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Giant Musky Is New Michigan RecordJoe Seeberger has landed the largest musky ever caught from Michigan waters.
The new state record of 58 pounds has been confirmed by by Patrick Hanchin, a Michigan DNR fisheries biologist at the Charlevoix Fisheries Research Station, and Conservation Officer Steve Speigl.
Seeberger, a Portage, Michigan, resident, was fishing for smallmouth bass on October 13 with his brother Chuck and friend Jason Orbeck on Lake Bellaire when he hooked the giant musky.
After a two-hour fight, the fish measured 59 inches long with a 29-inch girth and weighed 58 pounds on a certified scale. Seeberger’s musky shattered the old Michigan record of 50 pounds 8 ounces, which was caught from Torch Lake by Kyle Andersen on September 27, 2009.
Seeberger was fishing in 15 feet of water, along a steep dropoff, when the musky engulfed his 7 1/4-inch sucker minnow. “The very moment I set the hook, I knew it was a huge fish … bigger than any of the smallmouths we’d been targeting, that was for sure,” said Seeberger. The fish was hooked at 8:30 a.m. “[It] came to the boat right away and swam near the surface past the boat … like the shark in “Jaws.” After a few moments, it gave us a spectacular jump, [and] I was sure I’d lose it then. But I didn’t. After that, we had to chase it around the lake,” Seeberger said.
Once the fish tired, two bass-size nets were used, one at the head and one at the tail, in an attempt to scoop the fish into the boat. “But both nets busted as soon as Chuck and I tried to lift the fish up,” said Orbeck.
By this time, another fishing buddy, Jeff Lutz, had hopped aboard Seeberger’s boat in an attempt to help land the fish. Now with unusable nets, two life jackets were tied together in an effort to make a cradle, but they proved to be too buoyant. Finally, one of the boat’s dock lines was lassoed around the fish’s head, slid to its middle, and tightened down. With one man grabbing the head, one grasping the tail, and a third pulling up on the line, the fish was brought safely into the boat at 10:30 a.m.
As soon as the crew got the boat out of the water, a county sheriff was waved down, who incidentally measured the musky with a crime scene tape. Seeberger then drove for an hour in search of a scale. He finally found an industrial-sized certified scale at the Ellsworth Farmer’s Exchange.
The fish has since been dropped off at a taxidermist for mounting.
Ironically, Seeberger’s musky was caught at about the same time as an important regulation change was made for Michigan’s musky fishery. Through the work of Michigan Muskie Alliance and the Michigan Warmwater Resources Steering Committee, the state has enacted new regulations for 2013 that will create a one-fish-per-year bag limit. The current regs allow for 42-inch or larger musky to be kept per day.
As of April 1, 2013, the regulation will be one fish 42 inches or greater per license year with tag. There will be no charge for the tag and it may be obtained upon request when purchasing a license.