justtracytrolling

Great work guys, but I think you might not want anglers measuring fish in the summer...most of the anglers catching these fish all summer when most musky guys don't target them aren't experienced esox anglers. Personally, I don't even handle them for photos much in summer let alone for a measurement. It would be easy enough to not accept angler measurements in July and August though...and it would set the example not to handle stressed out fish. I'll definitely be looking for the tags!

The 36" has definitely made a difference. There without a doubt are plenty of fish kept for a variety of reasons. I see it all season long. We can't however control that, and attempting to dictate what a person does with his or her legal catch isnt right. We can control our own actions though and set the example for the next generation. For anyone that has any interest in catching a fish like this you have to realize that there is a mortality rate with fish that are released. Therefore any extra handling, or lack of good handling on fish that arent the fish you would love to catch is counterproductive to your own cause. There certainly are situations that are favorable to more handling but there are other situations I wouldn't consider handling the fish. We just have to consider our own practices and hope others do too eventually....and a fish like this is proof conservation efforts make a difference. I definitely think the signage the muskies Inc clubs had made have helped make people give handling some thought. The clubs efforts have to be helping and I'm thankful for their efforts and ask everyone just to think about handling just a little if you intend to release your catch.

I had a pretty decent one swimming on top that bumped into me while I was floating/swimming this summer. Tracy saw it, thought it was a floater and hollered to me to turn around and when I did I was about face to face as it bumped my "raft". Didn't bother either of us and we both went on about our day, but I often think I have it coming! Ive certainly had them go after me big time in a net, and bobcat here on the forum had one lunge up at latch on his bicep I believe.

That's a great catch! This is a tiger musky not a pure l.

Nope...on Otisco!

On Otisco work the outside edges of the weeds 14-16 fow with either jerk trolling or casting. Walleye and bass sized lures are perfect size. Usually a slow finesse style works great if the fish are actively feeding, and aggressive jerk trolling will produce reaction bites often times when they aren't feeding. Deep walleye style trolling also produces big fish, but it takes a lot of hours of fishing per fish. The lake has been fishing very well all season and 8-10 fish days have been a common occurrence all season if you put your time in. Jerkbaits (lucky craft pointers, husky jerks and smithwicks), a jig and a keitech, a mepps 5, and glide baits make up most my arsenal casting. A j13 or hj14 are pretty much the biggest stuff I use on tigers regularly. You can pm me if you have any other questions...

I've seen hundreds of tigers out of Otisco and even caught a bunch close to that size, but that's a truly remarkable beast. Just look at the head! It's awesome to see a fish reach this level of maturity in a small lake! This is exactly why we need to do our best at minimizing stress and handling when releasing fish...they absolutely can reach amazing size if we give them the opportunity. Seeing a fish like this should make us realize how silly a bump board measurement really is on most of the fish we catch... obviously tournaments are a different matter, but for the most part let's just get em back in the water where we have the absolute best chance at a safe release if we really want fish of this caliber! By no means am I saying a person can't keep a legal fish for whatever reason they choose, but if we are releasing them let's release em the best we can and always try to get better!

Nice work and nice fish! It's been as good a year as I can remember from day 1 till now.....and really not many boats considering how awesome the bite has been.

If you are always fishing water deeper than 50 and less than 100 (Otisco), or want to see further than 100' out then the gen 3 is worth the money. Screen size is far more important than gen 3 over gen 2!

With all the night walleye casting I do I'm always amazed by the amount of tigers active on top water at night. I've never really targeted them, and the ones I've hooked have been tough to land on light walleye tackle. Friday night the walleye fishing was slow and I was waiting for some fish to show and decided to try some top water for tigers and bass. I tied a Whopper plopper on my heavier spin setup (Denali noirwood med hvy with a stradic ci4+ 4500) and worked it slow in 2-3 fow. Second cast the water explodes and as soon as I set up on something heavy my drag is screaming and my Whopper plopper is heading for deeper water. I tighten down on my drag a bit and after a nice fight we get a decent tiger in the net. Fish wasn't handled or measured, but fairly thick and heavy. Next year I'm going to offer night trips for tigers for anyone interested. It's actually much easier to locate tigers and active tigers at night...landing em in the dark is bit tougher tho!

Fishing has definitely picked up after a slow summer. Water level is down about a foot and clarity is good. Daytime walleye trolling offshore is productive in the 25-35 feet down range. Bite has been all spoons for me. At night there are active fish on shore, but you have to do some looking to find em. I've been casting f18s, but anywhere there is some water column over the weeds I'd go with hj14s.

I liked my gen 2, and I love the gen 3. If you plan on getting the most out of the si you need at least a 9.

Beauty John! Great to see you and have time to chat.

I have 2 of the 12s and a friend of mine has the 10 and for what I do Im glad I have 12s, but honestly if you aren't making money with it the 10 is all you ever need. Not sure how many different views you intend to use but you definitely have to dedicate the full width to si to really get enough detail. So basically you can't put up 4 views and utilize the si to it's capability...and it's the same with a 12.

Casting I'm using f18s.... trolling I'm running spoons still