May 20, 2007 in Outdoors

Rich Landers: Second thoughts haunt bass angler

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Courtesy of Allen Krant photo

Allen Krant’s buddies have been teasing him after the Otis Orchards bass angler, equipped with an inadequate scale, released this tiger musky only to learn later that it might have been a Washington state record.
(Full-size photo)

Allen Krant has been getting a good ribbing about the big one that got away.

Actually, a possible shot at the Washington state record tiger musky didn’t get away. He released it.

Fishing April 24 on an area lake he refused to disclose – the candidates include Curlew, Newman and Silver – the Otis Orchards man and his brother were bass fishing with fairly good results.

They caught and released about five bass in one area, the biggest being around 2 pounds, and a tiger musky – small by tiger musky standards – struck his lure and bit through his line.

A tiger musky is the infertile hatchery product of using a male northern pike to fertilize the eggs from a female muskellunge.

A tiger musky must be at least 36 inches long in order to be kept in Washington.

Moving fruitlessly through several other spots, the anglers saw about 10 carp bolt out of the shallows.

“I made the comment to my brother that it would not surprise me if there was a musky in there trying to feed on those carp,” Krant said. On his third cast with a Pulsator spinnerbait, a big tiger musky smacked the lure less than 10 feet from the boat.

“We all kinda went into panic mode,” he said. But the fish was hooked by the trailer hook and the 12-pountest monofilament leader was not near the fish’s toothy mouth. “So we knew we had a chance,” he said.

“The fight itself was not that hard. I could not move the fish, but it only took line a couple of times, never getting more than 12 feet from the boat.”

Krant’s brother, who had been manning the electric motor to follow the fish, eventually tried to net it.

“Only part of its head fit in the net, plus it just bent the net when he tried to lift it,” Krant said.

With the fish pinned against the boat and its head in the net, “We both put an arm under its back half and tried to flip it in the boat. Well we only got it half way into boat at which point the hook came free.”

Krant said he resorted back to panic mode. “I threw a bear hug on the fish and drug it into the cubby area of boat. Once I got the fish pinned down I slid my hand into the gill plate and lifted him for a few pictures. We took a rough measurement without making sure he was stretched out flat and came up with 48 inches.

“The scale I had only goes up to 15 pounds because I bass fish, and to that day have never needed one that weighs more.”

The anglers guessed it was well over 30 pounds when they released it back into the lake. That’s why they cringed when they checked and found that the current Washington record is 51 inches long and 31 pounds.

“My heart sank,” Krant said. “I know if I were to have measured the fish properly it would have been very close to 51 inches and by my guess and comparing my pics to the record pics, we believe my fish was a heavier fish.

“I think the hardest part about all of this is how much crap I’m getting for releasing the fish, but I know I did the right thing. Even though I am kicking myself for letting go what could of been a state record, I feel good in knowing that that fish is out there getting even bigger and that someone else may have the chance to catch the fish of a lifetime as I did.”

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