Here in the land of 10,000 lakes we see some pretty big fish on occasion. Sturgeon are the biggest followed by the Muskie and then it's smaller cousin the Northern Pike. The Muskie can get up to and larger than 50 inches long and well over 40lbs.

Muskies can be aggressive and are territorial.
They will suspend in the water and attack anything that comes near. I'm guessing this is what happened to this young girl. She must have been terrified!

Graphic picture at the end of the linked story.
Link to story

Poor girl. Yeah, that must've been a bit terrifying.

It really did a number on her foot. At least she still has all her little toes.

Holy crap!! Terrible!!

Great. Freshwater sharks. Next thing you know we'all see snow sharks.

River Monsters, Jermey Wade did a hunt for Muskies in Canada after a young girl had her foot lacerated. Seems her bright red toe nail polish had attracted a large Muskie while dangling her feet off the boat dock. YIKES! Fresh water Barracuda!

This happened in Duluth, which is where I grew up. Never swam in that lake, but used to fish it quite heavily. Musky and Pike are no joke, I'll never forget the morning a large Northern attacked my stringer of walleye hanging off the boat.

That lake is about a half hour drive for me. I ice fish once in awhile and been to a couple tournaments on that lake. Never seen a Muskie come out of it but lots of big northern.
Those who target Muskie don't seem to fish that lake so it's not known as a Muskie lake to my knowledge. That may change now.

My local lake is known for it's Muskie's, but I don't recall of ever hearing about an attack like this.

A police officer from a nearby town hand-caught a musky that latched onto his foot dangling over the side of his canoe at Governor Dodge State Park. His foot was pretty tore up, he had to go to the hospital.

He was charged by the DNR for fishing without a license, and the fish was seized for being slightly undersize. The charges were eventually dropped, and he had to fight to get the fish back, but eventually did.

I've been bitten by pike (musky's cousin for the non-fishermen) before. I don't mean I had my hand too close to their teeth, I mean defensively bitten by them when handling in the net. Nothing like that poor girl in the link above, that's just terrible!

Those are some serious wounds. She sounds like a pretty tough little kid though.

That's a really fluke accident. Muskies are mean fish, though. They are essentially a Northern Pike's bigger, meaner, big cousin. . .

I used to fish Northern Pike near Green Bay as a kid. We'd hang a minnow on a hook with a length of steel leader and the fun began.

We always wore leather gloves and had an 18" baseball bat to land the buggers.

Chomp Chomp

Maybe the rocks did it?

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Maybe the rocks did it?

Those would have to be some razor sharp rocks.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Maybe the rocks did it?

Those would have to be some razor sharp rocks.

Yeah, those who have been cut by underwater rocks know. I know the article says she had 25 cuts, but the ones on the foot/ankle (most likely the biggest ones, and that's why they show them, right?) suggest something other than the fish.

Also, wasn't she being towed behind the boat, according to the article? Propeller blade injury, maybe?

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Maybe the rocks did it?

Those would have to be some razor sharp rocks.

Yeah, those who have been cut by underwater rocks know. I know the article says she had 25 cuts, but the ones on the foot/ankle (most likely the biggest ones, and that's why they show them, right?) suggest something other than the fish.

Also, wasn't she being towed behind the boat, according to the article? Propeller blade injury, maybe?

Those cuts one her foot look a lot like the cuts manatees get when hit by a propeller.

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
That's a really fluke accident. Muskies are mean fish, though. They are essentially a Northern Pike's bigger, meaner, big cousin. . .

Fluke accident? Did it flounder about?

Near Mansfield, Ohio there is a reservoir where Muskies are "farmed" for their eggs. They use an electric shock to bring the muskie to the surface where they are "milked" and it typically ends up on the local news nearly every year with a report the years largest "catch". It is not unusual at all for Muskies over 60 lbs. to be brought up and one year they reported a 67 lbs. Muskie. BTW, don't know if that is with eggs or after milking but suspect that in the interest of maximizing the weight for a news report it's before the fish are "milked".

Still that's a really large fish and I still remember a story a co-worker telling about a Muskie dragging him and his 14 foot john boat from one end of the reservoir to the other, total trip took about 2 hours and he never could get the fish close enough to see just how big it was.

Yikes, poor thing. Prayer for a full recovery. That is a very serious injury!

quote:

Originally posted by 12131: I know the article says she had 25 cuts, but the ones on the foot/ankle (most likely the biggest ones, and that's why they show them, right?) suggest something other than the fish.

The lower teeth of a muskie are quite long and spread apart. I could picture that happening from a grab and thrash bite.