What do you do with that I hear they are not good eating?

Well that one hopefully got tossed back. They have to be 50 inches to keep.

Looks like he's holding him by the gills...even if he did toss him back, poor handling probably killed it. It shouldn't have been removed from the water if it isn't a legal fish.

Although I have never eaten one, I would assume they taste like pike. Pike are very good fish to eat. They can be a bit bony, if not filleted properly.

Good to see you post mtman! What was water clarity like, and what is the water temp up to?

Looks like the gill plate to me, and these fish are very durable so i doubt that holding it for a picture like that would kill it. They are excellent to eat, just trim the belly fat off and make sure to skin it. And for the whole 50 inch thing, it's a joke, Tiger musky don't even get that big in Washington.

They get really close to 50", a member from both chapters 57 and 60 last year caught fish in the 49" range and there have been reports of fish bigger being caught and released but not offically recorded. These fish actually arent very durable because when they are held in the vertical pose it actually can seperate the head from the back bones. The horizontal or cradle pose should be used for both Muskie and Pike when taking pictures. Even thought the fish swims off alot do die because of mishandling. The reason the state changed the slot on Tigers to 50" is so that these awesome fish can be caught over and over again. The Tigers are not meant to be used as food but rather a sportfish. They are meant to be caught over and over for everyone to enjoy.They are placed in these lake to clean up unwanted scrap fish which they do a great job of. The fish are stocked in limited numbers according to the size of the body of water and are sterile. Good to see the fish around here starting to get active and good to see a post from you mtman, and tell your brother in law congrats. Remember CPR everyone(Catch,Picture,Release).Good luck this year and keep posting....

Hey Danny, I'm going to send you a couple pics of fish over 50" from our area. Anyone who's fished Curlew, Mayfield and Merwin will likely agree with me that there are 50" tigers in this state. I hope you get to battle one!

i'm all for sport fishing but why put them in the lakes ( other then to clean up garbage fish ) if wdfw doe sn't want ppl to take them out at under 50" it seems to me that a 40" fish could and would do just as good eating garbage fish as a 50" if it was up to me i would make it like 1 fish over 35" and under 50" and then all the rest over 50" but that's just me i love to catch these fish and i'm still waiting to take one home

Water was clearing up a bit. Temp stared out at the launch 46. Later in the day north end it was 49.

We did not have a camera so I used a cell phone. He pull the fish out. I snapped the shot I explained handling after it was back in the water. Seemed the fastest thing to do at the time. I will not post a bad pic again ,sorry.

Looks like you should be making use of the "delete comment" button for some of whiners on here that don't know how to say thanks for an informational report, but choose instead to speculate, judge, and complain. Nice fish.

Its not to speculate,judge or complain more of a imformational input for those who dont know how to handle Muskie properly and we all see it alot when it comes to Muskies and Pike for that matter. Doesnt take away from a nice fish or report and i know mtman knows this but more for others who see the pic.