First muskie topping 50 inches ‘released unharmed and swam away angry!’

John Burke of Lake Zurich tweeted, “I finally broke the 50-inch club! I know you would appreciate it.”

The 52-inch muskie, which was estimated at 44 pounds, came on a black bucktail with a single chartreuse blade the afternoon of June 29. Burke was fishing Portage Bay on Eagle Lake in Ontario, out of Pine Beach Resort.

“Released unharmed and swam away angry!” he tweeted.

I like the wording in that line.

Burke will have Lax Reproductions will do the reproduction mount.

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/outdoorsgoes up at varied days of the week, depending on what is going on the wide world of the outdoors.

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