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Posts: 880
Location: New Berlin,Wisconsin,53151 | My question is this: With the way the Walleye's for Tomorrow Chapters approach the stocking of walleyes, that is a walleye wagon and releasing millions of small fry into lakes, has this ever been tried with muskie? We pay for fish that are 9-12"s long and what's the survial rate? How about getting millions of eggs and releasing the fry back into the bodies of water?
Too many? Maybe create a monster? idk.....
Netman
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Posts: 455
| Really much less predictable results. I have seen it work. NY used to stock Tiger fry in Greenwood and we did have a nice population from those stockings. Also NJ stocks any extra small fish in the Delaware river and that population is healthy. They must have put over a million fish in there the last few years. Most people would rather see bigger fish stocked. The bigger the better for the most part. |
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Posts: 880
Location: New Berlin,Wisconsin,53151 | I guess you don't get to see the results from stocking fry as most muskie stocking you'll have a clipped fin to identify what year. This year I was able to talk to one of the members from the Walleye's for Tomorrow group on Pewaukee that released 4.2 million fry and are going to do so again and again. There has to be a great fall out but the idea is to get these fry a better chance of survial than if they were eggs in the shoreline. I know when we bought fish for the Kly stocking memorial we had raised a good deal of funds that was donated to the Muskies Inc chapter her in Milwaukee. The results are yet to be determined as I wasn't involved during the release on Okauchee. I guess if you were to release some 4.2 milion muskie fry into a lake it could be disastrous even though you wouldn't expect many to survive.
Netman |
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Posts: 1000
| I can't cite the studies, but survival (and ROI) improves greatly as you increase the size of the fish stocked.
Edited by tolle141 6/24/2014 9:02 PM
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Posts: 880
Location: New Berlin,Wisconsin,53151 | I would like to revisit this idea of stocking muskies. In the forum there's a question about stocking muskies in the Winnebeggo system. Why hasn't the efforts been turn to the methods of the Walleyes For Tomorrow chapters are doing? I would lthink that releasing muskies in the millions would have a better advantage than 100-200 fingelings in that large body of water? The same goes with the Green Bay area or Lake Michigan. Has Muskies Inc approached this idea of stocking?
Thoughts?
Netman |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | They used to stock muskies by the way of fry, and have gone the recent route of fingerlings as the amount of fish that make it to adulthood are higher with the fingerling method. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | some discussions on walleyefirst suggesting fry equates to essentially feeding all the adult fish in the system ... extended growth is the way to go |
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Posts: 1087
Location: Hayward, WI |
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/fishing/documents/musky/MuskyStockingstrate... |
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Posts: 880
Location: New Berlin,Wisconsin,53151 | Thanks for the attached Kris, thats interesting. Cost wise shows has the advantage going to the release of fingerlings. Why does Walleyes for Tomorrow do this? They must have a reason or different results?
Netman |
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Posts: 102
| My understanding was WFT (on Pewaukee at least) releases fry via their wagon in spring, but also release fingerlings in the fall. It appeared to me, from what I have read/heard from that group, that they aren't sure what their survival rate to adulthood will be from either type of stocking, but they are hoping to learn that as years go on.
For muskies, as shown in that article, the bigger they are when stocking, the better shot they have at making it. The fish that were stocked into LaBelle last fall were 12-15 inches long, and real thick for yearlings. Biggest yearlings I've ever seen. I am willing to bet those fish have a higher percentage at making it to adulthood than the fish put into Pewaukee a week later, as those were 9-11 inches and real skinny. |
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Posts: 1023
| Here's one for the forum, Walleyes for Tomorrow and their "wagon method". Wasn't that what really turned around the Winnebago system? I know that they did a great job in cleaning up rivers and creating better structure, but they also used that wagon method to stock. And it was very, very successful.
So, why was it successful on Winnebago? Was it the cleanup and/or restoration of spawning areas? Did it have something to do with the forage or gamefish base in Winnebago?
I really do not know. Just curious. I think WFT is doing great things on Pewaukee, hopefully we see some good results in a year or two. |
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Posts: 880
Location: New Berlin,Wisconsin,53151 | It sounds as though the WFT use the wagon right after ice out and release the frey 2 weeks after that. Could this wagon be used again for muskies, thus you could stock both in the same year? Just wondering about that being an option, though I don't fully understand the process or time it takes, but I do appreciate the efforts of those that volunteer the time.
Edited by Netman 2/19/2015 9:32 AM
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