Northwoods Muskies Visits Mille Lacs, Minnesota
By Mike Sasse & John Bennett, with Jason Hamernick
During the weekend of November 2-3, 2013, Northwoods Muskies Inc. President, Mike Sasse, and Secretary, John Bennett, teamed up with guide Jason Hamernick to catch this 54” x 28.5” musky from Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota. Here is an account of this special catch, by our Chapter 61 President and Secretary.
After a slow couple hours, Hamernick caught a 37″ pike and at that time, he had John switch to a candy corn pounder by Musky Innovations. It was about mid morning… Jason said “It was a new lure and he had only caught one fish on it… a 56 incher.” Then he proclaimed, “So don’t ruin my average!”
John then proceeded to raise a couple low to mid 40 inchers with the new lure, but both were really lazy. We now approached the mid-day major and the wind started to switch from south, southeast to a west, southwesterly… We moved back to begin a new drift and first cast or so John yells “FISH!” and his girthy pig struck about 15 feet from the boat… The head on this thing was enormous… and it had completely engulfed the pounder so that all you could see was the top of its head out of the fishes mouth… Nothing real special about the fight, but the measuring and picture taking were a blast… Upon seeing the fins clip the 54″ in line on the bump board, we did a girth measurement and the pig boasted a whopping 28.5 inches… we snapped a bunch of photos and released it back to be caught again.
John then cracked a celebratory beer and asked me if I wanted to throw the same lure since he was more than content and it was the only thing that had raised a musky so far… I’m no idiot, so I gladly took him up on it… As I was switching the pounder on my rod, Hamernick announced, “Hey the calculations on that thing put it at just under 55 lbs, which would be a new state record!” In my mind, all I could think about was ‘Holy crap, if that pig was hungry, there have to be more of them ready to eat, and the window is now, and I need to get that pounder back in the water!’
After about 5-10 minutes of casting I had mine hammer it on the second pull…. I set the hook so hard I almost landed on my butt… Good thing Johnny had just finished his beer and was reaching down to pick up his rod to start casting again so he was right behind me and pushed me back up… After another pretty uneventful fight, we netted beast number two… John says “Hey remember if you are going to mount that you should get a girth measurement.” I said “If its above 50 inches a replica is going on the wall. What do you think Jason?” He said , “It will be close, but definitely is your new PB.”
After getting it on the bump board, Jason confirmed a 50.25″ length and a 25 inch girth. I said “Sorry I brought down your average.” Needless to say I cracked my own celebratory beer. Two pigs in the boat in 16 minutes including a possible new Minnesota state record. 3 fish on that lure in six hours with the shortest being 50.25″ the longest being 56″ and the fattest having a 28.5″ girth… WOW!
Jason Hamernick guides full time on Minnesota’s Mille Lacs & Vermilion Lakes. Catch your next fish of a lifetime with Muskie Breath Guide Service.
