Fish-Hawk.Net

Kingmann treated me to cat fishing and we had a great time.

This time it was my treat to take him out in the Red Rocket.

It was a beautiful day and the water was like glass, perfect fishing.

My comment to him was "go large or go home"

Boy did it ever pay off...

See, I told you it was too big for the net

Don't worry, they don't bite

I wonder why he's so happy? It's only 42 inches long..... geez you'd think he never caught a fish before!

Bye bye until we see you next time

Muskie fishing in a canoe. Now there's a sport that not intended for the weak of heart.

Awesome photos MrJ, and great guiding. I've fished that spot before, but it was in the Red Rocket that I got the MONSTER. Thanks!

JasonM

Muskie fishing in a canoe. Now there's a sport that not intended for the weak of heart.

My sediments exactly! And judging from that buck tail they were targeting them.

Way to go guys.

Great looking fish..Bet it pulled the canoe around better then a 36lb thrust electric.

I like the pool noodle around the handle of the net (at least it looks like a pool noodle). How well does the net handle with it on??

Actually I have a 38lb thrust on her and we kept ourselves in pretty good position.

The pool noodles are a safety device, drop a metal net in the river and kiss her good-bye but with the pool noodles she'll float and save you some bucks. You get used to the pool noodles very quickly and they slide up and down the handle easily enough to land a fish twice the length of the opening (as the photos can prove).

Nice Ski guys....way to go ...and from a canoe ever think of going for salmon

Anyone else notice how thin that fish is?...

Without giving away your spot....which system did it come from?....just curious....

How did it swim away?...lots of zest?

RJ

The fish was thin and not solid like other species of fish I have caught recently (catfish,walleye,or smallies).

I held the fish for almost 10 mins before it was struggling to get away. I let it go and it swam away at a moderate speed. Not really slow but by no means as fast as I know they can swim.

It was caught on the $%$#$%&^&(*O system.

JasonM

There are two pieces of pool noodles, simply because the first piece was not enough to keep the net from sinking so I added another piece. Probably a single piece would be best but I don't see a need to do that. I made the pool noodles inside diameter a littel bigger so it would slide up and down easily and have never found it to interfere with neting a big one and I am not afraid someone is going to drop it in the river.

I think I know where they got that bad boy! Have lost one there myself last week!

Good job guys!


BASSSTALKER

One interesting thing about this fish was that the top bill of its mouth was lopped off. It's hard to tell in the picture but if you look closely you can see it. The top bill was about two to three inches shorter than the bottom. That may be why it isn't feeding and getting fat. It did seem healthy though.

JasonM

Nice work on the release guys, it's important to take your time.

I'm curious as to where all the blood is from? Was the fish wounded?

HW

Hey Hawgwobbler, the blood was from the mouth. It did get away from us in the canoe so it smeared the blood around a bit. It was fairly deeply hooked and at first I had this sinking feeling I was going to be releasing the fish with the lure in it's mouth or hanging it on my wall. But after deciding which fingers I really might not need (talk about TEETH), I got the courage to place the jaw spreaders in the mouth and pop the trebles out. I was very happy when I had the lure out and went to the task of reviving it.

P.S. - Mr J said you would like the shot of the live release.

JasonM

I think you guys did the best job you could releasing that fish, but my bet is that it's raccoon food by now or very soon.

I see so many pike/bass floating and it's usually from a combination of bleeding mouths/throats and infections from slime being accidently removed from thrashing in the boat, wrong nets and handling them with bare hands.

I think some fish are more sensitive to our handling them then we know.