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Tiger muskie almost one for the books
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
BY FRED J. AUN
For the Star-Ledger
Larry Migliarese, wherever you are, you just dodged a bullet.

For 16 years, you've been listed by the state Division of Fish and Wildlife as the man who caught the biggest hybrid "tiger" muskie in New Jersey. The records say you pulled in a 29-pound specimen from the Delaware River in 1990.

Mr. Migliarese, you'll get to stay on the record books. But on Aug. 26, James Hill of Nutley might have caught a tiger muskie at least a pound heavier than yours.

Hill couldn't find a state certified scale that day, when he pulled the behemoth out of Lake Hopatcong. He ended up borrowing a Boga Grip scale from another angler on the lake. Those hand-held gizmos come in two sizes: One goes up to 15 pounds, the other reaches 30 pounds.

It was the larger model used by Hill to weigh his big fish. When he did, the scale quickly bottomed out. "The whole thing is, all I had was the Boga Grip and that thing wouldn't go any further," said Hill.

Aug. 26 was a Saturday. Hill was participating in an Essex Bassmasters tournament on the lake. At 6:15 a.m., he was working the shoreline, casting a Chatterbait. He noticed a "disturbance in the water" and assumed it was a big bass chasing a smaller fish.

"I cast over there and the lure sunk a little," said Hill. He felt the strike and knew it was a big fish. But because it was heading right toward his boat, Hill initially couldn't see just how big. "When I saw it behind the lure, I thought it was just a fat fish," he said.

However, when the fish turned its side to the boat, Hill realized it was no bass. "I almost choked after I saw the length of this thing," he said. "I said, 'Oh my God.' I knew it was a muskie, but I didn't know how big it was."

For Hill, who was fishing with 17-pound test line, the excitement was only beginning. When his fishing partner, Mike Paulicelli of Oakland, grabbed a net, the muskie took off. "It made several more runs, the worst being under the boat," he said, noting he thought the line was going to snap when the fish hit the boat motor."

Eventually tiring from the battle, the muskie was scooped into the net by Paulicelli. "Mike lifted him into the boat and then both he and the muskie fell in the boat," said Hill. "Then the line snapped."

Upon seeing a photograph of Hill's fish, which was released unharmed, Jim Archambault of the Lake Hopatcong-based Knee Deep Club suggested Hill might have snagged a record-size muskie. "It's a good-sized fish, for sure," he said.
Archembault noted anglers haven't had much luck catching tiger muskies in the lake, so Fish and Wildlife stopped stocking them.

"I've caught about 20 muskies but none have been tigers," said Archembault. "The state was stocking both types in equal numbers, but it seemed the catch rates for the tigers really dropped. They couldn't explain why, but the true-strains are doing well."