it a bad idea and if so why? I would suggest that rather than have a fixed closing date, due to the warm falls that we have had in the last few years, why not set a closing date for when the the lake is iced over? This way you could still fish all the open water and then close the season when it ices up. If enforcement of a varible closing date would be a problem and a fixed date is needed, how about mid December? Good idea or bad, what do you think?

[VMS]

Honestly, in my opinion, I have not seen, nor heard of many muskies being caught through the ice on a regular basis. I do believe it happens, but I would also think that most of the fish caught are by accident by people actually targeting northerns or possibly walleyes. So..closing the season earlier would be something that could take place, but there will still be muskies caught through the ice...that's inevitable. It's whether or not the fish can be kept. If someone is targeting muskies through the ice, my guess is that he/she would return them to the water with as little time out as possible and care be taken when handling the fish. I'd be for changing the end of the season, but I don't feel it would make a major impact on how many fish are caught through the ice. I particularly do not know of anyone who actually targets them.

Steve

[John Skarie]

Does anyone know if the anglers who caught it were even targetting muskies?

Most likely they were fishing for something else if it was a 7" hole.

The fact that they did release it should make people happy enough.

We have enough problems with PETA etc. without being so critical of people who fish for muskies, and how they do it. If somebody wants to fish for them through the ice, then more power to them.

They caught a beautiful fish, released it, congrats to them !

JS

[HerbB]

I've seen people targetting Muskies while ice fishing in Wayzata Bay on Minnetonka, but they weren't the MI type guys who would treat Muskies with care. These were good old boys trying to either catch a keeper Muskie or a good sized Northern for the grill. Unfortunately, they caught a pair of 45 inchers and took them home. Made me sick.

I do know that there are some very good Muskie fishermen who do target Muskies through the ice and know how to handle them. And I'd hate to see those guys penalized just because there are a few meat fishermen out there that only think of Muskies as a meal.

Guess thats why the DNR keeps on stocking, eh?

[fishpoop]

I wasn't trying to stir things up and create a controversy. Was just something that I was wondering if it would be a good idea or not. Remember at one time, Catch and Release was a radical concept. How are we going to continue to improve muskie fishing for all if we don't ask questions? Maybe someone has a better way to protect the fish during winter,but we would never know if we didn't ask.