Can't wait to stock up on a pile of sweet, sweet mushki flesh to top off my pickling reserves:
http://www.twincities.com/2016/06/24/too-many-muskies-wisconsins-action-lakes-encourage-keepers/
Too many muskies? Wisconsin’s ‘action lakes’ encourage keepers
ON DAY LAKE, ASHLAND COUNTY, Wis. — The muskie breached, partially cartwheeling above the surface. The maneuver exposed enough of its back to suggest a fish of some 30 inches.
“Dad, hand me the net,” I barked. “This one’s a keeper.”
Wait.
A keeper muskie? At 30-odd inches?
On this lake, and more than a dozen others in northern Wisconsin, yes.
The minimum size on these lakes is 28 inches, one fish daily. Yes, for muskies.
Muskies: The larger cousin of the northern pike whose popularity has been growing for several decades, not as table fare but as trophies demanding of catch, photo and release — and often social media scorn for those who admit to killing one, even legally.
Muskies: The fish whose organized supporters have successfully lobbied fisheries officials and lawmakers to steadily increase minimum sizes from Illinois to Ontario. Today, Wisconsin’s statewide minimum is 40 inches, although the “best” muskie lakes have a 50-inch minimum. In Minnesota, the statewide minimum is now 54 inches, a behemoth of a fish that many of us will never land in a lifetime.
Muskies: The subject of controversy today in Minnesota, as the Department of Natural Resources pushes ahead with plans to stock muskies into four new lake systems, including Big Marine Lake in Washington County. Opponents say muskies will, among other evils, eat up their favorite fish, from bluegills to walleyes. There’s little evidence to support that — and plenty to the contrary, given the DNR is aiming for muskie densities of one adult for every four to 10 acres of water.
But, apparently, you can have too many muskies in a lake. Which is how you get to a 28-inch minimum — a welcome mat for anyone interested in grilled muskie for dinner, and a category of regulation that’s actually increasing in the Badger State.
Here’s what’s going on.
TALES OF TWO STATES
In no small part because of its catch-and-release ethic — and regulations — Minnesota is now widely believed to be home to the biggest population of inland muskies in America. But no one should forget that the original home range and Holy Land of Esox masquinongy is northern Wisconsin — and that’s still the region where the fish are most prolific. For comparison: Minnesota has 116 waters, including eight rivers, with noteworthy populations of native or stocked muskies, according to a 2011 report; Wisconsin has 667 lakes, plus 48 rivers and streams, with fishable numbers of muskies, according to 2012 data.
Wisconsin’s long history with muskie management has featured an array of approaches, some effective, some less so. In some waters dating back to the 1970s, 11- to 12-inch muskies were being stocked at rates of two per acre, said Mark Vogelsang, fisheries supervisor for the Wisconsin DNR for the northern portion of the state.
“That was kind of the norm, but we realized it was too much,” Vogelsang said. ” We didn’t realize the survivability of these 11- to 12-inch fish.”
As fewer and fewer anglers kept muskies, the impact of the heavy stocking started to become clear, said Steve Gilbert a fisheries biologist for the DNR in Vilas County.
“There were these really low growth rates for muskies on some of these lakes,” Gilbert said. The phenomenon wasn’t everywhere. Sterile waters and small lakes with no fatty forage base, such as ciscoes, seemed to be typical of the issue.
“There just wasn’t enough for all the muskies to eat in order to grow in the time they had to grow,” Gilbert explained. Of note to Minnesota muskie skeptics: Gilbert said walleye numbers did not suffer on such lakes; muskies simply stunted, often dying before reaching 40 inches. Genetically, these fish were capable of growing larger — famed world record muskies from northern Wisconsin exceeded 65 pounds — so biologists suspected the problem was from muskies competing with each other for food.
Around 2000, the DNR decided to throttle back on stocking. In many cases, muskie growth rates resumed, and longer, fatter fish began showing up in research nets and anglers’ photos. However, in some lakes, ending stocking altogether had no effect; the muskies, native to these waters, were reproducing naturally (different from Minnesota’s stocked waters, where there appears to be little natural reproduction).
In these relatively small lakes — many are smaller than 300 acres nestled in the Chequamegon National Forest — muskies have remained runts. “To get the fish to grow to 40 inches, you have to lower the numbers,” Gilbert said. Thus was born the 28-inch minimum, which started with 10 lakes but has grown since 2012. In some cases, the hope is to reduce to total numbers of muskies in hopes that the remaining fish will grow larger. But in a few lakes, such as 366-acre Upper Gresham in Vilas County, Gilbert said the goal is simply to manage it “as an action water.”
ACTION MUSKIE LAKES
Muskies are said to be “the fish of 10,000 casts.” That’s probably an overstatement for the dedicated angler — and definitely an overstatement for these lakes. Several years back, a friend and I camped on the shores of Day Lake and targeted muskies from a canoe, tossing #5 Mepps bucktails and the like with medium spinning reels. We caught several muskies each day, and saw more than we bothered counting. Few were longer than 30 inches, but the action of such fish on “small” tackle was high-end entertainment, and I’ve fished other such “action muskie lakes” over the years.
