Three Michigan anglers landed a huskie muskie that's the largest catch of its kind in the state.
The 59-inch whopper, which broke two small nets, weighs 58 pounds. The men from Portage and Battle Creek were fishing in Antrim County's Lake Bellaire last weekend when something heavy grabbed the 7-inch minnow at the end of Joe Seeberger's 8-pound-test fluorocarbon line. He tells the Free Press what happened during the next two hours:
"At first, I thought it was another smallie [bass]. I told them, 'It's a good one,' " Seeberger said. "Then I said, 'Oh, it's not a smallie.'"
He said the muskie came easily to the boat just five minutes after he hooked it. "Then she spooked and jumped out of the water and was gone," he said. "The only thing I can compare it to is that scene in 'Jaws' when the shark swims by the boat and comes out of the water."
But the trophy was still at the end of his line. Off and on over the next two hours, the fight raged with the muskie taking out more line when it wanted and the three men following it around the lake, using an electric trolling motor. . . .
The muskie is now at a taxidermy shop in northern Michigan being preserved to mount on Seeberger's wall.
