Your Best Chance for a 50+ inch Musky

Written By - Jim Dicken - 09/30/2007

Link to Original Article here

Back in 1989 a Record Size Muskie was caught photographed and released at Manitou Lake. The fish was caught on a Mepps Syclops Spoon, and was featured on the cover of the Mepps Magazine for 1991. The fish was not weighed because it was caught before the Muskie Season Opened. The fish was measured at 62 inches which is depending on which fish you say is the World Record, is 1/2 to 2 inches smaller. The angler was fishing for pike when he hooked the beast of Mosher Bay. It is possible that this is the TRUE World Record, since many of the Muskies from the 30's, 40's and into the 50's have proven to be faked or weight added.

I talked extensively on this trip with Dave Korzinski the man who guided for what I call the Mepps Muskie. Dave's stories on the lake are legendary, and since he has been guiding on the lake since he was 15 he is probably an expert on Musky on the 3 lakes that make up the Manitou Chain. Dave tells a tale of a lake that has rebounded from its hey day numbers in the Late 70's and Early 80's when every angler had a 2 fish daily limit and most took that limit "HOME". I am not sure if it was for the meat, or for the trophies but Musky was the main attraction at this lodge in July and August when temperatures on the lake reach their zenith.

Today Dave believes that the fishing on Lake Manitou is back to the levels of the 70's and 80's and he talks extensively about this. He even believes that a rival to the Mepps Muskie is in the lake and talks about evidence of a larger Musky left on a dead Pike he found on the lake with a customer. The Pike was a 28 incher and the tooth marks on the fish were 7 inches apart. It would take a Muskie with a 9" across head to leave teeth marks that wide. Figure that that is 1/3 of the fish's girth at the head and you get a 27 inch girth at the head, and nearly 35 at the Fattest. This fish would most likely be in the high 50 inch length mark and most probably in to the 60 inch length mark. I can verify some of what Dave said. One pike of around 24 inches that we caught had a large