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Posts: 22
Location: Monticello Illinois | We all know that the females get the biggest, but what's the biggest male musky you've ever caught? Anyone know what the largest male musky ever caught was? |
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Posts: 977
| 56" male from spawning surveys on the st. lawrence river
Edited by Ronix 2/4/2015 9:48 AM
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Posts: 880
Location: New Berlin,Wisconsin,53151 | With all the reference to the BIG GIRLS being caught, what do you call a 56" male? "FAT BOY" "Big BOY" |
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Posts: 410
Location: Wakefield, MI | 48" out of a local 35 acre lake. |
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Posts: 32
| 49 inch Ottawa River |
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Posts: 1276
Location: Hayward, Wisconsin | Know of a 57 incher from the French River. Have a picture somewhere and I'll post it if I can find it. |
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Posts: 427
| Considering male growth rates about how old would a 57 inch male be??????? |
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Location: MN | When I catch a fish I never think to check it's sphincter so I couldn't tell you what my biggest male is. |
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Posts: 880
Location: New Berlin,Wisconsin,53151 | I think you need to have a little proctologist training......probably the last thing I'm looking at is the sphincter. You make a lot of money but it's a crappie job. lol |
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Posts: 1283
| I never check either. How do you tell anyways? |
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Posts: 977
| Roe vs. milt during spawning surveys. Simply apply pressure and see what you end up with haha. I can't imagine most anglers would voluntarily do this this but in fisheries work you have to record this for data. |
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Posts: 409
Location: Almond, WI | A female has a vent like an 8, a male's vent is more like a keyhole (easier to push out milt than roe, so the size of the openings correspond). Males tend to be thinner also. I caught a 48" that I think was male. |
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Posts: 8721
| I've never checked, and I don't think I want to go squeezing them to see what comes out. Common consensus is that the males typically do not get as large, but I can't imagine why that would be. I can see females carrying more weight due to egg mass. |
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Posts: 574
Location: Elk Grove Village, IL & Phillips, WI | A picture is worth a thousand words.
Attachments
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 male v female.png (64KB - 346 downloads)
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Posts: 1283
| Im not squeezing anything out of any fish. Getting crapped on is bad enough lol. Thanks for the info and pics! I might start checking now. |
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Location: MN | esoxaddict - 2/5/2015 11:31 AM
Common consensus is that the males typically do not get as large, but I can't imagine why that would be. I can see females carrying more weight due to egg mass.
Is it really that hard to believe? In mammals and birds typically the males are larger than females. (unless you are referring to homo sapiens from Wisconsin in which the females are generally larger) Fish, reptiles, insects etc. typically the females are larger than males.
Edited by Nershi 2/5/2015 12:02 PM
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Posts: 8721
| I believe it, Nershi.
I'm just not sure why it happens in the world of fish. I suppose egg production is the answer, but it seems to me that large size would be a benefit to either sex. Male, or female, the bigger a musky gets the more it can eat. |
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Posts: 1202
Location: Money, PA | Heard of a 58" once from the Kawartha Lakes
"Snake Boy" |
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| Nershi - 2/5/2015 12:00 PM
esoxaddict - 2/5/2015 11:31 AM
Common consensus is that the males typically do not get as large, but I can't imagine why that would be. I can see females carrying more weight due to egg mass.
Is it really that hard to believe? In mammals and birds typically the males are larger than females. (unless you are referring to homo sapiens from Wisconsin in which the females are generally larger ) Fish, reptiles, insects etc. typically the females are larger than males.
Ouch! Yet too funny  |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | ShutUpNFish - 2/5/2015 1:30 PM
Heard of a 58" once from the Kawartha Lakes
"Snake Boy"
Highly doubtful unless there is another set of Kawarthas besides the ones in south central Ontario |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | Oddly enough I've got some age/length data from 48-50" males that are similar in age to females 10-11. From what I can recall this growth in males is unique to the Great Lakes/Seaway fish and very uncommon with the Mississippi, Ohio, etc. Would like to dig into this a little more sometime, maybe Larry can add to this.
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Posts: 161
Location: New Jersey | Here in NJ, for whatever reason, almost every fish over 40-inches is a female. The state nets muskies for brood stock, and the largest male they every caught barely pushed 40. The male came out of a lake that is stocked entirely with Leech Lake strain muskies, which tend to grow longer than the other strains we have here in NJ. This is going back through years of netting. I'm sure there are a handful of 40-inch males out there in NJ, but probably not many. |
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Posts: 558
| Thanks olboy35 for starting this discussion. Lol. Now i am going to be the pervert on the boat checking out musky sphincter's.
Lmao.
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Will Schultz - 2/5/2015 2:40 PM
Oddly enough I've got some age/length data from 48-50" males that are similar in age to females 10-11. From what I can recall this growth in males is unique to the Great Lakes/Seaway fish and very uncommon with the Mississippi, Ohio, etc. Would like to dig into this a little more sometime, maybe Larry can add to this.
Will that is interesting. I caught two males that were tagged the same year in MI. I caught them a year apart. One grew 1 1/2" in 10 years, and the other grew something like 9" in the same time frame. I don't remember the numbers anymore and would have to look them up, but it is not important. So I have to wonder if they came from different strains. Both fish were caught in the same lake so the forage and everything was the same.
The larger one ended up being 47 1/2" while the other one was only 41 and some change. The MI DNR claimed it was the largest they have seen personally. I chalk it up to that they must not see many big fish. LOL! |
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Posts: 20180
Location: oswego, il | KenK was just venting. I enjoy catching muskies regardless of what squirts out of them in the spring. |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | TK - Would you mind sending me a PM with some details? Where, when, who tagged, etc. I would be very interested to find some out of the ordinary growth info on the WI fish we've stocked for so many years. The males normally top out around 40" @ 18 yo.
Edited by Will Schultz 2/6/2015 1:03 AM
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Posts: 1276
Location: Hayward, Wisconsin | Sorry Will, I can't add anything...not aware of any research that has been done on this subject (other than an offshoot comments/observations).
It could have to do with the milt getting dropped before the eggs to assure fertilization, as they swim eye to eye when spawning, but that is unknown. |
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