Monsterquest Part 2

If you have cable or dish TV, you might have seen this show. What caught my attention was episode 49 from 5/6/2009 talking about “killer” fish.

Yesterday I talked about the Goliath Grouper. Today I’d like to talk about Muskies (Muskellunge). I know a lot of you fish Muskies and probably know a lot more about it than I do. So for the record, I’m only passing along information from the show. The show started off with showing recreations of a boy, age about 10, being bitten in the foot by a “killer” Muskie. What caught my attention was that he was just a few feet off, shore wading in the lake. The other was a home video of a guy with a good size Muskie in his net. He was trying to get it out when it reared up and bit him on the wrist. He ended up with a scar about a foot long on his arm and approximately $10,000 in doctor bills. These two incidents describe to me a very nasty fish. “But Killer”?

Being a Wisconsin boy, I’ve fished and caught Northern Pike and Walleye in both Wisconsin and Minnesota. I visited my Brother in Duluth in the summer of 1967 and spent several days fishing. The one day I remember most was at a lake call Little Split Hand. Some of you might know it. Our intention was to fish Big Split Hand, but was too rough. Back then all we did was take the 12’ aluminum boat off the car and throw it into the lake. Not 50’ from the dock, we both hooked up with small (12”) Northern’s. We caught a dozen each that day. One that I hooked, was so big we “chased” it around the lake for a good half hour. I had 6 lb test on the rod and it finally broke the line.

Enough of me, back to Monsterquest. They set up “shop” on Mille Lacs Lake near Brainerd, Minnesota. Their guide was Lee Tauchen, a well known Muskie guide. After drilling a bunch of holes in the ice, by the way it was mid winter and sub-zero temperatures, they dropped a bunch of equipment in the water. Special lures, cameras, an ROV, you know stuff like that. Got to hand it to those guys. Temperatures like that and they didn’t even look like they were cold let alone freezing. Twenty five inches of ice on the lake. Safe enough even for Shoreman to wander out there. Not that I would. Any way, after all that and getting their $125,000 ROV stuck in the ice, all they found was schools of Smallmouth Bass. No “killer” Muskies.

Oh, one other thing. Even though Monsterquest didn’t find any, Lee Tauchen mentioned that Mille Lacs Lake could be the place to produce the next world record Muskie. But then, Monsterquest doesn’t usually find most of the “monsters” they pursue. Guess you all better get out there and prove Lee right.

That’s it for today. Thought this might be interesting. Till next time, remember: “A bad day fishing is better than having your foot in a Muskies mouth”.

Shoreman