First Muskie

[JimmyL]

Went down to the Millstone River to a spot my girlfriend likes to go and man, it paid off huge... As I'm looking into the water while fishing, I see something and can't tell if it's a fish or not. I keep watching and sure enough it moves and swims away. I thought it was a 20" pickerel. A few minutes later the fish returns and I proceed to cast a Mepps Comet 2. 6-7 casts later I finally get the spinner to go right over it then BAM!! I set the hook and held on. The first time it jumped outta the water I looked like this smilie :eek:. It ripped some drag twice, and jumped twice. Visions forever seared in my mind. I never experienced anything like it before. The fight was no more than 5 minutes. I had on 8lb mono and an old 6 ft medium Abu Garcia rod. According to the IGFA certified Boga grip it weighed in at 12 lbs. I'm guessing 30 36 inches. Never caught anything that big so it's hard for me to judge.

[JDTuna]

Congrats man! Beautiful fish.

[Eskimo]

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Your girlfriend showed us the pics of that musky at work today and we were all amazed.
Congratulations on an amazing catch!

(You might want to remove the location of your catch from your post. You don't want to burn your spot. )

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[AndyS]

WOW Congrats !!! I have yet to catch one. I think I may have seen that fish before :)
So what happened to all the Northern pike they throw into that river year, after year, after year ?

[MudCat08]

Nice job on landing that thing!
Sometimes the fish of 1000 casts can be caught by using the right tactic in the right spot in 6-7 casts. Only 993 more casts to go before the next one! Haha jk :D

[icebadger]

congats on your first musky and not a bad size at that. my first musky was a 12" one i caught on a small chrome blue crankbait in lake hopatcong. my second one i got thru the ice in little swartswood lake on a tip up it was 16". its cool that you spotted that first and casted to it and it hit your spinner. very nice well done :cool

[Gerry Zagorski]

WOW:eek::eek: Great catch, report and photos!!

[JimmyL]

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Your girlfriend showed us the pics of that musky at work today and we were all amazed.
Congratulations on an amazing catch!

(You might want to remove the location of your catch from your post. You don't want to burn your spot. )

.

Oh cool, what a small world and thanks! I owe her a lot for this one. She bought me the Boga for x mas, got it for me while fighting the musky, took the photos and wanted to go the spot. If alone I likely would have gone to the Raritan for smallies and stripers like usual.

[JimmyL]

Thanks everyone for the kind words...I'm assuming those pics are from the fish ladder viewing window? Very cool.. I always heard they stocked musky, pike and walleye in there, but never caught any. Figured it's not an easy river to access and there's so much space to hide. This was the last thing I expected to catch that day. I didn't mention earlier that the fish was released safely also. It had a lot scratches and scrapes on it, even what looked like bite marks near the tail.

[NJSquatch]

congrats!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Beautiful Ski!!! Congrats on a fine catch man! That's friggin awesome that you sight casted the beast! YEA BUDDY!!!:D

[Skunk City]

Congrats on the first Muskie, they are definitely a rush! Be careful with the Boga, fish (especially Pike/Muskie/Pickerel) love to go nuts on them and easily rip/break their jaw. The gill plate hold like you have in the other pic is the way to go! Nice work!

[NorthJerzyG]

Awesome!! Most times, in my opinion, if you see em, you ain't catching em!! Nice fish, congrats!!

[JimmyL]

Congrats on the first Muskie, they are definitely a rush! Be careful with the Boga, fish (especially Pike/Muskie/Pickerel) love to go nuts on them and easily rip/break their jaw. The gill plate hold like you have in the other pic is the way to go! Nice work!

Oo, that's a little scary. Would hate for that to happen. Is that common to happen? Any ways to reduce the chances of that happening? I was wondering if it would be safe to use on carp for that same reason. Seems like it could rip a carps lip.

[JimmyL]

Awesome!! Most times, in my opinion, if you see em, you ain't catching em!! Nice fish, congrats!!

Interesting. Trust me, I'm still in shock. It did not look that big from the angle I saw it from. I thought it was a 20 something inch pickerel.