Black Lake, NY Forum

Why keep it? Take good measurements several pictures, have it made into a fiberglass mount. Wouldn't you feel better not killing it?

fishinmagician wrote:Wouldn't you feel better not killing it?

Nope, not one bit. Catching a 70 pound muskie would be sooooo different than any other fish I've ever caught. It would be the trophy of trophies. I would enjoy taking it home and getting added to the record books. I think that would be pretty cool.

Again, I'm a HUGE fan of C&R. At the same time, I have absolutely no problem if someone keeps a record-setting fish. Keeping a trophy like that doesn't hurt the fishery and has zero impact on reproduction or fish population. A fish like that would be old ... really old. She would have already passed on her genetics to tens of thousands of baby fish over the years. Chances are she would already be well passed her high-production spawning years anyway. I think it's better for her to end up in the record books than washed up on shore dead in a year or two.

Plus, having a new state record fish is just plain fun. It's good for the fishing community as a whole. People will get excited, articles will get written, and pictures will circulate all over the internet. Not to mention, the lake and community where the fish is caught could see a big boost in business (and fishing pressure - which could be viewed as good or bad).

What you do with a legally caught fish is absolutely up to you.
That being said, I offer a few tips:
-Please gear up. Almost any patient fisherman can land a large musky using standard bass rated tackle. BUT doing so will almost always result in a dead fish as their recovery rate drops a lot when they fight to exhaustion. The correct tackle should run you about $500 including a $150 net, hook cutters and 12" long HD pliers. By the way unhooking a pissed off musky of any size requires care around those needle sharpened hooks. Also they do sometimes bite. (They won't let go when they do. They just bite down and shake their heads.... hard.)
-Your NY record fish will run about 65" long with a 28" or so girth. Anything smaller taken to a certified scale will be just another big muskie that died.
-New York musky record catches won't be recognized by any sanctioning group such as IGFA.
Never have, never will. Your fame will be pretty much limited to the state reg, book.
-Plan on about $1000-$1200 to have her mounted. Check out Larry's in Ogdensburg.
-You'll spend less and land more big ones hiring a guide in the River in November.

For me personally, all of this is just a hypothetical discussion. I don't target muskie and have actually never caught one.

I do target and catch lots of big pike though, and I agree completely with being properly prepared. It will protect the fish AND the fisherman.

A big pike though is still only about half the size of a state record muskie. That's crazy to think about.

Got her. Likely the same one from previous trips ( at least she looks the same).
Took the topwater plug right at the boat. In fact she came from under the boat.
Had a tough time landing as she managed to get wrapped up in a snag on the bottom.
My first mate did a great job with the net and we got her back in the water in good order.
Not a monster, 40-44 inches but fat! Also sporting 3 or 4 lampry scars.

i have been seeing a lot of lamprey marks on Bass this year. One day 3 out of 5 had them. Another guy had 2. Just wondering if anyone else is seeing it too.

Musky hunter wrote: Got her. Likely the same one from previous trips ( at least she looks the same).
Took the topwater plug right at the boat. In fact she came from under the boat.
Had a tough time landing as she managed to get wrapped up in a snag on the bottom.
My first mate did a great job with the net and we got her back in the water in good order.
Not a monster, 40-44 inches but fat! Also sporting 3 or 4 lampry scars.

Congrats on the catch! Do you ever snap any pics of your fish? I'm sure the forum would love to see elusive BL fish.

Thanks,
Mike

Have some on my computer and lots of prints. Haven't looked into downloading to Forum yet, (old you know). Have dropped off prints with Brian and Marcie at Lakeside for years as we are steady customers there. I think they have a couple on their web site.

Four of us invested 90+ manhours pounding the murky water into a foam and netted 3 good strikes and nothing else.
All in all a great weekend

Because I think muskies relate to the crappies in the lake, I would like to know when the crappies were introduced, and why. It seems both the walleyes and the muskies were trapped by the downstream dams so they existed in the lake prior to the crappie introduction. The muskies seem to reproduce and mature a bit better than the walleye though.
Any thoughts?

Crappie were introduced in the 1950's. My guess is because people like to catch and eat them, so they just tossed them in without thinking about the impact. Many people blame the decline of walleye on the crappie. I'm sure it played a part.

The walleye lost some good spawning habitat when the dam at Pope Mills was breached and released a bunch of silt. That has mostly been cleaned up now and the walleye spawn on the lake is good. Unfortunately, walleye taste good. Enough said.

Crappie, bass, walleye, pike, and muskie can all co-exist in Black Lake ... and in good numbers and size. It's rare, but this lake is so healthy and productive that there is food enough for all. And plenty of weedy and rocky habitat.

Black Lake is such a fish factory that it can sustain massive amounts of fishing pressure. What it CAN'T continue to sustain is over-harvest, especially of big fish.

5manhours fighting the wind and rain.
Raised 1musky on a crankbait but missed the figure 8 that may have triggeted a strike.
BUT, We did see an eagle and a sturgeon jump.
Great mid week trip up.

98 man hours fishing in beautiful weather.
3 muskies boasted in 3 days! Good to see a guest score his first. Good to see my son score 2 since last year he lost the only hook up he had.
Largest 45"-48". Smallest 16"-18", and that's great news as we need all the freshmen we can get!

Dude, if you caught a 48" muskie on Black Lake, we need to see some pictures!!! That's huge, and rare.

Neither rare nor huge. Just real nice.
As I've posted before, l haven't figured how to post photos from my phone to the forum.
Can you help with that?
We try to get hard prints to our friends at Lakeside Lodge every year. Marcie posts a couple on their site, (1 of me and one of my son).