Almost a State record NJ Muskie

[soulstream]

http://www.northjersey.com/towns/mt-lakes-man-s-muskie-nearly-beats-state-record-1.1166204?page=2
Ok boys here is the story:
The fish was caught on my boat,the KMB. Myself and 2 buddies launched out of Difeos, and went to the NJ side of the lake to pick up Leon, the guy who caught the fish. He has a NJ license, and lives in NJ. ,saves us a little on parking. We were fishing for walleye , and one of my buddies got his line caught in the trolling motor. I was working on getting the line out of the prop when Leon says "I got one". Not paying attention, My other buddies are telling him he has a catfish, he snagged a fish, etc. Now he circles the boat, and I am paying attention! All I had on board was a little net, so I ask if anybody has a boga, Leon has one. The gripper wouldn't fit around the fish's jaw, so I reached in and gave it a death grip! Leon fits the boga over the fish's jawbone, and in the boat he goes. We are all speechless!The fish threw up a little from both ends, so I put him in the live well and filled it with water. I tell Leon to go online and look up the NJ record. 42lbs 13oz. I took out my chatillion scale, and we weighed the fish, 45lbs!! He HAD the record! Now to get an official weight. We called 3 bait stores in the area, and nobody even had a scale! We dropped Leon back off to see what he could find and we headed back to the launch. We asked at Difeos, no info on a scale or where to find one. We called police stations, googled meat markets, nobody had a certified scale, and both NY and NJ dec offices were closed. We went to a tackle shop near the lake and they had a digital scale for sale....We explained that we may have a record fish and the store would get credit for the weigh in, and the owner put batteries in it and weighed the fish, 7 hours later. The fish weighed 41.66lbs, but still weighed 44 lbs on my scale. We wrapped the fish in soaked towels, put it in a couple hefty bags, and the next morning Leon weighed the fish in at Hackettstown Dec at 40.76lbs, not a record. We release 90% of everything we catch, but this fish will be on Leon's wall, and should be the new record. Still a day we will never forget

[soulstream]

Sorry guys, the article has a picture in it. I have a mac and can't  seem to get pics on this website

[fishgalore]

http://www.northjersey.com/towns/mt-lakes-man-s-muskie-nearly-beats-state-record-1.1166204?page=2

[rakerdave]

Wow . That's a hell of a fish

[soulstream]

Yes , definitely a big surprise! No walleyes that day, but we had some nice ones the week before, 3-6 lbs

[UglyStik]

What a giant! Great catch. Albino coloring?

[fishnmachine]

Wow! Awesome fish!
All supermarkets HAVE to have certified scales to sell anything by weight.

[big_guy_13021]

nice catch awesome color