THE RIGHT STUFF
By: Rob Meusec © 2010

A good test of your Musky fishing ability is:

Can you successfully catch, land and release a decent size Musky when fishing alone?

After a successful three days of walleye fishing in Northern Wisconsin during the 1998 opening weekend, I decided to fish for pike on my last morning before returning home. While walleye fishing, I noticed that the northern pike were quite active, as evidenced by accidentally catching a few during my walleye pursuits.

I snapped on a small Reef Hawg and began drifting across a river mouth with hopes that a decent pike would give me some action. Well, action came quick but it wasn't a pike. It was a pretty good sized Musky. As I brought the fish toward the boat I realized I had no net, just my TOOL KIT. (which I carry always-even if I'm crappie fishing). At boat side I realized that this 37 inch fish was really hooked bad. Two trebles were on the outside of his face and one treble was firmly in the corner of his mouth.

I put the rod between my legs and loosed the drag almost all the way while I opened my tool kit. I took out a heavy canvas glove and my midget bolt cutters. I reached under the fishes jaw with my left-gloved hand while he was still in the water and began CUTTING the hooks free. The rear treble of the Reef Hawg was in his gills.

That was the first hook I cut completely oft. Then, he coiled his body and twisted out of my grip and oft he went. With the drag almost off, he was free to move about without a monster backlash and without the loss of my rod. I brought him back to the boat, CUT off the rest of the hooks, measured him at 37 inches and released him totally unharmed. (not a drop of his blood, a few drops of mine but that's another story).

Can you imagine what condition that fish would have been in if I didn't have THE RIGHT STUFF? IF I would have tried to remove those hooks with pliers or a hook out, his gills would have been destroyed. If you think side-cutters or the wire cutter on your needle nose pliers will do this job, you had better check. Try it in your workshop and see if you can cut through a Musky treble easily and quickly with one hand.

This experience was a good lesson for me. I realized that you can never learn enough. We spend hours and hours researching how to catch Muskies. We spend hundreds of dollars on lures, reels and trips. Do we spend enough time and money to try to be a real sportsman and release these fish unharmed ? YOU BE YOUR OWN JUDGE!