Underhanded Musky Practices Commentary By Craig Sandell © 2020 Many of you out there have heard the stories of the scallywags of the past who put 5 pound window weights into the belly of the Musky they caught so they could claim bragging rights for large fish caught. Those bragging rights would get them guide business, seminar business, article business, lure business and book business. When Len Hartman exposed the widespread practice through his personal confession, most of us believed that, although underhanded, it was a practice of the past and not a problem in the modern era of Musky fishing. Recently, much to my chagrin, reports have surfaced indicating that the practice of "enhancing" the weight and size of captured Musky is still going on and for the same reasons as previously mentioned. A noted taxidermist reported that a 30 pound class Musky caught by one of today’s Musky notables was found to have a 26" Northern in its belly. Now that is not an unusual occurrence. In this instance however, there wasn’t a tooth mark on the Northern which is very unusual when you consider that Musky Tbone their large prey and then turn it headfirst into their gullet while securing it with a formidable array of teeth. The only way that a Northern gets into the stomach of a Musky without teeth marks is if it is shoved down the throat of the Musky after its dead.
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