Hot rod for Fish of the Week

The same rod, for the first time, makes a piece of Fish of the Week.

Dan Shapiro used his fishing buddy Frank Munizzi’s “xxx-tra heavy St. Croix rod” to boat and release a 47-inch spotted muskie on Cass Lake in Minnesota earlier this month.

FOTW tops the Midwest Fishing Report each Wednesday in the Sun-Times.

The muskie took a white Storm Kickin’ Minnow.

“Frank and I are thinking that rod is lucky considering it was bought the day before he caught his and now the second trip it goes on it catches another 30+ lb monster,” the union carpenter at McCormick Place said.

Well, let him tell the details, it shows the power of the rod.

I caught that fish on July 7 on Cass lake in Minnesota. It was 47 inches long and weighed at least 30 lbs. Me and my friends Carlos Roman and Mike Delfiaco stayed for week at the Cass Lake Lodge. We saw a few muskies that week, but that was the only one caught. All together we caught are limits on rock bass and perch, with a few walleye big enough to eat. Also plenty of pike were caught. That musky put up the best fight I have ever experienced. I will never forget it! I could be the biggest musky I may ever catch. The rod I used was the St. Croix 7’6″ xxx-tra heavy rod for very large soft plastic swim baits. It was the same rod that Frank Munizzi used the week prior to catch the fotw on July 2. Frank was nice enough to let me use his rod on my trip to Minnesota.

It was released.

On July 2, Munizzi, a Manhattan man, was featured in FOTW for a fish of a lifetime, a 50-inch muskie he caught and released on Webster Lake in Indiana. Shapiro was there helping as fishing partner and net man.

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

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