Huge Muskie Problem!!!

[Munkin]

On 4/24/2018 at 2:37 PM, BrianinMD said:

Local lake has been stocked every year with 3000 musky (9 inch fingerlings in a 500 acre lake). Bass fishing could not have been better. A lot of musky were caught out and died in other ways but there were legit 50+ inch tiger musky in there.

 

Then a virus hit the stocking population and none were stocked for a few years. Could not find a musky left and bass fishing declined. During this time someone also self stocked yellow perch which are everywhere now.

 

The lake is still a good lake but definitely down from what it used to be, fisherman need to make some adjustments too.

Black Hills right?  Bass fishing is great in the spring but tough in the summer.

 

Allen

[BrianinMD]

15 hours ago, Munkin said:

Black Hills right?  Bass fishing is great in the spring but tough in the summer.

 

Allen

Yes, Black Hills. It is a good lake, had a great day there about a week and a half ago. But its definitely on a down cycle. When the club did tourneys there in its peak there were 20lb bags pulled. One tourney had 3 over 20lb.

 

Now you can still do well but not 20lbs. My great day mentioned above between two of us we had 40-50 fish in the boat, with best 5 for each of us around 17-18lbs.

 

Get to end of summer and fall and the weights caught drop to low teens....

[J Francho]

On 5/19/2018 at 9:21 PM, NittyGrittyBoy said:

@J Francho that pike recipe sounds delicious. Will it work on smaller strain of chain pickeral in the South?

Yep.  There's a local Asian restaurant nearby Oneida Lake, and we would regularly would drop our limits of pickerel.  In exchange, we get a nice, free dinner.  They tell us they taste great.  I don't think they're big enough to get decent fillets, but the grill method would probably be the ticket.

[Nickolas Diles]

Every body wants bigger muskies well good luck between fishermen taking walleye out of the lakes and neets and muskies eating the remanding walleye’s and people releasing most of the muskies there is no good protein left for fish to grow big and fast so that means we have to stock more walleye’s and bring back our original fishing industry it’s all about food food food good food so don’t beat yourself a plant more walleyes then every body’s happy even the Muskies good luck.

[Further North]

On 4/24/2018 at 2:49 PM, WRB said:

When fishing in Lake of the Woods, Ontario Canada, a lake with both big pike and musky, no hybrid Tiger musky that I knew of, the LMB owned the inside weed edges.

Walleyes, pike, musky worked the outside weed edges and the Smallmouth were on the reefs. The fish coexisted but had there preferred territory. 

If you hooked a walleye and a big pike or musky was nearby they often grabbed it sideways like a dog bone. To say they musky don't eat other game fish isn't true at Lake of the Woods!

My point is the LMB bass learned to relocate where they were able to dominate, the inside weed beds, their shape allows quick turns needed to capture prey. 

Tom

LOTW has some natural tigers.

 

Almost unavoidable given the numbers of both pi,e and musky in the lake,

On 4/25/2018 at 9:25 PM, kickerfish1 said:

Unless you are "losing" Megabass baits, lucky crafts or discontinued Pre Rapala Warts or Xcalibur baits to muskie I wouldn't worry to much about it. Some of my favorite fisheries in MN also have health populations of large muskie.

He could always use wire leaders on those baits.

[gim]

8 minutes ago, Further North said:

LOTW has some natural tigers.

 

Almost unavoidable given the numbers of both pi,e and musky in the lake,

I agree, it’s probably unavoidable completely if the lake has both pike and pure strain muskies, but it’s still uncommon, as pike often spawn far sooner than pure strain muskies.

[Further North]

3 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I agree, it’s probably unavoidable completely if the lake has both pike and pure strain muskies, but it’s still uncommon, as pike often spawn far sooner than pure strain muskies.

They're rare, and a real "trophy" if you catch one.

 

...same on the Chippewa Flowage.

[gim]

Just realized that this thread is 5 years old. 

[12poundbass]

@gimruis in think this coming winter I’ll dig up old threads once in a while and sit back and laugh. 
 

[Susky River Rat]

If musky ate everything they saw. Don’t you think they would be easier to catch? I’ve seen musky pass up suckers on quick strike rigs. I’ve never seen a sunny pass up a live worm.

[Will Ketchum]

Carp aren't native to the U.S. and look how that turned out.

[MN Fisher]

@Will Ketchum - neither are Brown Trout...and you know the fuss that would be raised if we tried to get rid of all non-native species.

[Further North]

17 hours ago, gimruis said:

Just realized that this thread is 5 years old. 

I think it's kinda fun to dig up an old  topic now and then and see if people are still thinking the same way.

[J Francho]

Tiger musky are sterile, and therefore don't reproduce like carp and other non native/invasive species. 

[Further North]

5 hours ago, J Francho said:

Tiger musky are sterile, and therefore don't reproduce like carp and other non native/invasive species. 

There you go, bringing facts to an emotional argument. ?

 

[J Francho]

I fish a small lake less than 20 acres. They put about a dozen tigers in it to control the panfish and pickerel population. There is one that is way over 40" and I've caught it. Not what I was after, but cool. The bass and panfish in that lake are tanks. It's a really great kayak fishing lake and very peaceful. There's nothing really complex about it either. It's textbook fishing and the tigers really keep it that way. 

[Further North]

16 minutes ago, J Francho said:

It's textbook fishing and the tigers really keep it that way. 

They'll eventually have to restock as the tigers die off, but it'll take a while.