Greetings fellow Musky Hunters!

Well as of last Sunday we put another one in the books. This year the tourney was won by non other than our most celebrated founder Mr. Dale "Musky Pete" Peterson. What a WHOPPER, a 47.5 incher caught on K-Lake while dragging a sucker. Congratulations Dale, his catch established a new Musky Mania record.

According to Dale, late that morning they decided to make one last drift and hooked that baby very late in the morning. Thank goodness Jim "Andretti" Jessup was at the wheel. Jim was able to safely get Dale to the fish registration with 4 minutes to spare. I guess this just goes to show, you can never give up, fish it hard to the last (as in Dale's case) second.

What a great weekend overall. We had a nice cookout on Friday night and as usual a few tried their luck off the dock for walleyes. There were a few taken but nothing to write home about, even Gary was throwing them back. The weekend weather during the hunt was on the warm side, but the wind was up and blowing. Great for sailing when you’re in hurry, but not the best for drifting with a sucker. A special thanks to Gary, Gordie and Steve for their extra help with the details and Jennifer and Marti at North Twin Lodge were again great hosts.

After my shore visit, I told Jimmy we should just head back to North Twin Lodge for the ceremonies. But he wanted to stay out until quitting time. I said we would take one final drift on the West shoreline where we had not fished yet. Only put out one sucker as they were getting hung up on weeds quite a bit. We were at the end of our drift when Jimmy picked up the sucker rod and said it may be a fish or weeds.

The sucker was on my rod with a single circle hook and rubber band setup. I felt the tugs and thought it may be a fish. It was 11:20 and only 10 minutes left to fish. I told Jimmy to get on the trolling motor and follow the bobber. The dock rope got wrapped up in the trolling motor and with the wind blowing us fast and the fish taking line, I was running out of line so I held the rod in one hand and fired up the big 150 hp Yamaha with the other and followed the fish while Jimmy got the rope untangled. Cut the big motor and used the trolling motor to follow the float. It was hard getting position with the high winds. I told Jimmy I would wait till 11:29 and then set the hook but at 11:26 the fish was running good away from us so I swept the rod to the side and felt a good fish. It ran a few feet and came out of the water throwing the sucker. I said "Holy crap, it's a big one"!! When it jumped, the head was facing away from us and the gills flared and I thought it might be over 50". It made a couple runs and Jimmy had it in the net at 11:28. We had 2 minutes to spare.

By now we were in the weeds along shore. Took some video of the fish in the net, had to edit out a few words like It's a fat f---er. He had the hook in the gullet so we cut the leader, 80# Flurocarbon, took a few photos and measured him at 47.5". Back in the water and off he went in a hurry. By now time was running late as we needed to have the fish registered by 12:15. We had to get out of the weeds, get the boat loaded, and back to NTL in 25 minutes. Jimmy drove the speed limit, RIGHT!!, and we got back with 4 minutes to spare. WHAT A FISH!!  2nd biggest I ever caught and bigges ever for Musky Mania. This makes the 7th time I have won MM and surely the most memorable.  Thanks to Jim Jessup for keeping us on the water to the end and a great net job.

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