Monster's Revealed Living in Lake Scugog

Hold onto your rods folks, cause I've got a story for you! Anyone who says you have to go to big waters to get big fish, after reading this article, I'm going to make you think twice! Straight from the heart of my home town Port Perry , lies one of my favourite lakes, Lake Scugog. As many of you know, but for those who don't Scugog aka "the bog" is a man-made body of water, where its deepest point is 23 ft. Out of the Kawartha lakes, its known to be the smaller, shallower body of water. And being shallow water, you are guaranteed that it makes it one of the weediest. Many anglers have experience in their years fishing on this lake, that you never know what's going to happen. It can be hard to produce the big weight, but we all know one things for certain, we have giant monsters living deep in those weeds, and by monsters, I mean the Muskellunge. And I got PROOF! It was a beautiful hot humid evening, all the yard work was done, and we had a handful of hours to kill before dark, so my partner, dad and I set out to go on the hunt for some big fish. Launched the boat in the water, the wind was just right, just enough to give the water a good ripple. We touched down on a few different spots where we have landed some walleye & muskies before, but we didn't have much luck. So I said to my dad, why don't we give my old spot a try, where I caught my 20-25 pound muskie a few years back , so dad agreed. We were fishing in 6-10ft of water, and were looking for one specific thing, the coontail weedline along an old riverbed. Right off the hop, my partner ended up landing a couple crappies, which was a good sign, at least we knew their was bait around. A while later, with little to no action where the wind calmed down & water was a little murky, I decided to change it up.after watching my dad catch a couple of hefty walleye on a 1/4 inch white jig head with a pink and white twister tail .With my dads new concept spinning rod MH with 20lb ghost braid with a 8lb floro leader, I figured why not,its all or nothing at this point, brighter the better. All the baitfish (crappie,perch ,bluegill) suddenly dissapeared and that usually means 1 of 3 things: the bait moved out, shut off, or predators were near by. Well a couple more pitches, and I felt a tick, solid weight so I set the hook! FISH ON! Rod held high, this fish was staying down, I couldn't figure out what it was. I thought It was a huge walleye. Well I gave my reel a couple of spins &" BOOM"! My rod bent over and the line started squeeling out, this fish knew she was hooked. She was pulling drag like no tomorrow, thankfully the tension just perfect that the fish could run with it, if she had to. And did she ever! I had two hands on my rod, holding tight, I thought it was a gator. My dad was laughing at me, as he seen me holding on for dear life, and my partner waited anxiously. After this fish tired herself out or at least what We thought, I slowly reeled her closer to the boat, it felt like I was bringing up a log from bottom, thats how solid it felt. She surfaced and I couldn't believe my eyes, it looked to be a giant gator, and I could see her hooked just perfectly in the side of the mouth to avoid her biting me off. I brought her closer to the boat as my dad kneeled down to assist her so we could have a look, but she wasnt ready! She took a turn on my dad with a huge splash & started spooling line out again. She had one last powerful run, she dove deep into the weeds, and by this point, she moved the entire 19 foot triton boat 180 degrees. The power on this fish was incredible. Suddenly 25 yds to our right, she flies 3 ft out of the water,doing a complete cartwheel , what a show. With a few more head shakes ,she was showing signs of letting up, I don't know who's more tired, me or the fish. I didn't know how much more strength my wrists and arm muscles could take, thankfully, she was out of gas. I reeled her closer to the boat, giving my dad the rod. I now kneeled down, gently putting my hands under her belly to calm her down, carefully put my fingers in the side of her gills without touching her gill rakers inside, I tried to do the best I could so I wouldn't hurt her. With muskies, we never use a net , to reduce causing any harmful effect on this fish, I pulled her out and and can honestly say , I had my personal best , a nice 30lb plus monster muskie, 60inch long we guesstimated her at ,as I am 5 ' 9" and the tail touched the carpet and was 7 " shy of the top of my head. Biggest I've ever caught in my whole life! Quickly, We snapped a couple photos, so we had proof this was no fish story, and began to put her back into the water. It's very important when catching & releasing fish especially the bigger ones after a long fought battle, to release them ever so gently to avoid dangering the fish.The method I used for placing her back was to slowing head first, belly supported,and back down into the water. I put my hand around her tail, and the other under her belly, away from any teeth or sharp fins, holding her there, I waited until I saw her fins starting to sway and her gills starting to regenerate with oxygen. At this point within minutes the she was now ready to leave by feeling her force,and off she gracefully swam. Letting her go gently and watch her gracefully swim away, was such a rewarding feeling and to know she was fine. I watched her swim off and dissapear into her weedy abyss. What an adventure this was, at the end of the night, we managed to catch a couple slot size walleyes and another two muskies, one broke off, while I released the other. Another successful evening fish for the memories! "She catches Fish" Sarah