They’re still muskies, still capable of shutting down for hours, of following a lure to within inches of the hull and refusing to bite, and of sudden violence aimed squarely at the midriff of whatever lure happened to be passing overhead. But on action lakes, there are simply a lot more muskies swimming there — and they’re smaller.
They can also be eaten — an attraction, Gilbert said, for a generation of anglers who fondly recall the days when that was the norm. (Wisconsin health officials recommend no one eat muskies once they reach 40 inches — the statewide minimum — because of mercury levels. So the 28-inch lakes are essentially the only state-sanctioned muskie meal one can get.)
“I know some people like to smoke ’em and other guys will skin them and bake ’em whole,” Gilbert said, noting that anatomically, the muskellunge is nearly identical to the northern pike. “If you go back to the mid-1970s, that was the norm. With catch-and-release, there aren’t that many targeting muskies for food, but it’s still a constituency here. There’s also (Native American) tribal harvest that can be focused on these lakes, and hey, if you want to catch your first muskie and don’t want to get a lot of expensive tackle, these lakes offer that.”
A MUSKIE MEAL
At the risk of being tarred and feathered by my fellow muskie anglers, I set out for Day Lake earlier this month with the aim of doing my part to thin the muskie hordes. A large cooler of ice lay back at the car, and a forearm-sized Louisville Slugger lay on the deck of my boat as we fished the boggy structure and pristine shoreline of the undeveloped impoundment, which we shared with only three other boats.
The morning featured a few follows and some mysterious thumps of our lures, but nothing more. Then shortly after noon — about the time we needed to leave — a muskie grabbed my Rapala Husky Jerk and was soon cartwheeling toward the boat in five feet of tea-stained water.
My spinning rod arched as I leveraged the fish toward my outstretched net. I imagined that tender, boneless top cut of meat yielding to my fillet knife. The muskie had other ideas. It used my net, which would barely have been big enough for a passive fish, as a springboard. The fish flung itself toward me, across the expanse of net, and shot down under the boat. Somehow in the process, it unwrapped itself from the line, unhooked itself from the lure, and was gone.
They’re still muskies. And all the ones that were in Day Lake when I arrived that morning remained there when I left.
—
The following Wisconsin lakes have a 28-inch minimum size for muskies, with a limit of one per day, according to 2016 regulations:
http://www.twincities.com/2016/06/24/too-many-muskies-wisconsins-action-lakes-encourage-keepers/
Too many muskies? Wisconsin’s ‘action lakes’ encourage keepers
ON DAY LAKE, ASHLAND COUNTY, Wis. — The muskie breached, partially cartwheeling above the surface. The maneuver exposed enough of its back to suggest a fish of some 30 inches.
“Dad, hand me the net,” I barked. “This one’s a keeper.”
Wait.
A keeper muskie? At 30-odd inches?
On this lake, and more than a dozen others in northern Wisconsin, yes.
The minimum size on these lakes is 28 inches, one fish daily. Yes, for muskies.
Muskies: The larger cousin of the northern pike whose popularity has been growing for several decades, not as table fare but as trophies demanding of catch, photo and release — and often social media scorn for those who admit to killing one, even legally.
Muskies: The fish whose organized supporters have successfully lobbied fisheries officials and lawmakers to steadily increase minimum sizes from Illinois to Ontario. Today, Wisconsin’s statewide minimum is 40 inches, although the “best” muskie lakes have a 50-inch minimum. In Minnesota, the statewide minimum is now 54 inches, a behemoth of a fish that many of us will never land in a lifetime.
Muskies: The subject of controversy today in Minnesota, as the Department of Natural Resources pushes ahead with plans to stock muskies into four new lake systems, including Big Marine Lake in Washington County. Opponents say muskies will, among other evils, eat up their favorite fish, from bluegills to walleyes. There’s little evidence to support that — and plenty to the contrary, given the DNR is aiming for muskie densities of one adult for every four to 10 acres of water.
But, apparently, you can have too many muskies in a lake. Which is how you get to a 28-inch minimum — a welcome mat for anyone interested in grilled muskie for dinner, and a category of regulation that’s actually increasing in the Badger State.
Here’s what’s going on.
TALES OF TWO STATES
In no small part because of its catch-and-release ethic — and regulations — Minnesota is now widely believed to be home to the biggest population of inland muskies in America. But no one should forget that the original home range and Holy Land of Esox masquinongy is northern Wisconsin — and that’s still the region where the fish are most prolific. For comparison: Minnesota has 116 waters, including eight rivers, with noteworthy populations of native or stocked muskies, according to a 2011 report; Wisconsin has 667 lakes, plus 48 rivers and streams, with fishable numbers of muskies, according to 2012 data.
Wisconsin’s long history with muskie management has featured an array of approaches, some effective, some less so. In some waters dating back to the 1970s, 11- to 12-inch muskies were being stocked at rates of two per acre, said Mark Vogelsang, fisheries supervisor for the Wisconsin DNR for the northern portion of the state.
