5-foot woman, 6-lb. test line, 50-inch muskie

[Spiel]

5-foot woman, 6-lb. test line, 50-inch muskie

 

 

Friday, May 29, 2009

Marjie Ducey / www.nptelegraph.com

World-Herald News Service

 

 

Vicky Penny of Waco caught a 32.5-pound, 50.5-inch muskie at Merritt Reservoir over Memorial Day weekend.

What makes it remarkable is that Penny, who is barely 5 feet tall,

pulled in the fish with 6-pound test line and no steel leader.

The fish is only about nine pounds and a half-inch short of the state record.

 

 

OMAHA - Vicky Penny wasn't sure at first if it was a snag or a fish.

 

But when her line started moving and going deeper last weekend at Merritt Reservoir, she knew that it was something big.

 

The woman from Waco ended up hauling in a 32.5-pound muskie that was 50.5 inches in length. Although about nine pounds and a half-inch short of the state record, it's the biggest muskie that John Bauer has seen come out of Merritt. He's starting his fifth year as the owner of the Trading Post there.

 

What makes it remarkable is that Penny, who is barely 5 feet tall, pulled in the fish with 6-pound test line and no steel leader. She used a white-jointed Shad Rap lure, just as Jared Haddix of Sidney did when he caught the record 41-pound, 8-ouncer that was 52 inches long at Merritt in 1992.

 

"Most guys would be using 40- to 50-pound test line, with a rod that's got action like a pool cue, and steel leaders," said Daryl Bauer, the fisheries outreach program manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. "That's the beauty of fishing."

 

Penny, a lifelong angler who was fishing with friend Max Peterson and boat owner Rick Schuelke, was on her first expedition of the spring. They were looking for walleye.

 

They had been on the water only about an hour when the fish bit. Penny said it took only five to 10 minutes to land the first muskie she's ever seen.

 

Because she didn't know what to expect, Penny said she didn't overreact. And that enabled her to land her prize.

 

"Just being calm and staying with it and keeping the line tight and keep being persistent with it," she said. "I didn't try to reel him in real fast. I think that made a difference in getting him to the boat."

 

Peterson was able to get the fish's head in their too-small net and lug him aboard. Penny said that's when the fun began. Although she was excited, Peterson and Schuelke were over the moon about her big fish.

 

"It was like the biggest thing that ever happened to them," she said.

 

They had the fish weighed and measured several times at the Trading Post. Word spread quickly, and Penny said she felt like a celebrity the rest of the trip, her first to Merritt.

 

Even the Game and Parks' Bauer said he'd consider giving a finger for a muskie that size.

 

"Any muskie over 50 inches is a darn good muskie," he said. "Fifty inches is kind of the gold standard, by anyone's definition."

 

Penny, a computer analyst, said it didn't sink in until the next day that she'd had a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

 

She's going to take the fish to a taxidermist and mount it above her fireplace.

 

Peterson told Penny that there aren't too many women who would want a big fish on their wall.

 

"I'm not like other women," Penny told him.

[kickingfrog]

I guess that means you can start making your custom musky sticks a lot lighter eh Chris?

[Spiel]

Well I'm thinking Rob that with my custom musky rods you can land them quickly almost ensuring that they'll be healthy enough to release.

[kickingfrog]

Ya, I know what you mean. For a short while back when I got into ultra lite fishing for walleye, I would use the same set-up for smallmouth. Lots of fun, but those fish had to be played out too much.