Big muskies in our backyard

Another week has gone by, and boy oh boy do I have a fish story to tell you all.

Last Saturday while fishing and boating out at Lake Carroll, I caught wind of a monster that came out of the lake back on May 22. From the description I was given, it seemed inconceivable a fish this big came from – and was released back into – a body of water in our neck of the woods.

Tony Coniaris, a portfolio manager and U.S. investment analyst at Chicago-based Harris Associates, is a property owner out at Lake Carroll. On May 22, he hooked and reeled in a 50-inch, 35-pound muskie. Instead of putting the monster on ice and calling a taxidermist to set up a mount, Coniaris released the fish after posing for a picture.

Once I wrapped my mind around the size of the behemoth, I had to ask the obvious question: Why?

Why would Coniaris release a fish of a lifetime? It certainly makes this fisherman question
his decision. Had I hooked something that big, I would have already been picking out which wall in my basement the fish would look best on.

“We don’t have an official scale, but if I had to guess, that’s probably one of the biggest fish to come out of the lake,” Lake Manager Joe Rush said.

Lake Carroll requires muskies under 48 inches long to be released. However, a daily of limit of one muskie over 48 inches is allowed. Thus, Coniaris had the choice to catch and release.

When inventory of the hatchery at the lake is taken, Rush says that they see several muskies close to Coniaris’ behemoth’s size in the upper 40s. They periodically stock muskies, but the focus is on walleye.

News of the catch has bolstered the lake’s already great reputation.

“A fish like that is exactly what we needed,” Rush said.

The topic of Coniaris’ fish being a state record took some research, and it’s darn close. The current Illinois record for a muskie is a 50 3/4-inch, 38-pound, 8-ounce beast caught below the dam at downstate Lake Shelbyville, a reservoir made by damming the Kaskaskia River.

However, Coniaris made his fish unavailable for a state record. In Illinois, a fish has to be killed to be eligible for record status; there are no records for caught-and-released fish. The new state record would have been Jim Hack’s 54-inch monster hooked at a Lake County lake on July 5, 2016. Hack stated that he didn’t want to kill the fish, instead saying that he’s “a die-hard catch-and-release guy.”

This area isn’t exactly a prime muskie spot in the U.S. despite Lake Carroll’s newest monster. Hayward, Wisconsin is known as the Musky Capital of the World. Other hot spots include the St. Lawrence River system in Ontario, Canada; Minnesota’s Mille Lacs; and Torch, Elk, and Charlevoix lakes in Michigan.

The world record for the largest muskie is a disputed one. With so much controversy surrounding the 69-pound, 11-ounce, 63 1/2-foot all-tackle world record caught by Louis Spray in 1949, the true all-tackle world record was caught by Cal Johnson in July of 1949 at Lac Court Oreilles near Hayward, Wis., weighing 67 pounds, 8 ounces, and stretching to 60 1/4 inches. You can see the fish mounted at Moccasin Bar and Museum in Hayward.

If you don’t have the time to travel the upper Midwest in search of big muskies, Lake Carroll is your best bet. The Rock River is known for its catfish and bass, and has a decent walleye population. Muskies just aren’t suited for a muddy tributary like the Rock.

“We truly have trophy muskie and smallmouth [bass] in the lake,” Rush said. “There’s an opportunity to catch some great fish, not just from a boat like professional anglers do, but even from the docks.”

So if you’re feeling ambitious, and have the rigs to do it, call up a friend who owns property at Lake Carroll and cast a line. All anglers must either be property owners at Lake Carroll or be a guest of a property owner. Make sure your line is strong, though. You never know what you might hook while fishing for cats or bass.