07-24-2004, 02:14 AM
Fished from 10:00 to 5:00 today trying to hook into some larger muskie. started trolling the middle fork and caught two 30" tigers. Decided I had enough of the small guys so I changed my aproach. Put on deeper diving lures and headed to the west shore. Boated a 42" and 44" in the next couple of hours. The 42" tiger I caught mostt likely I killed. As BLM said in his post the water is very warm and these fish get stressed easy. I got greedy and removed him from the water and probably destroyed a trophy fish all for a pictue. Even though I already have plenty a picures of fish this size. Once I got hom revived a little I let him go. It swam about 5 feet went belly up and sank before I could grab hold of it again. Mistakes I made you should all pay attention to. I was alone and boated the fish on my own with my hands. Which takes a lot longer than if you have a partner. I removed the fish from the water. If only for 30 seconds still makes it alot harder to revive the fish. If you unhook a tiger while it is still in the water they usually swim right off. The fish had also been recently caught. Whomever caught it before me released it , but they used a net on the fish. Its fins were all torn up and infected. The fish was already stressed and on his way out before I finished him off. On a lighter note while I was trolling around 3:00 I hooked into a large musky. After a 20 minute fight to get him near the surface up came the biggest tiger I have ever seen. He stayed near the surface just long enough for me to get a glimpse. I about spoiled myself at the siight of this monster. He then dove again and spit out my lure. another day I guess. Now I have caught tigers to 52" before and this guy dwarfed them. My guess is he was 55+ inches and 35 to 40lbs if not more. He is still in there too! I will be after him this weekend. What are the odds I get him twice?
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