Further North

I'm trying to understand what you're getting at - if the habitat is there, natural reproduction will be enough to sustain the population. If it's not, we have to stock...which is a losing proposition over time. ...I'm not trying to be difficult...just trying to get my head around what you're saying.

Stocking is - at the end of the day - a loosing proposition. Habitat is the answer.

Had another musky on (little guy) and lost it...another guy I the boat had one more one and lost it, plus two follows. There was another little pike too...not worth photos. All on the same fly: pink and white musky deciever.

That seems painfully obvious...gotta wonder what's going on there...

Water here isn't much cooler than that yet...it's been a weird year. It was 56° last Sunday.

Pike are my favorite fish, and like @Scott F, I've caught thousands, on both conventional gear and flies. Oddly enough, I don't target them much, as it's easy enough to get them when we're targeting smallies ans muskies. This year's biggest was in the mid-30s. I don't lose a lot of lures to them, because I run tieable wire leaders on almost everything except cheap soft plastics. We had a comical incident this year: We took a guy who is mostly a trout angler on a smallie/musky float. Even though we told him to, he didn't bother to tie wire in on the red/white bucktail popper he'd made for the trip...and on his first cast, he twitched it once...and it disappeared in a big swirl...and his line went slack. He just sat there, mouth open...and we laughed. 10 seconds later the popper floated to the surface...I tossed a properly rigged (12" 13# tieable wire leader) popper into the same spot, and it got clobbered on the 3rd or 4th pop...and a nice high 20's pike hit the net. Then we rowed in and got his popper, and handed it to him with the spool of wire... ...on the 50# fluoro mentioned above: Tieable wire works better, and is at least as flexible...and I've seen 50# and 60# fluoro cut like it wasn't there...and the fish that did it were not all big. I saw a monster musky lost because of a 50# fluoro leader once...I avoided saying "I told you so." If someone could convince my esox were line shy, the absolute smallest size I'd consider would be 80#...and that stuff kills lure/fly action. LOTW 38, on the fly.

Yuck. I've never done that...probably never will. Seems like a not-fun way to catch them.

How'd it go? We're out for another 10 mile float Monday. Hopefully not our last fishing excursion for 2024.

Yep.

Kinda can't. Fly anglers and gear anglers in the same boat don't mix well. Gotta be closer to the structure/cover for flies, and move slower. The gear guy winds up frustrated. And going back on a different day doesn't mean a thing.

A friend has been up here since Sunday fishing with various people. We did a float of about 10 miles yesterday, saw one, hooked one, netted one. A good day. ...all flies yesterday. I always wonder what would have happened with gear.

Not really. You get into the rhythm and it sort of just happens.

9.5 hours, and 10.3 miles of river today...no motor...we rowed the whole thing. And foot long flies on 9 ft. 10 and 12 wt. fly rods...

Sounds normal to me. ********** I have no real interest in joining the 50" club...if I catch one, that's fine...but I prefer their smaller sisters, say 28" - 45". Harder hitting, harder fighting, much more likely to be where I chase them. All 4 of my PB esox (one each, pike and musky on fly and gear) werea nudge over 48". That works for me.

Yessir. I'm over in NW WI, and we chase muskies with both flies and conventional gear all season. We were up near Clam Lake yesterday, and will be out near Ladysmith tomorrow. We fish shallow water rivers with a drift boat, and lakes.

Since that section of river hasn't ever been stocked with tigers, I'll happily take that bet.

...we both left our phones in our vehicles. I caught a decent - high 20 inch range - tiger musky, and a stupidly fat 18" smallie...and a bunch of pike. The tiger musky - my 3rd - was a natural (the river isn't stocked, there's no need - and had amazing color.

I just heard from a buddy that's out right now...really low fishing score for today on the Fishing and Hunting Solunar Time app...15...vs. a 96 for last Monday.

It was getting to the point where we might not get off the river until after dark...and that sucks for a whole bunch of reasons.

I do know that...it's why I looked for other ways to write what I was thinking. I still have nothing. 😉

I know a guy... An average river float here is 8 - 10 hours, but it's mixed bass/pike/musky. We tried a shorter one Monday - planed for 6 hours - but we caught too many fish and it went nine hours...

If I had lighter tackle and water temps were above about 75⁰, that's exactly what I'd do if the fight went on more than about 5 minutes. I'm trying to think of a way to make this sound not-preachy, but I can't at the moment, so you'll have to trust that I don't mean it that way: Personally, I feel I have a greater responsibility to the resource than I to to the ego bump I'd get by landing the fish. But that's my view, for me...and while I'll have the discussion, I'm unwilling to impose my perspective on others. ...also, see below... You're right, to some extent...but multiply your fish by a few hundred...or a few thousand walleye/bass anglers and it becomes more significant. ...but: I seldom use heavy "musky" tackle. Most of my musky fishing is done with heavy bass gear (or heavy fly gear) and it's not all that difficult to get a musky - even a four- footer - to net in 5 minutes or so. I own one heavy rod (rated to 3 oz.) and it hasn't left the garage this year more than once. We were targeting bass and pike three times in the last week...and had two muskies on...one mid-30s, one pushing 40". Fortunately they made the decision easy by getting off the hooks... 😉

...and depending on water temps, it's a good way to kill a great fish.

We fished a local river about two weeks ago - caught 20+ pike in one day, one about that size, but couldn't find a single smallmouth. I went back up to the same river with a different friend last Saturday and that changed to about 50/50 pike and smallies. I fished it with two friends Monday, and it was more like 40/60 pike smallies...

What I found: ""She accomplished this award by catching 10 different species of fish all of trophy size and they can be from anywhere in the state," said Zlokovitz." https://www.wmar2news.com/local/cecil-county-girl-awarded-the-master-angler-milestone Still incredibly impressive, and even more at her age.