“That was kind of the norm, but we realized it was too much,” Vogelsang said. ” We didn’t realize the survivability of these 11- to 12-inch fish.”
As fewer and fewer anglers kept muskies, the impact of the heavy stocking started to become clear, said Steve Gilbert a fisheries biologist for the DNR in Vilas County.
“There were these really low growth rates for muskies on some of these lakes,” Gilbert said. The phenomenon wasn’t everywhere. Sterile waters and small lakes with no fatty forage base, such as ciscoes, seemed to be typical of the issue.
“There just wasn’t enough for all the muskies to eat in order to grow in the time they had to grow,” Gilbert explained. Of note to Minnesota muskie skeptics: Gilbert said walleye numbers did not suffer on such lakes; muskies simply stunted, often dying before reaching 40 inches. Genetically, these fish were capable of growing larger — famed world record muskies from northern Wisconsin exceeded 65 pounds — so biologists suspected the problem was from muskies competing with each other for food.
Around 2000, the DNR decided to throttle back on stocking. In many cases, muskie growth rates resumed, and longer, fatter fish began showing up in research nets and anglers’ photos. However, in some lakes, ending stocking altogether had no effect; the muskies, native to these waters, were reproducing naturally (different from Minnesota’s stocked waters, where there appears to be little natural reproduction).
In these relatively small lakes — many are smaller than 300 acres nestled in the Chequamegon National Forest — muskies have remained runts. “To get the fish to grow to 40 inches, you have to lower the numbers,” Gilbert said. Thus was born the 28-inch minimum, which started with 10 lakes but has grown since 2012. In some cases, the hope is to reduce to total numbers of muskies in hopes that the remaining fish will grow larger. But in a few lakes, such as 366-acre Upper Gresham in Vilas County, Gilbert said the goal is simply to manage it “as an action water.”
ACTION MUSKIE LAKES
Muskies are said to be “the fish of 10,000 casts.” That’s probably an overstatement for the dedicated angler — and definitely an overstatement for these lakes. Several years back, a friend and I camped on the shores of Day Lake and targeted muskies from a canoe, tossing #5 Mepps bucktails and the like with medium spinning reels. We caught several muskies each day, and saw more than we bothered counting. Few were longer than 30 inches, but the action of such fish on “small” tackle was high-end entertainment, and I’ve fished other such “action muskie lakes” over the years.
They’re still muskies, still capable of shutting down for hours, of following a lure to within inches of the hull and refusing to bite, and of sudden violence aimed squarely at the midriff of whatever lure happened to be passing overhead. But on action lakes, there are simply a lot more muskies swimming there — and they’re smaller.
They can also be eaten — an attraction, Gilbert said, for a generation of anglers who fondly recall the days when that was the norm. (Wisconsin health officials recommend no one eat muskies once they reach 40 inches — the statewide minimum — because of mercury levels. So the 28-inch lakes are essentially the only state-sanctioned muskie meal one can get.)
“I know some people like to smoke ’em and other guys will skin them and bake ’em whole,” Gilbert said, noting that anatomically, the muskellunge is nearly identical to the northern pike. “If you go back to the mid-1970s, that was the norm. With catch-and-release, there aren’t that many targeting muskies for food, but it’s still a constituency here. There’s also (Native American) tribal harvest that can be focused on these lakes, and hey, if you want to catch your first muskie and don’t want to get a lot of expensive tackle, these lakes offer that.”
A MUSKIE MEAL
At the risk of being tarred and feathered by my fellow muskie anglers, I set out for Day Lake earlier this month with the aim of doing my part to thin the muskie hordes. A large cooler of ice lay back at the car, and a forearm-sized Louisville Slugger lay on the deck of my boat as we fished the boggy structure and pristine shoreline of the undeveloped impoundment, which we shared with only three other boats.
The morning featured a few follows and some mysterious thumps of our lures, but nothing more. Then shortly after noon — about the time we needed to leave — a muskie grabbed my Rapala Husky Jerk and was soon cartwheeling toward the boat in five feet of tea-stained water.
My spinning rod arched as I leveraged the fish toward my outstretched net. I imagined that tender, boneless top cut of meat yielding to my fillet knife. The muskie had other ideas. It used my net, which would barely have been big enough for a passive fish, as a springboard. The fish flung itself toward me, across the expanse of net, and shot down under the boat. Somehow in the process, it unwrapped itself from the line, unhooked itself from the lure, and was gone.
They’re still muskies. And all the ones that were in Day Lake when I arrived that morning remained there when I left.
—
The following Wisconsin lakes have a 28-inch minimum size for muskies, with a limit of one per day, according to 2016 regulations:
- Price County: Butternut and Solberg
- Vilas County: Upper Gresham
- Oneida County: Bearskin, Booth, Julia (near Three Lakes), Squaw
- Ashland County : English, Mineral, Day, East Twin, Spider/Moquah Chain, Spillerberg, Potter
- Iron County: Owl
- Sawyer: Black
