It’s the fish that keeps on giving: A massive muskie makes an encore appearance

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Updated: February 12, 2012 8:15AM

As fish stories go, Johnny Dadson has the biggest one for the biggest show weekend of Chicago outdoors.

The same 50-pound-plus muskie was caught and released from his boat last summer while he was fishing the fabled Canadian waters of Georgian Bay.

It’s an unmatched story and ties to the seminar “Georgian Bay Giants’’ that Dadson is giving at 5:15 p.m. Saturday at the Chicago Muskie Show. He’ll also have a booth for his handmade Dadson Blade Baits.

Dadson started muskie fishing at 19. He eventually moved to fish Georgian Bay, where he began guiding full-time in 2007.

‘‘I thought I’d seen it all until one beautiful sunny morning on July 9th, 2011,’’ Dadson e-mailed.

He and his girlfriend, Justine Duffy, took out a neighbor, Christine Schmachtel, for her first muskie fishing.

‘‘We had only been fishing for a half hour when a giant muskie grabbed one of the Boo Dadley Tails that I make and came to the surface angrily thrashing her head from side to side trying to throw the bait,’’ he said. ‘‘This was an image that will be forever burned into my brain as we all stood in awe.’’

Duffy netted the fish, a 56-inch muskie with a 26-inch girth that weighed just over 50 pounds.

‘‘We noticed that she had a damaged fin and very distinct scarring on her side, which was likely still healing from her spawn,’’ he said. ‘‘With a kiss, we released her back into the bay so that she could grow up and make more giants like herself with future successful spawns.’’

His Lowe boat is 100 percent catch-and-release. Even the greatest fishermen consider it a feat to put a 50-pound muskie in the boat. But there’s more.

While fishing with clients Roy Leamen and two of his cousins 41 days later, Leamen hooked a monster muskie, again on a Boo Dadley.

‘‘Upon seeing it, I was certain that it was 55 inches or longer, and Roy carefully fought the fish to the boat, where I was able to scoop her into the net,’’ Dadson said. ‘‘Roy was elated to have caught his first muskie, but it was what happened next that was pretty close to unbelievable.’’

The 56-inch fish had a 27-inch girth and weighed 52 pounds — incredibly, a second 50-pound muskie in the same summer. Ah, but there’s more.

‘‘It wasn’t until we were releasing the fish that I noticed what would change my life — a damaged fin and some very distinct scarring that I had seen not so long ago,’’ Dadson said. ‘‘I wanted to be sure before I said anything to my excited clients, but after carefully examining her scars, I was positive that this was in fact the same muskie I had caught the month prior.

‘‘But how could that be? We were more than two miles from where she was first caught, and this is, after all, Georgian Bay, a massive body of water with endless structure!’’

That’s the sort of question that keeps my job eternally interesting.

‘‘The fish I’d been chasing all my life had come back to say ‘thank you’ for releasing her the first time,’’ Dadson said. ‘‘A very emotional experience for me and one I’ll always appreciate with all my heart. I can’t wait to see her again.’’

Recast

I messed up the muskie guys visiting clubs on Thursday. Superstar Pete Maina will be at the Fox River Valley chapter of Muskies Inc. at the Schaumburg Golf Club. Guide Gregg Thomas will be at the Midwest Musky Club at the Village Sportsman Club in Alsip.

Places and faces

Nick Tassoni, 15, has an early lock on Fish of the Year. He broke Illinois’ oldest gamefish record by catching a 14-pound, 12-ounce walleye from the Pecatonica River on Saturday. See STRAY CASTS (blogs.suntimes.com/bowman/). . . . Archery deer season in Illinois ends Sunday. The second portions of late-winter antlerless and CWD deer seasons are Friday through Sunday.