Oct 21 - Rideau River Musky

Post by **Bobber** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:06 am

Hello all,

Today I got out with Fishhawk and his buddy from Australia...David. We headed down to the Rideau River and arrived just as the sun was coming up. We prepared the boat and the rods and headed out to try our luck at several different spots that had been successful for us in the past.

Our first few spots were unsuccessful and we continued to fish all morning, looking deep, looking shallow, casting over the top of the weeds, weaving in and out of deep edges, dodging the bullets from nearby duck hunters (not really but they were pretty close to us), but still having no luck. We headed up the River further where the wind was just a howling and our drift was faster than a troll, when it all happend.

<img align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... _009-2.jpg"> A 46 inch Rideau River Musky, hook set and reeled in by our newbie musky fisherman. When I saw this fish reach the surface, I was in awe at the size of it's head, however upon netting the fish and observing the rest of the body, it was a long fish for sure, but a very sick looking fish. The phot doesn't really show just how much this fish seemed to be hurting. I don't know what this girl had been through, but she did not look good at all. No meat to her and her outer skin looked almost like it has some kind of disease. A couple of pics and a quick release sent this poor girl back into the depths. I don't know how much longer she has, but I truly hope other fish don't fall to whatever this one has. Take a look at the body vs. the head. Not proportional at all, but in any case David's first Musky.....and only took up fishing this year. Good job by our Aussie friend.

Cheers,

Post by **muskymatt** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:54 am

Strange , hopefully it's old age.

Healthy it would have been a beaut, still a nice 'skie though

Post by **Bobber** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 7:48 am

Yes I do hope it is old age for sure. I'd hate to think there was something going around, but my bet is on your assessment. With the size of this guy's head, he looks like he's been there for quite some time.

Cheers,

Post by **Eli** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:00 pm

Something like that is never a pleasant sight.
Still an active and feeding fish, so my guess is that it's age rather than disease.

It's good that your friend got a ski though

Post by **wolfe** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:48 pm

What a shame -- I hate to see a big fish in such bad shape...

Not only is it really thin, but its color is sickly.

Hope it's not the latest deadly virus that's got this big one on the outs. It might have been what the fish thought was an easy chance at a meal (your friend's lure) and not so much that it was actively feeding.

I also hope it's just old age and not something nasty and contagious among the other fish.

Still must have been a thrill to catch. 46" -- nice size.

W.

Post by **Musky51** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 7:59 pm

great first musky a beauty 46"er!

Post by **g unis** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:14 pm

nice fish. maybe it choked on a policticians watch. realistcaly its head to body shows its starving . maybe age maybe.

Post by **SCUBA_STEVE** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:49 pm

nice outing guys!

hey sick or not still a mucky ashame it will not live long!

still i wouldnt mind catching one that size!

still a musky virgin

scuba_steve aka zort10

Post by **Gord** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:31 am

Congrats to yer buddy Mike!

...still a nice 'lunge, even if it does look a lil' sickly.

Post by **SALMON** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:51 am

All the ones I have seen in the Rideau have been beautiful fish. I would say that one is an exception since we haven't heard of other folks catching sickly ones.

Post by **thryb** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:05 pm

I hope its not one infected with the VHS virus (viral hemorrhagic septicemia) I read an article about it in the North American fisherman, the say its pretty bad in the st lawrence river, the tagged this year 4 insteed of 40 in another studies in 2003. Lets hope our muskies wont get that

.
Its a nice little article about it, p.12 if you're interested.
(seems to be more in NY tho but maybe it made it up here)

Post by **GuinnessGuy** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:42 pm

I've seen something like this before when fishing for Pike on the Gouin reservoir. It looked a little healthier than that muskie, but there was surely something wrong with it. Huge monster head, with a thin and long body. We kept it as it was pretty beat up from the 20 minute fight (ultralight tackle). When we were cleaning it, one of the guys, who was actually a mortician, decided to check the inside of its stomach. Turns out it had a twister-tail blocking the exit of its stomach. We figure the fish could only subside on the food that would get dissolved in its stomach, causing it to eat very seldom.