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The department of scales weights and measures never delved into the record keeping required by official and unofficial fisher folks. Probably a very wise choice so let’s start with the largest leviathan in Minnesota waters, the muskie. Esox masquinongy, there’s a mouth full. First, you will never hear how pretty that muskie was, and by most accounts there most often released, only after being measured more than a swimsuit model, you will always every single time hear how long in inches, even quarter inches a muskie is long or around. These folks carry rulers, and they use them, and not one muskie fisherman I know has a bump board under six feet, because there ever hopeful. Now the walleye, Sander vitreous, everyone’s frying pan favorite in Minnesota is constantly talked about by pounds, oh that was a nice five pounder, or I got my personal best, a ten pounder, and again for the catch and release clan, no weights just inches, exception to every rule with eyes, sometimes you get the, it was a twenty-eight-inch eight pounder, so you cant argue with duel facts and there bump boards having been used so many times, show actual wear. Micropterus nigricans, bass, yes I know it’s a four-letter word, never measured horizontally only poundage matters, has nicknames like bucket mouth, fatty, hog, toad, not very glamourous monikers and even released by the lip, try that with a northern pike, you’ll, get the length of stitches required in your fingers counted for sure. And finally the one fish in northern Minnesota expressed not by weight, nor length, or even girth, is the most beautiful fish that swims our waters is the undisputed breathtaking liquid colors king, the brook trout, only marveled at by its sheer coloration, you really need to hold one but once, and then right there, size don’t matter.
--The trout whisperer
