Not many people can boast about catching a 4-foot fish, but Alexa Swindlehurst and Alexis Waple can ? sort of.
On Sunday, the Oxford girls netted themselves a 48-inch, 28-pound muskellunge, or muskie as it’s commonly known, in Clear Lake.
‘It was really heavy,? said 10-year-old Alexa.
Alexa and her mom, Debbie, spotted the massive fish while riding their personal watercraft around the lake.
When they got home, Alexa told her dad, Dan, all about the large fish that was just floating on its side atop the water. She wanted him to go out on the lake and take a look, but Dan wasn’t in the mood.
‘I didn’t feel like going out there,? he said. ‘I just figured it was a 2 or 3-pound bass.?
When Alexa and Debbie told him it was about four feet long, Dan said he just figured they were exaggerating.
Determined to show her father this was no fish story, Alexa and her 11-year-old friend, Alexis Waple, grabbed dad’s fishing net, hopped in the paddle boat and went to fetch the trophy-sized fish. Don’t worry they got mom’s permission first.
‘You could see it floating from shore,? Debbie said.
Like two Captain Ahabs-in-training, the girls found the great beast, netted it and brought it back to shore. Dan was in shock.
‘I just couldn’t believe it was that big,? he said. ‘This thing’s as wide as the paddleboat. She told me it was about four feet long. It really was. It was exactly four feet long.?
Debbie said the fish was ‘twitching? and still had a ‘slight bit of life? left in it, but it wasn’t long for this world.
Judging by the fish’s visible injuries, Dan speculated it got hit by a boat prop.
News of the girls? big catch spread quickly all over the neighborhood and soon everyone wanted a peek.
‘No one could believe that size fish came out of our lake,? Debbie said.
‘Everybody was coming and looking at the fish,? Dan said. ‘Everybody had different opinions. Some said it was a pike. Four guys said it was a Tiger Muskie.?
This reporter e-mailed photos of the fish to Tom Goniea, a biologist with the Fisheries Division of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, and he verified it was ‘definitely a muskellunge.?
The dark spots on the lighter colored body indicated the Swindlehursts? fish was indeed a muskie ? a Great Lakes spotted muskie to be specific.
A northern pike has light colored spots on a darker body. A Tiger Muskie, which is a sterile hybrid of the muskie and northern pike, has distinct, dark vertical bars (or stripes) along its body.
Given muskies aren’t common in this area’s lakes, how it got in Clear Lake is a bit of the mystery.
‘We have no record of muskie being stocked in Oakland County since 1979, so our best guess is a private stocking,? Goniea said.
‘We figured maybe somebody caught it and put it in there a few years ago,? Dan said.
Dan gave the muskie to his neighbors, who cleaned it and planned to turn Michigan’s most efficient predatory fish into a few meals. ‘One guy’s got about, I don’t know, 12-13 pounds of fillets ? nice and thick,? he said.