mikea wrote on Mar 16^th, 2011 at 4:01pm:

Nick is a stand up guy and one hell of a fisherman.....he wouldn't do that.....

I don't mean to impugn him as a person or a fisherman, but who's to say he wasn't the butt of a prank?

I found a on-line Muskie site that you enter length/girth if known and you get estimated weight. I don't know what they use for a calcualting point for girth, but I would say that muskie was fairly big in that regard.
Just entering length, it would way at least 40+ pounds.

Now I can't tell by picture, but it doesn't appear that Nick is a real big guy? Look how he's holding that huge fish. His right arm/hand from what I can tell is extended away from his body. Same with his left. He's kneeling on a boat deck. I never held a fish of that size, but I do know something about handling heavy weights from work/exercise. Unlike a solid weight, a live object is more like handling a sack of wet sand. It moves and shifts as you hold it. Try holding 40+ lbs of "loose weight" out away from your body, with your arms extended, kneeling on a surface that may/may not be bobbing up and down? A lot harder than you would think. I bet most people would have a hard time balancing in the position he's in under such a load.

Most pics of fish this size, the guy holding them is either using a two handed grip and holding the fish vertical off of his body, tight in to shoulder for support.
Either that, their clutching them with both arms/hands into chest for support/control.

Even the ratio of his right hand size looks off to his body size, unless he's, got hands like a NBA player?

Nice fish never the less, but the more I look the less authentic it appears.