It’s been over 5 years since we last visited Mystery Lake and just as long since we’ve fished with our good friend Mike Westlake. Mike would definitely be considered a founding member of Fishing Fury, in our first year he joined us on many of our trips and witnessed us catch trophy fish in every body of water we fished. After some catching up via email a few weeks ago we planned a last minute trip to Mystery Lake last weekend, we knew the trip could only end in a epic tale of man vs beast. And that’s exactly what it happened.
Updated: I’ve uploaded photos from the trip to the Mystery Lake 2009 photo gallery. I realize the 2004 gallery isn’t even complete and I hope to fix this over the winter.
Lake St Clair is known for having an impressive muskie population, but most of the fish aren’t as big as muskie found in other areas like the St Lawrence and Ottawa River. This past weekend the two massive muskie over 50 inches were caught, including a frightening 56 incher that was registered as 39 pounds!
Have had a ton of discussions with various fishermen about spotting the differences between pike and muskie. I’ve even been told that the pike I’ve caught are muskie, which simply isn’t true. While there are some similarities between pike and muskie, there are many differences as you can see in the image below.
It’s important to know the difference becuase fishing regulation differ greatly for pike and muskie.
St. Lawrence River near Ottawa Ontario is not only the countries capital city, but its the big musky capital of the world. Some may argue that point, but they’d be wrong. There are few bodies of water that can yield 50+ inch musky regularly. For years I’ve heard people saying the St. Lawrence would produce the next world record musky, and in November 2008, it did just that.
Dale MacNair, was on the St. Lawrence River in late November when he hooked on to the fish of a lifetime. A biggest muskellunge ever recorded. His incredible catch was 57″ long, more than 33″ around and weighed a earth shattering 77 pounds (35kg)!
Some fishermen spend they entire lives chasing a 50 inch musky, but after only one year in search of muskie, MacNair caught one that was almost 60 inches!
It’s a special occasion when such a massive fish is caught, but what makes it even more special is that this behemoth was released and swam away strong.
Congratulations to Craig Thomasian on being the first new contributor to Fishing Fury for 2007. After reading about Craig’s adventures in Japan, specifically shopping at various tackle shops, something I have always dreamed of doing, I asked if he would like to write a short experience for us and he did! Craig also contributed an [...]
