Surprise big muskies: FOTW comes while jigging for walleye on the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage

Scott Budzinski earns Fish of the Week honors with a big muskie, one of two caught and released while jigging for walleye.

Scott Budzinski holds the biggest of two muskies he caught while jigging for walleye. Provided photo

Scott Budzinski holds the biggest of two muskies he caught while jigging for walleye.

Provided

Scott Budzinski caught two surprise muskies while fishing for walleye with an 1/8th-ounce Invasion Jig and minnow on 10-pound line Nov. 8 on the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage in northern Wisconsin. The biggest one was 52 inches long (pictured above).

“[It] was my second musky catch-and-release of the day,” Budzinski emailed. “Thirty minutes before this one hit, I released a 42-inch musky.”

The first muskie came on a jig-and-minnow, too.

Yes, if you’re counting, it is the fourth muskie in a row for FOTW.

That 52-incher deserves a full-length view.

Full-length view of Scott Budzinski holding the biggest of two muskies he caught while jigging for walleye. Provided photo

Full-length view of Scott Budzinski holding the biggest of two muskies he caught while jigging for walleye.

Provided

FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories (the stories matter, as this one shows) around Chicago fishing, runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times. The online posting here at chicago.suntimes.com/outdoors goes up at varied days of the week, depending on what is going on the wide world of the outdoors.

To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or Instagram (@BowmanOutside).

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