Cullen Veiders (left) poses with Jon Miller and the world-class Lake Ontario muskellunge caught in late October.
November 24, 2022
New York resident Cullen Veiders, proprietor/operator of Musky Candies Customs caught a mega muskie from northeast Lake Ontario close to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River throughout the early hours of October twenty fourth. The unimaginable muskie measured 59 1/2 inches and weighed a staggering 58 kilos, unofficially.
However you aren’t more likely to see this fish in report books as Veiders’ precedence was preserving the fish alive, as is the objective of all devoted muskie anglers. The fish was launched unhurt.
They merely don’t get a lot larger.
As anglers who’re all impressed by the largest fish of any species, true report breakers are all too typically caught by chance. However all of us watch with some stage of envy, but nonetheless want to rejoice the catch due to the eagerness all of us share for the game and what a fish like that represents to us all.
Every now and then, nevertheless, and extra so in recent times, hardcore anglers are certainly breaking the data themselves. That’s justice to these of us who imagine in striving for a benchmark, whatever the pursuit. Veiders is a {custom} muskie bait builder who has numbers of massive muskies to his title—together with fish within the mid-50-inch vary and past. He caught his huge fish on a hand-made and custom-painted lure of his personal design.
“I’ve been working my complete profession for a fish like that, and to have it come on a bait I constructed is the last word satisfaction,” Veiders stated. “These large muskies are largely loners and appear to want feeding after darkish—and a lot of the heaviest fish come within the fall. We do most of our fishing throughout that point. The particular lure was a Muskie Candies 10-inch Deep Sniper Orange-Stomach Evening Stalker.”
The 35-year-old angler is aware of large muskies are simply totally different than their smaller counterparts.
“I respect all muskies, however a fish like this one is in a category all its personal,” he defined. “The fish bit so laborious it actually cracked the lure in two spots, and I imagine had the bait not been constructed on a through-wire body, I might need been reeling in solely the lip of the bait and never a 58-pound muskie. I designed them that manner—particularly for the large fish.”
That’s muskie-fishing justice.
Video That Could Curiosity You
Extra Current Document-Ebook Fish
This mega 10-pound smallmouth was caught by a pair of devoted and gifted bass anglers this fall from Lake Erie that actually captivated the bass world. A uncommon catch that’s price celebrating!
Right here’s an instance of a acknowledged (and present) fashionable world-record muskie caught by bass anglers from Michigan’s Lake Bellaire in October of 2012. An unintentional catch for positive, however the fish is worthy of recognition and celebration. Plus, the behemoth was reeled on 8-pound fluorocarbon—a feat by itself. A lesser angler wouldn’t have been profitable. This muskie weighed 58 kilos and measured 58 inches. Unbelievable!
Final 12 months, practically to the day, Nolan Sprengeler broke a 64-year report in Minnesota with a outstanding fish caught from Mille Lacs. The fish was deep hooked, which does often occur, and it died as they tried to revive it for launch. Nolan and his crew of muskie fanatics made the best name and had the fish formally entered as the brand new Minnesota state-record muskie.
The fish measured 56 inches and weighed 54 kilos formally. And the muskie neighborhood largely celebrated the catch and new report.
This previous summer time one other large muskie was additionally caught from Mille Lacs by Eric Bakke, a fish measuring 58 1/4 inches. It was launched and never formally weighed—an amazing fish price recognition and celebration.
There Will Be Naysayers
There’s at all times the hypothesis issue, particularly now with the latest Lake Erie walleye scandal the place aggressive anglers jammed weights into the bellies of the fish they had been weighing. They received caught and are dealing with severe costs.
That occasion alone will trigger individuals to be extra suspicious when large fish are weighed at tournaments or documented in report books.
When coping with a record-class fish, there will probably be questions. Was the fish weighed on a licensed scale? If it’s a catch-and-release state of affairs, had been the size and girth measurements taken precisely, and if that’s the case, how dependable is the length-to-girth calculator? Certainly, all fish are constructed in a different way. Had been there witnesses current, how dependable are they?
Which report trumps all? Official data typically require the fish to be killed after which weighed on a licensed scale, however is that probably the most dependable technique to set and break data? Or is a C&R report the place the fish was instantly launched to swim one other day the most effective technique? Ought to they be regarded individually?
All these conditions will definitely generate hypothesis. It’s price noting, although, that since muskies are virtually at all times launched, size trumps the load as a normal type of official measurement. However to really declare the highest spot, weight is sort of vital. Can it’s accomplished with out killing the fish? You’d suppose in right now’s fashionable age we’d be capable of make that occur someway.
Weighing a fish within the boat with an official scale and numbers of witnesses is a really tough job. Veiders did weigh his fish successfully figuring out that some muskie purists and naysayers would argue it. However even he admits it is probably not an formally licensed weight.
“We merely weighed the online hoop with out the deal with in it and it weighed 4 kilos,” he stated. “Then, with the assistance of my companions, we lifted the fish whereas within the web and documented the size with an image. I’m unsure if the load will probably be formally acknowledged, however I do know what we had there. A real world-class fish—doubtless the brand new Trendy Day World Document. However we selected to launch the fish, and I’m glad we did.”
