That would have made a nice sandwich.

AWESOME

Thats just the thing eh.

Theres always a bigger fish..


Somewhere. lol

I like that. CPR here too

Nice fish Hutchy!

Love those Lexas. I use the 300 models for wreck fishing, fast retrieve makes it nice.

Have a 400 for deeper water, 200 ft tile fishing. Buddy of mine boated a 60 lb yellowfin on a lexa 400

Good job!

NICE!

Well done, Hutchy! Now you have a new record to break!

I have cast and burned shadzillas so hard, and for so long the side of the reel got hot to the touch.

Underrated reels...I like them more than the abu garcia beasts

Congrats,did you get it on one of your custom made lure?Hope to get out a couple of times this summer,works been CRAZY lately 75 to 87 per week.I've been stuck at 49",one of these times it will a 50" plus looking forward to that day coming.

How many lbs drag do you give those big Musky? Just curious , if you need to wear them down before boating or tighten them down.

That reel certainly has the drag capability!

I doubt if you need to worry much bout drag using hundred pound test line,unless you just want to tire it out before landing.

This here is the whole point.


Musky are actually very fragile. We don't want to tire them out.

The longer the fight, and the warmer the water, the higher the mortality.


Into the net, the net stays in the water, cut the hooks (because they are usually wrapped in the net), pull out any embedded hook points, lift into boat for a quick measure, picture, and release.

Fish rests in the net in the water for a bit while getting the bump board out and camera ready, and then it's out of the water for maybe 45 seconds total.

I do back the drag off just a bit though. A really big fish isn't being perfectly controlled anyway and you need some give.

It might seem fanatical to try so hard to be gentle on them, but we really enjoy the challenge of the hunt, so we try our best.

Nothing wrong with that Hutchy you're the master of the trade and your right people eat the walleyes not the musky

Boy oh boy..you got.yourself a whopper. Lol

Beautiful fish-
I always ask the "eat all the walleye" people... Have you ever seen a smallmouth feed?

Do musky eat walleye? Sure! Along with bass, sucker, small carp, cisco, whitefish, etc.

And then theres the 500 boats on the water every day, each one with several guys who are just out to get a limit every day.

Thats a lot of fish! I eat walleye too, and lots of them. They are stocked here by the natives, and we have zillions of walleye.

Heck, my buds wife got a 51" musky last fall trolling for musky that had the tail of a 4-5lb walleye hanging out its throat.


I guess its just that I feel like musky are allowed to eat whatever they want.

I know they eat whatever I agree with you but I don't understand why people think some fish are sacred like large mouth bass down here , the great thing about fishing is you can fish to eat which is me or you can catch and release or both but for a healthy population of fish I feel the apex predator is a must.

wow nice fish

Hutchy...I seen this post and it got me thinking...
We've had muskie stocked in the river close by about 25 years ago.
I've never fished for them in my life. Ain't fished this river in about 5 years. Heard and seen pics of others that have caught some goodens. Well, went Friday and seen 4 and hung 2 but didn't land eighter.
Went back today and got a 38.25" 1 and my boy had 1 on that was bigger.
Now I'm hooked bad...lol...thanks...


Donnie

Nice muskie.Would be on my wall.