The Next Trophy Muskie

Find out where the nearest “certified” scale is located. If no one knows, find out where the nearest U.S. post office is (make sure you can get there before noon on Saturday or during working hours the rest of the week.) Otherwise look for a meat market or grocery store. The State is required to certify those scales on a regular basis and they will provide you with a receipt also. I think it would be best to call the store or market before driving over there as you want to make sure their scale is large enough for your fish. It would be a waste of time to drive to a meat market to weight a 60-pound fish on a 50-pound scale. I would personally get a second certified weight. Compare the two weights for similarity. They may not be exactly as the fish may have died and began drying out. This is to be expected. This way the challenges will be minimized. Again, be sure you get all the weight observers to fill out their personal information and a statement to the effect that they “personally” witnessed the weight and make sure they specify what weight they witnessed. If you’re at the post office have the postal person date stamp everyone’s signature and form. It is very important to keep each individual persons information on one, separate sheet. Do not have more than one person use the same sheet for their information. Make sure you get receipts from the post office, grocery store or meat market showing the weight and signed by who ever actually weighed the fish and manipulated the scale. It would also be good to make a note of the certification sticker number and date last certified.

Take photos of all persons involved with the weighing, including group photos of observers standing around the scale. Make notes of whose photo it is and place a name with each photo.

After you have returned your fish back into the live well. Get your rod and reel and remove a minimum of the first 25’ feet of line. Wrap it around a piece of cardboard and identify the manufacture, type of line, line weight, lot number and any other identifying features. This will be required for testing, especially for line class records.

Now sit down somewhere and make a log of your events since landing the fish. List chronologically by time of each activity. Witness’s names, photos taken, etc. Be absolutely sure that everything jives. All weights must match. Witness’s figures must match the scale weight they witnessed. Times and dates must all match. You cannot document too much. The more you document the less challenges you’ll get from the doubting public. Remember the next world record “true” muskellunge will make the person that catches it a very popular person and financially comfortable, if marketed correctly. I don’t think that catching a hybrid will offer the same level of notoriety.

It is now time to call a taxidermist and make sure he is home before you drive over and find out differently. Keep calling taxidermists until a satisfactory one is found. It is very important that you stay with this fish until you can pass it to some reputable taxidermist. You will be watched by many folks who would just love to permanently “borrow” your new World Record fish and claim it for themselves. The more you have documented the better your chances are going to be for recovery. Once you get home check with your insurance agent to possibly purchase a policy to cover loss or damage to your fish.

I am well aware that this article goes way beyond the requirements of National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame (NFFHF) and International Game Fish Association (IGFA) requirements. However, I feel that the next world record muskie will be scrutinized scale by scale with individuals and groups attempting to see it disqualified for some innate reason. Further I doubt that any of us go out fishing with the thought in mind, “Oh, I am going to just catch sub-legals today”. Deep down we’re all looking for that one-in-a-million chance to have our fifteen minutes of fame.

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