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I was out guiding last night and ran across my third dead muskie floating on the water this year. Just a reminder to everyone, be extremely careful with fish this time of year due to the high water temps. Try to keep the fight short and keep the fish in the water when removing hooks (leave fish in the net, in the water, and cut hooks with a bolt cutters). Make sure your camera and measuring stick are ready to go before bringing the fish in the boat. Try to not have the fish out of the water longer than a minute. Stay with the fish until it swims out of sight. If a legal dies (40" or larger in Minnesota), be respectful and keep the fish.

David Swenson
http://muskieguide.homestead.com/

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Hi Dave, It trully is sad to see these
beautiful fish floating dead on the water. There will always be some that die from stress after release but if they are handled correctly they will live to fight again.

Unfortunatly, many anglers don't have all of the nessesary equipment, to handle large fish like the muskie. Make
sure to have a good pliers, and a bolt cutter on hand. Keep them where you can find them, don't pack them away in your dry storage or the glove box.

Dave's advice about keeping the fish in the water is right on, spend as little time as possible taking photo's every
minute they are out of the water lessen
their chance of survival.

Next time you land a fish, try holding your breath while you remove the hooks and send her on her way, that will give you some idea what that fish is going through... smile.gif

I always use a craddle for the largest fish, and I hand land most of the fish under 40". I never use a net, in my
professional opinion they cause to much
damage. Please be careful and use good
judgement, they are far to valuable to
feed to the turtles.

------------------

Ace guide service.
[email protected]
www.aceguideservice.com
1-218-753-2612

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Good tips guys
I think if people become more educated on muskies in genral there will be less fish floating. I read a early post that someone found a fish that had it's head split open, WHY poor education, There was a study in Wisconsin where they flushed the stomach of over 1000 muskie's they found 6 walleye's.

I also think that proper equipment is a must for anyone targeting muskie's. It starts with the rod & reel get a good one so you can keep the fight to a minimum, make sure you have good line (such as Tuff line or Power Pro)always use a leader with a cross lock snap or split ring to your lure, never fish with a single hook and sucker, that's the quickest way to kill a fish.

As stated above try to keep the fish in the water as much as possible.

I try to hand land all fish caught on bucktails and net fish that have large lures with multiple trebles hanging out of there chops, (the main thing is be safe) craddles work well and there are some good nets out there now such as the Beckman fin saver.

I know when I was a young teenager I caught some big pike and believe me it wasn't a pretty site unhooking the fish, chances are they became turtle food.

Have fun & be safe

ps
Guideman
how do I feed these fish on the rockpiles there driving me nuts
follow follow follow
confused.gif

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Hi Krash, last night we had 12 fish on the rocks, only one hit a bait. If I could get them all to go I'd have my own T.V show!.. smile.gif Today we went back and hit the same areas as last night, I
caught a pike and my partner had 2 hits
no fish in the boat...I'm exhausted.. smile.gif

------------------


Ace guide service.
[email protected]
www.aceguideservice.com
1-218-753-2612

[This message has been edited by guideman (edited 07-20-2001).]

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hey everything u guys are saying are totally right about keeping the fish's stress levels to a minimum and it's really sad to see such a great fish suffer and die because of stress. also i was wondering if you guys have any tips on catching muskies because hopefully i'll be able to get to vermillion sometime on my vacation and i'll do anything to increase my chances of catching a trophy walleye, muskie, or northern. thanks for any tips in advance!

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On saturday evening, while fishing with
a friend, we were witness to a killing.

Two anglers fishing for muskie (after
cutting us off) managed to hook a 42"
fish. As we watched they netted this
fish in a net way to small for muskie.
I checked my watch so that I could time the release, what a nightmare!

They allowed this fish to bang against
the side of the boat and get twisted in the net. After about 4 minutes they did
manage to get it free. After this was
accomplished they took photo's for
another 3 minutes. All total the fish has been out of the water for more than 7 minutes.

Saddly thats not the end of the story, as we moved closer, watching the release, we noticed that the killer had his hand deep inside the gill plate.
Finally they began to revive the fish,
almost 9 minutes has past since the fish was taken.

After about 5 more minutes she was able to swim away, unfortunatly I 'm sure that today she is turtle food. These fish are not indestructable, they are
actually very delicate. If you want to
target muskie, please learn how to use
proper release techniques.

After watching this killing I tried to offer some advice to these anglers and
was told to mind my own business (the
words they used were somewhat stronger)
I hope they are in the minority. Please
if you are going to practice C&R, learn
how to do it, otherwise you may as well
eat them, because their already DEAD!


------------------

Ace guide service.
[email protected]
www.aceguideservice.com
1-218-753-2612

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I believe that they are in the minority. We have all seen the actions and aftermath of a few idiots. While walleye fishing, I heard someone shouting G.. D..... perch, looked over in time to see the guy throw a nice sized perch onto the top of the motor case and bounce back into the lake. It made me wonder why he was there. Unfortunately with muskie fishing, we are searching for a trophy to photo and have a replica made, (I hope). But in doing so, as Guideman pointed out, only care about thier acheivment. But then again, look at the amount of hours we spend on the lake without any incidents. This outwieghs the bad examples. But that thought still doesn't make me feel any better.

The situation may have been better if the guys really did not know the proper handling techniques and were happy to get free advice from Guideman. There are a lot of new people to muskie fishing who need help, and probably wouldn't mind a few tips on the proper techniques. With the upcoming muskie tournament, maybe this could be an informal presentation.

My other thought is that why not take a picture of the fish while it is along side of the boat. I have a few pictures of myself holding a 40" northern, do I need another picture of a 32" northern? Probably not. This may not make an ideal picture, but it would help the fish. Especially if the fish seemed stressed.

At any rate, this post got me thinking about the fish after it was caught, rather than how and where to catch it. So my question to you is what do you think about a fishing golve? I've seen them at tackle stores, and was wondering if they help?

Rob

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Hi Rob, I use a soft cotton glove that
works great. It alows you a good grip
and causes minimal damage to the protective slime of the fish. Wetting
you hands before picking them up will also prevent damage to the fish.

There will always be some fish that die, I have seen studies that concluded about 5% to 10% of the fish die due to post release stress. These numbers drop to much lower levels in cold water and if the fish is handled properly.

The key thing to remember is that the fish should be your mumber 1 priority,
photo's are nice to have but how many
do we need. As long as you were able to enjoy catching her, does it really matter that everyone has to see the photo?

Use good judgment when fishing if the fight was short and she looks good take a quick photo. If you had a long tough battle, get her back as soon as possible and treat her gently, muskie take a long time to replace, a 45" fish maybe 15 to 20 years old, depending on the waters you fish. smile.gif

------------------


Ace guide service.
[email protected]
www.aceguideservice.com
1-218-753-2612

[This message has been edited by guideman (edited 07-25-2001).]

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