New state record Muskie ?

[lennysky]

This time, on the water with my long time best friend and fishing buddy Soulstream and 2 others we happened to hook and land this fish (by luck or skill or both). I was shocked but when we put it on a chatilklion scale I only saw #23-23 and was going to photograph and release it, when Soulstream told me: " Which side of the scale are you reading". I said left. "That kilograms: he replied. I looked at the other side and it indicated 45-47 pounds. i was floored. he insisted we keep it and register it. We were right above Storms Is as the NW wind blew us there while my friends were all tangled-up. I asked him to drop me off so that I can research my weigh-in options, but as the story goes my luck was not with me the entire day. A weigh-in at 11AM at Hackettstown indicated a much smaller weight. Previously, my Ichthyology training told me that the fish can loose about 10% and I was unfortunately right. The girth on her was 26-27 inches and the length at 51.5". Do the calculation on-line and you will see that neither myself nor Soulstream are trying to embelish our stories. Feel free to ask questions though. I am getting a double skin mount with original head done. Will see it in 6 months. BTW, no one ever seen such a golden/perl colored musky. Not even at fisheries, which stocked this fish. Thank you for all your input and feedback and tight lines! (part 2)