Webster muskie for Fish of the Week, July 2, 2008

It’s the fish of a lifetime.

In other words, a perfect fish for Fish of the Week, which tops the Midwest Fishing Report in the Sun-Times each Wednesday.

Frank Munizzi caught his, a 47-inch muskie topping 30 pounds, from Indiana’s fabled Webster Lake on a stormy Thursday, June 26.

“Thunder and lightening came frequently, I was afraid that this would turn the fish off, boy was I wrong!” the Manhattan man said.

He hooked up with a perch-colored Kickin’ Minnow on a weed edge in 20 feet. With the help of his extra heavy 7-foot, 9-inch St. Croix rod and his fishing partner Dan Shapiro, the fish was boated.

Then released. “I know this fish will be someone’s 50-inch next year, it does have the potential!” he said.

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Here’s his whole story.

It started out as an overcast morning, with some light rain on the Barbie chain. Thunder and lightening came frequently, I was afraid that this would turn the fish off, boy was I wrong! I was with my fishing partner Dan Shapiro, we both have logged about 60-100 hours this season with just follows and small musky. At 7:30a.m., I casted a perch colored, kicking minnow on a weed edge in about 20 feet of water, and let it fall…that’s when I felt a thump! I set the hook about 3 times, because I knew she was big and I didn’t want to loose her! Dan got the net and we worked to get the hooks out of her, it took about 5 minutes, she was thrashing the whole time! We took several pictures and got her back in the water, it took about 10 minutes to revive her, then she was back on her way. The girth was unbelievable, we only had a musky stick to measure her length. I know this fish will be someone’s 50″ next year, it does have the potential! About 11:30a.m. the rain came down hard, and we went in for lunch. When the weather was just a drizzle, we went back out there and Dan had 2 Follows, and I had a 35″ bite me and got off! At 7:30p.m. I had another 40″ plus hit my Chatter bait, and got him all the way to the boat, and he spit it! Needless to say, this was THE BEST Musky fishing day I’ve had in a long time!! They were definitley hungry all day long!

E-mail FOTW nominations to outdoordb@sbcglobal.net.

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