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In regard to links throughout this Site, you may see a word that is underlined but NOT highlighted blue like a link, It IS a link and these are words that can be found in our Dictionary. In case you're unfamiliar with some of the fishing lingo.
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Muskellunge
The muskellunge is the largest member of the pike family. The muskellunge is one of the largest and most elusive fish that swims. A muskie will eat fish and sometimes ducklings and even small muskrats. It waits in weed beds and then lunges forward, clamping its large, tooth-lined jaws onto the prey. The muskie then gulps down the stunned or dead victim head first. Muskies are light colored and usually have dark bars running up and down their long bodies. That’s the opposite of northern pike, which have light markings on a dark body. Muskies are silver, light green, or light brown. The foolproof way to tell a muskie from a northern is to count the pores on the underside of the jaw: A muskie has six or more. A northern has five or fewer. The muskie, unlike the northern pike, has six to nine pores (usually seven) on each side of the underside of the lower jaw. The lower half of the muskie’s cheek is not scaled. The lobes of the muskie’s tail are more pointed than those of the northern pike. The muskie’s coloration, too, is distinct from a northern pike’s and takes three common forms that depend somewhat on the muskie’s place of origin, but all have a light background. Muskies generally have three different variations; dark spots on a light background (spotted phase), dark bars on a light background (barred phase) and the third pattern, which is occasionally seen throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin, is the “clear” phase of light sides with no marks or very faint marks on the rear third of the fish.
Because
muskie are perceived as trophies – and because large fish are
scarce and old – most states impose a minimum-length limit and
low possession limit. Tiger Muskellunge
Rounded Tail Fins The tiger muskie is the hybrid of the northern pike and muskie. It is usually infertile and has characteristics of both parents. The hybrid has distinct tiger bars on a light background, similar to the barred coloration pattern of some muskie. Its fins and tail lobes are rounded like a northern pike’s but colored like a muskie’s. The cheekscale and mandible-pore patterns are intermediate between a northern pike’s and muskie’s. The tiger muskie grows slightly faster than either pure-strain parent in the first several years of life. It can exceed 30 pounds. Some tiger muskie occur naturally, though most hybrids are produced in hatcheries. They are useful in stocking because they grow quickly and endure high temperatures better than either paren does. Hybrids are easier to raise in a hatchery than pure-strain muskie, they reach legal size sooner and they are easier to catch. Because tiger muskie are usually sterile, their numbers can be controlled by changing the stocking rate. Fish managers use the pure-strain muskie in lakes that can sustain naturally reproducing populations. The tiger muskie is reserved for lakes with heavy fishing pressure in and near the Twin Cities. Tiger muskie are subject to the same low possession limit and minimum-size limit that protect pure-strain muskie. Muskie apparently have evolved to avoid head-on competition with northern pike. If northern pike find their way into muskie water, they seem to proliferate at the expense of muskies. Why does the northern pike compete better? That question continues to puzzle fish biologist, though many believe that the earlier-hatching northern pike prey on newly hatched muskie if the two species use the same spawning areas. In waters where muskie evolved without northern pike present, the muskie chooses the same weedy, flooded wetlands that serve as northern pike spawning areas elsewhere. If pike are introduced to these lakes, as they have been in Wisconsin drainages, the northern pike spawn in these same areas – but about two weeks earlier. So when the muskie fry hatch, they may be eaten by the larger young-of-the-year northern pike. To make matters worse, young muskie routinely hang just below the surface of the water, where they are easy prey for birds from above or fish from below. Where the two species have coexisted for thousands of years, as they have in the Mississippi River headwaters, the muskie seem to have adopted different spawning areas. In Leech Lake, for example, muskie spawn offshore in 3 to 6 feet of water. Northern pike, meanwhile, use the weedy shorelines of bays and presumably have less chance to prey on the muskie. Other evidence suggests that riverine conditions help muskie hold their own against northern pike, which prefer slower, weedier water. Researchers have speculated but haven’t proved that northern pike-muskie competition may be affected by other factors, including disease, dissolved oxygen concentrations, water-temperature fluctuations at spawning time, and prevailing water temperatures.
The
muskie long has been recognized as special – a large, rare
trophy. Its habitat requirements are more particular than that of its
close relative, the northern pike. In many areas, the muskie’s
existence is rather tenuous – threatened by fishing, habitat
loss, and competition from other fish species. So the goal of muskie
management is to create or protect self-sustaining populations and to
produce a few large fish for the angler skilled and dedicated enough
to catch them.
Proper
Handling and Release
A big muskie is an old muskie. Females require 14 to 17 years to reach 30 pounds. Northern pike grow even more slowly. Once taken out of the water and hung on a wall or carved into fillets, a trophy is not soon replaced by another fish of its size. So, the key to creating trophy northern pike and muskie fishing is catch-and-release angling. Unfortunately, some fish are mortally injured by improper handling and cannot be successfully released. All northern pike and muskie are difficult to handle because of their slippery hides (slime coat), lack of good handles and sharp teeth. Big fish are particularly troublesome because of their great size and power.
Careful handling makes catch-and-release work:
Here are some effective methods for handling large northern pike and muskie: Hand release: Grip the fish over the back, right behind the gills (never by the eye sockets!) and hold it without squeezing it. With the other hand, use a pliers to remove the hooks, while leaving all but the head of the ;fish in the water. Sometimes hooks can be removed with the pliers only; the fish need never be touched. Landing net: Hooks can be removed from some fish even as they remain in the net in the water. If that’s not possible, lift the fish aboard and remove the hooks while the fish is held behind the head and around the tail. To better restrain large fish, stretch a piece of cloth or plastic over the fish and pin it down as if it were in a straight jacket. Stretcher: A stretcher is made of net or porous cloth about 2 to 3 feet wide stretched between two poles. As you draw the fish into the cradle and lift, the fold of the mesh supports and restrains the fish. This method requires two anglers. Tailer: Developed by Atlantic salmon anglers, a tailer is a handle with a loop at one end that is slipped over the fish’s tail and tightened. The fish is thus securely held, though the head must be further restrained before the hooks are removed.
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