http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gal...ch-lake?photo=0Bummer that thing is on ice, but even I would be tempted to mount a trophy like that.
Thanks for posting, TJ! I had not seen that. What a fish! Very cool that it's one of the spotted muskies rather than the barred ones.
Kind of sad in a way to keep the fish.
How old does anyone think it was?
It wouldn't surprise me if it was over 20 years old... The maximum recorded age for musky is 30.
Strange shadows in different directions at the guys feet and an exceptional Condello pose holding a 50+ pound fish with his fingertips. The fish may be real, but the photo looks very altered, IMO.
The photo doesn't look quite right to me either.
That's the fakiest looking photo I've ever seen...
But I've said that before and it turned out to be legit.
Did you read the comments? There's some guy that strongly agrees.
My daughter just took one look at the picture and asked if it was photoshopped.
Fake. his hands just don't look right.
Fake. his hands just don't look right.
I believe that is because he has something in the gills to hold on to. You don't stick your hands into the gills of a musky!
It looks weird but if it's a new state record I'm sure it's been verified.
The shadows aren't right. It's got to be fake. The guy throws a shadow on the ground yet you don't get the same shadow from the fish thrown on the guy... or the ground for that matter.
I don't really understand pic 5.
It looks like something Sunil would do.
Yeah something about this picture doesnt look quite right to me either and I have poured over thousands of pictures of muskies. Cecil why do you think you wouldn't hold a muskie by his "cheek"? Remember you aren't grabbing the gills, just the side of his face. ALSO don't EVER hold a large muskie or pike vertically (like this guy is) as it exerts incredible pressure on their spine and jaw. Try to support the weight of the fish horizontally so that there isn't a crazy bend in it's pine either (a very common thing to see in pictures). You can see in the pic I posted in the fishin 2009 thread what I'm talking about....if this turns out ot be legit though that is a monster fish!
Look at all of the photos (19 in all) and read the text with each one. This fish apparently was caught in May and tagged by DNR and was measured at 55 inches then. Interesting.
mudburn
I can see the point of the cynics - still, you'd hope a publication like this would verify sources on a story of this magnitude.
Holding a 50 lb fish with fingertips, as seen in photo one, does make one wonder. Has anyone SNOPED this yet?
I didn't realize how many pics there were so I guess I stand corrected. I hate living in a world where we have to question the legitimacy of pictures like this. And unfortunately it's only going to get harder and harder to tell doctored photos apart from real ones as technology gets better.
That's why when i catch the next world record I'm going to take as many pictures as I can, but she will never end up on ice...
I think the fish is real---and HUGE!
I still think the first photo is altered, for whatever reason, though. The guy appears to be holding something, probably a hook, in his right hand and supporting that hand with his left. At the same time, the guy's balance appears too far forward for something that heavy and the shadows are cerinately going in two different directions at his feet.
Interesting that there's no slime on the fish.
I don't know whether it's real or not, it's so hard to tell these days.
I mean look at the backhoe in this photo, it is so obviously photochopped in.
Get with the program TJ, he want's to be called Frank now, keep up for heavens sake!
To be perfectly frank, I think the cost is a huge bargain.
Watch out for droppings from the bull eagle!
Cecil why do you think you wouldn't hold a muskie by his "cheek"? Remember you aren't grabbing the gills, just the side of his face. ALSO don't EVER hold a large muskie or pike vertically (like this guy is) as it exerts incredible pressure on their spine and jaw. Try to support the weight of the fish horizontally so that there isn't a crazy bend in it's pine either (a very common thing to see in pictures). You can see in the pic I posted in the fishin 2009 thread what I'm talking about....if this turns out ot be legit though that is a monster fish!
Oh I don't know maybe because when you stick your hand in there you may make contact with the gill rakers which are just as bad as the teeth.
Trust me I've done it before but only once.
As far as holding it the way he is, yes of course that it good way to do damage to a heavy fish like that but if you don't intend on releasing it...
Edit: I didn't bother to read the article. Someone on a fishing site said he released it? If so I should head up there and wait on the windward side. Shouldn't be more than 3 days till it pops up.
The hook tore a gill and he said he knew it wouldn't survive being released----He also spent several hours looking for a certified scale large enough to weigh it while the fish was on ice, then suddenly found several scales????
My first post claiming it as fake was prior to looking at the other 18 pics. Now I wonder a bit, but MAN, that first pic looks so questionable for many reasons. Just like Rainman said, the shadows, the lighting, the stance and the holding method just seem so obviously suspect that one has to question this whole thing regardless of the other "backup" pics. But why in the world would someone doctor one pic and submit 18 more that appear to me to be legit? Strange.....
I saw this yesterday morning on my state's game and parks forum. Pretty cool and I do think it's legit from reading the article, comments, and viewing all the pictures. But, like many of you guys, I was very skeptical from that first picture.