Within the muskie world particularly, lots of the old-time data have both been since debunked or simply not accepted as precise data—only a few fashionable anglers settle for these previous muskie data as official, and for good cause. There have been books—to the plural—written about what number of, if not all, of these record-class fish weren’t truly as large as initially claimed.
This characteristic is to not resurrect these arguments. Truth is, all these fish, no matter official weight and size, had been huge. They captivated muskie anglers again then—and they’re going to proceed to encourage the group into eternity.
As a result of excessive stage of argument made to disqualify all of the previous data, the Worldwide Muskellunge Document Assessment Committee was shaped in Hayward, Wisconsin, created the Trendy Day Muskie World Document Program (MDMWRP) that gives a spot to successfully and reliably report fashionable record-class muskies, ought to an angler resolve to make the most of this system.
Cullen Veiders’ Story
“I grew up loving fishing, primarily salmon, steelhead and bass,” Veiders stated. “However the obsessive ardour for fishing actually didn’t develop till later in life. I struggled with medicine as a youngster. I hung out in jail, half-way homes and totally different rehabs till I made a decision to redirect my life and get my focus again. Alongside the best way I used to be reintroduced to fishing and it was the begin to a brand new life for me. I point out that to say muskie fishing actually saved my life.”
He went again to highschool and earned his Bachelors diploma in Well being and Human Providers from the College of Buffalo, and ended up interning at a rehab facility he was truly in 10 years prior. It was at the moment his fascination with resin-based, high-definition molded baits captivated his bait-building and portray consideration.
“I’d work all day after which get residence and spend evenings into the early hours of the morning experimenting with new bait profiles and designs,” he stated. “Famend muskie-bait builder Johnny Dadson received a maintain of me and used one in every of my early baits to catch the primary 50-incher on one in every of my lures, and that received me eager about a future as a bait builder. I by no means supposed to take this on fulltime, however I finally made the choice to pursue this as a profession. It’s been extremely rewarding ever since.”
Trolling is one of the simplest ways to successfully cowl water searching for these giants, and when contemplating how clear the water is, nighttime trolling is the ticket.
“That is such an enormous physique of water that any type of wind makes it practically unattainable to get out,” he defined. “I’ve observed that muskies are inclined to feed in home windows and as soon as they’ve had their fill, they may not be keen to chase down one other meal for a few days. I point out that to say you actually should line up plenty of components up to achieve success—crucial one is simply being on the market with a line within the water.
“After two days of unproductive fishing and tough climate, we lastly had good situations,” he stated. “We launched the boat round 5 pm with plans to fish late into the evening. Throughout the night I marked a giant fish—it was so large I assumed it needed to be a sturgeon or one thing, nevertheless it was barely suspended off the underside beneath a pod of bait, so I assumed it might be a giant muskie. I dropped a waypoint in any case simply in case.”
The blokes trolled round for some time and finally returned to the realm the place Veiders observed the massive mark from earlier.
“We marked one other large fish, and I stated it needed to be the identical fish. It was truly very near my authentic mark, so we dropped one other waypoint” he stated. “The solar set, we appeared on the moon phases and felt like we had a possible feeding window forward. It was about 12:30 am after we returned once more to the realm and I switched to a deeper-running lure on wire line to attain most depth, since that’s the place we’d marked fish earlier than. We had been trolling proper by means of that space the place we dropped waypoints earlier, and the rod went off.
“Once I felt the pinnacle shakes on the opposite finish, I knew I had a giant fish. The man I used to be fishing with and myself have each caught numbers of fish over 55 inches, so we all know a giant one after we really feel it. Throughout the battle, this fish all of the sudden stopped, and I couldn’t transfer it—the fish took full management and ran laborious. We needed to take the boat out of substances and provides the fish room to combat. Fingers down this was the hardest muskie battle I’ve ever been in. It appeared prefer it took a very long time, nevertheless it actually wasn’t however a pair minutes. Then, because of an knowledgeable web job, the muskie hit the underside of the online and we had it.
“I began shaking. We knew it was an enormous. We had been in awe. Speechless.”
Veiders has been round large muskies for years and is nicely conscious of the speculative nature of the muskie neighborhood, so he’s been ready to share a narrative like this. However issues don’t at all times go as deliberate.
“We took all the required measurements—59 1/2 inches. We weighed it with a calibrated Chatillon scale safely by lifting the fish up within the web with a number of units of palms—the ring weighs 4 kilos and the size learn 62 kilos making it a 58-pound muskie,” he defined. “Nevertheless it was chilly, and my cellphone’s digital camera wasn’t taking good footage like I had hoped. Fortunately, there have been a number of different anglers I do know nicely who had been fishing the realm that evening, too. All of them came to visit to assist and shoot extra footage and video.
“At no time was the fish out of water for greater than half a minute. It was a crew effort for positive. All of us wished there to be no query on the legitimacy of this fish, so we did every thing we may to not solely weigh it however launch it alive and nicely. And I really feel like we completed that.”
Now, whether or not or not the fish will probably be formally acknowledged by the MDMWRP as both tied with or as the brand new world report is to be decided, nevertheless it’s clear that Veiders captured one of many largest muskies ever caught. After which launched it again to the waters from which it got here.
That’s an obsessive dedication that I can perceive and totally get behind.
From all of us at In-Fisherman: Congrats Cullen!
What would you do should you caught a possible record-book fish?
