Kory Maxfield provided the story from below – sometimes you get 9 stitches – but notice in the images his excitement and satisfaction for his catch!!!  WARNING – DO NOT SCROLL DOWN IF YOU CAN’T HANDLE BLOOD! 

We just finished off a trip to NW Ontario Cedar Lake and I was trying to decide which photo to send in my new PB 48″ musky I caught on a cannon ball Jr OR the hand eater which gave me 9 stitches. I guess it was a no brainer, the story is long winded but a quick description that I put out on my Instagram page is below. I included the “gore” photo to give you an idea to how bad the cut actually was.  

Aside from this incident the trip was fantastic and would have ended with a bang had the hand eater not met my line. Looking forward to our 2023 return to Cedar Lake Lodge!

My Dad and I were on a new spot of rock combined with thick cabbage. We immediately moved a healthy high 30-inch musky which followed into my figure 8 and cut across to the back of the boat and cartwheeled out of the water after my dad’s bucktail. Feeling good we continued on the spot and I had a beautiful 44-to-46-inch musky come cruising in and absolutely crushed my beavers bait modified version of a quad B with a single 8 chartreuse blade. 

The musky and I went toe to toe but I won the battle and we got the fish in the bag. Such a high moment knowing the bite was just heating up! She was pinned well with three trebles buried in the corner of her mouth. The gloves came out (stainless steel woven mesh) and one was worn on the hand that I use to lift her head out of the water. My dad grabbed the bolt cutters and Cuda jaw spreaders so that I could get to work quickly. I lifted her head up with my glove hand and put the spreaders in her mouth. At that very moment she decided the battle was far from over. One major flare up and the spreader popped, she shook out of my glove hand and violently thrashed/snapped down on my hand. 

Looking down I could see the inside of my hand lol then the blood started. She ripped a large vein in my hand which started to gush. Unfortunately, I left our first aid kit in the cabin as we use it to clean typical fishing nicks. I wrapped it up in my sweater and with my dad’s help we cut the hooks free, photo op and had the musky back in the water with a healthy release. 

I may have won the battle but she most definitely won the war lol. Lessons learned, second glove to be worn. Healing fast and cannot wait to get back at it!!