If you're an avid musky angler by now you've probably across Charlie Gallagher's huge tiger musky somewhere on the internet, whether it's social media like youtube, facebook or even instagram, what could of been a world record, this 48 1/2 tiger had measured in with an incredible 28 1/2 inch girth, was caught in Minnesota's St. Louis River. Even though you've come across the photo, you've probably never read the
original article, which gives you some very insightful tips on what time of day you can catch monster musky like this, like what type of bait, what depth, what type of water and what type of structure/ecosystem. This tiger musky was caught late afternoon when the sun was slowly sinking towards the horizon and caught on a Top Raider topwater prop bait over weed edges in 6 feet of stained water. They didn't weigh the fish, but some estimated it to be around 49 pounds which could of crushed the state record, which is 34 pounds and 12 ounces, misses the world record at 51 pounds 3 ounces.
Goes to show you can catch really huge musky on topwater baits, but in specifically very weedy areas where normally a standard deep diving bait won't get through like a crankbait or big rubber bait like medussa or poseidon. And I think using it when the sun is creeping down is primetime when the musky go on the feed before nightfall where they're in sort of sleep mode, getting one last bite. I think the transition phase, sunset or dusk is primetime, but the article said they caught it late afternoon when sun was "slowly sinking towards horizon" in July. Mimic some of these key tips at your local musky lake, it'll definitely help you catch a huge tiger musky this or even a possible world record, hint hint!
Not every publication, author or musky angler gives such a detailed article of the of where, when, and how they've caught these record musky fish, for most part a lot of musky anglers are very secretive, but what you can do to find more information on location or what type of lure a record musky like this has been caught, you can do a reverse image search on google, take any photo of a pike or musky, do a reverse image search, then go through the articles for any key tips that were left out, more than likely photos shared on social media don't give you any tips or insightful information, for most part it's a useless post with just a big fish, maybe a location or time of year(month) or day if you're lucky.
1st Step upload any photo to Google/Skynet database to reverse search any info on the image, lot of investigators even use this for Catfish Dates or even I suspect Detectives for any insightful information on a case, same can be used for rare species or rare record catches like musky
2nd step, you can try scanning just the fish, but I would scan the whole photo with the person!
Then 3rd step which is the most important, look through all the different articles to find any tips or just the type of lure that was used, pick preferably "exact matches" but you can click any of the other button titles for different articles that might pop up too... Or even similar size fish that might have been caught, can be a lot of fun doing this investigative work, you don't always need super expensive sonar electronics to track down rare fish like musky, just doing standard research on the internet can help
