My name is Allen Krant and I caught the Tiger Muskie in the picture.
Originally I had planned on not telling anybody where I had caught this fish just because it was close, if not a state record, but to my suprise many people have recognized the lake just by the little background in the picture. And I guess due the limited number of lakes that hold muskie's in this area it was easy for some to figure out.
It was caught on Newman Lake on April 24th at about 1:00; PM. I will not give the exact location on lake where i caught him because it is one of my favorite spots that for some reason has not been utilized by many anglers other than a few close fishing partners and I would like it to remain that way. I hope you can understand this.
I was targeting Bass as I normally do but have always had the hopes of landing a large Muskie. Early in the day I was bit off by a smaller muskie I would say around 10 lbs.
We were doing fairly well with the Bass as far as quantity but were not catching the quality we where hoping for. We had developed a pattern and had no problem finding Bass but after awhile the 1.5 pounders start to get old. We had about 1 hour left to fish before I had to pick up my son and decided to try one of my go-to spots, where over the last 2 years I have seen multiple 5+ lb. Bass caught.
When we arrived I was throwing a Jig with a Bat Wing frog trailer. It only took about 5 minutes and I hooked in to a 3-lb. bass who was landed and release. On my next cast I got hung up and broke off. At this point I decided to throw on my favorite spinner bait, a brownish/orange with double copper willow leafs made by Pulsator. I made this decision based on the conditions (over cast skies and a 10 mph wind blowing into cover). As I was getting ready to cast we saw a group of about 10 carp bolt out of the area, at which point I commented to my brother Travis that it would not surprise me if there was a muskie in there chasing them around.
On my third cast my retrieve was to that point where you start to speed up just to get it in and from out of nowhere the muskie appeared. The muskie did not strike hard but just grabbed it and continued to swim. I raised my rod and yelled "Muskie". This all happened within 8 feet of the boat. When my brother turned to see the fish it was instant panic mode.
At one point the muskie turned toward us and we saw that it was hooked in a way that the line was clear off its mouth and I knew then that I had a chance. It did not fight very hard but at that size it did not have to. Thanks to my brother's excellent work on the electric motor the fish never made it further than 15 feet from the boat and was in plain sight the whole time, which helped out immensely.
When we finally got the fish to the boat we ran into the problem that only his head fit in the net. When my brother tried to lift it, it just bent the handle on our cheap green nylon net. Side note: We have since purchased a large rubber snag free net. With his head in the net and half a handle my brother pinned him to the side of the boat, at which point we both got a arm under his back half and tried to flip him in. He was about half way in when the hook came out and in a panic I threw a bear hug around him and slid him into a cubby of the boat.
Once he was in the boat was the first time he went absolutely nuts. I had to pin him down in between my legs with both hands around the back of his head. We took a rough measurement and got 48 inches but probably could have got more if we would have really laid him flat. I got him lifted, which was no easy task, and my brother snapped some pictures. We tried to weigh him but my scale only went to 25lbs and he bottomed it out in a hurry.
At this point I thought there was a chance it could be a record but was not positive of the existing record, so I did what I would tell anyone to do in my situation and released him. Don't get me wrong it still eats me up to this day that I might have released a state record but I know I did the right thing and it doesn't matter how much crap I get for doing it.
To say the least that was a day an angler dreams about and is a memory I will never forget. And I feel blessed that my brother was there to share it with me and to know that that fish is still out there just getting bigger and waiting for some other lucky angler to experience a fish of a lifetime.
He was caught on 12 lb Berkley Vanish, which i cannot say enough good thing about. A 6'6;" Shimano Compre rod, Shimano Citica baitcast reel and a Pulsator spinnerbait with double willow leafs,(best spinnerbait out there in my opinion), and no steel leader.
I hope you enjoyed my story because other than to a handful of fishing buddies, this is the most details I have given anybody. Feel free to post the pic and any other part of my story you would like. I appreciate your response and look forward to seeing it on your web page. I have sent this pic to other magazines and web pages and they were not willing to post due to my lack of willingness to share details. I have heard alot of good things about you guys through my closest fishing partner, Todd Bearden, and for that reason I am willing to share it with you.
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