Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

Hidden Secrets Of Oliver Reservoir

A normal trip to Oliver Reservoir for Potter local Jeremy Gasseling is made up of catfish and walleye, but this past fishing trip on Wednesday, June 26, ended a little differently.

Gasseling and his friend were out on the lake for about three hours and had been reeling in walleye on the boat when the wind started to die down and the air became warmer when things started to get interesting.

"My friend was taking a walleye off the hook when I had another bite and I set the hook. I told him I didn't know what this fish was, but it was a big one," said Gasseling.

With anticipation and a strong hold it nearly took him 10 minutes to even get the fish to the top of the water to see what it was.

There it was, a Tiger Muskie.

Thoughts then entered his head on how to maneuver the big fish into the boat

"I didn't know how we were going to get him in the boat because our net wasn't big enough for the fish," he explained." After another five minutes or so the fish finally got tired and somehow we got it it in the boat."

After all of the excitement and hard work, Gasseling measured the huge catch at 46 inches long. The Muskie was too large to fit in the scale the two had on the boat, so they were unable to get a weight.

Being a true fisherman and with the thrill of the catch, Gasseling took a few pictures of the fish and released it back into the lake,.

"Hopefully," he said, "another lucky fisherman can hook it again someday!"