A youngster's first legal muskie could be a trophy at 42". A image of a trophy may also change to a personal fishing challenge such as with flyfishing or using lightline to get a name in the record book. It is all in the eye of the beholder. For our discussion we can keep it simple with the DNR 50" spawning lake regulation.
Tough question to answer on a statewide basis. Since length and weight can be relative to water body it's almost impossible to set a single trophy size. Catching a 45 inch fish in some waters is a huge accomplishment. While in other waters to achieve that same level of accomplishment a fish would have to be 50"+.
In my mind 50 has always stood as the magic number. Even though
when I started this journey(2002) and still probably true today, there
is only 1 lake I fish that has 50 inchers in it. I caught what was a real
giant out of Oster maybe one of the biggest that lake has givin up(???)
and thats awesome, but,…… its not a 50 !
As far as weight, heck a fat fish is just a bonus.Even a "skinny" 50
is a trophy in my book.Fish of that size are older,wiser and have surly earned their stripes no matter what the girth.
Fat or skinny,pretty or beat-up,casting or trolling, if the "kid" nails
a 50, the wife will get PLOWED by SUPERMAN that evening!! -peace
Whew, this one definitely needs a reroute back to the topic!
Juding by Ron's title there and the timing with the managment plan draft, I think he was getting at what LAKES the DNR should consider managing for trophies – waters that can produce a certain size fish (30 lbs?, 40 lbs? 50"?) or whatever other criteria you think is important (geography, public acceptance, history, etc).
Sticking to the LP, personally I think that if it has size and the right forage-predator balance, it should be a candidate for trophy managment. Talking to Kregg Smith at the banquet, I was encouraged to hear him use the term 'trophy' about 20 times…sounds like something will happen along these lines in the future!
Any management plan for producing trophy waters by setting limits must be based on length, since most anglers have no way of measuring anything else when out on the lake.
As for what I consider a "trophy"? It's the next fish on the end of my line! They're still all "trophies" to me. 😀 But even if I start catching monsters, I doubt I'll ever have a "trophy" on my wall since I don't intend to ever harvest a fish or even get a repro made.
Unless I step in it like that krazy dutchman… [smilie=biggrin.gif]
The experienced MMA members are more qualified to chose potential inland trophy status lakes than I. I'm bias, but agree with Hamlin Lake for trophy potential as proved by past history documentation. If the state park license plate proposal goes through the Ludington State Park boat launch has access to the lake. Thus Hamlin Lake receives a great amount of fishing pressure now and will have more in the future. Any protections we can promote for the Hamlin Lake muskies would be a win/win for both the muskie fishery and long term economic tourism for Mason county.
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