Guys, guys, guys.......easy!

When I first saw this I decided the ole' "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it" quote. Which was wrong!

We don't know if he tried to release it or not? We don't know if he just wanted to keep and has every right too.

All we can do is preach and teach to other anglers that don't know how old that fish is and how little natural reproduction there is (if any) How long it will take to replace that fish etc, etc, etc, etc.......
Teach the proper release techiques and tools to have and how to use the.
Explain the replicia deal being the same money and all is needed is a picture, I think a lot of people are unaware of this.
In the end he may have just been alone, without a camera, it's his biggest ever and he plans on mounting it and it was going to go home no matter what! He has every right to that. Hopefully he will be happy with that, after paying the taxidermy cost and knowing he already has a big muskie mounted he'll release the next one.

Congrats to the angler, hope to see all his photos after this at boatside!
Nice fish!

No sense in pounding at each other on here, what's done is done, and most of all we don't know the story.

Another thing we all need to remember......a 30" swims off like a rocket!
The bigger the fish, the harder they are to release! Battle it for too long on walleye gear....maybe he thought it be better on his wall than turtle food.