Way back in the early 1970s I made a statement in my book "Secrets of a Musky Guide" that any musky over 45 inches was a trophy. A few years later the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources published a document that was the compilation of findings from electro-shocking and fyke netting many lakes across Wisconsin. According to their findings, only 1.9% of the muskies in the state are 44 inches or larger. Now to my way of thinking any fish that is the top 1.9% of the population is a trophy. The size of fish that defines a trophy is relative of course. All of the 45 inch muskies are a trophy for most areas of the United States; I don't think many guides in Canada would consider it to be one. In Canada, a 45 inch musky is just a nice fish. Many people want to lump everything together and not take into consideration where the fish was caught. You just can't do that. It is much harder to catch a 30 or 40 pound musky in Wisconsin (or Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania etc.) than it is in Canada. If you catch a 30 or 40 pound fish in the United States, it is much harder to get a trophy like that one that was caught in Canada. But across most of the musky fishing world, 50 inches and/or 30 pounds have become the benchmark. If you question how difficult a fish of this size is to catch look at the results from some of the musky tournaments. In many tournaments there will be 75100 boats with 150-200 fishermen fishing for two full days. A
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