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Posts: 122
Location: Kenosha, Wi. | I had yesterday off, wife was working, so I decided to take a walk around the trails at Sterling Lake in Zion. While walking I noticed a big fish up on the bank and found a 35"+ musky that looked like someone had caught, because it definitely had a hook mark in the corner of its mouth. What really disturbed me was that it looked like someone did'nt want this fish back in the water as it looked like it had been slashed a couple of times with a knife. What made matters worse was that about 1/4 mile down the trail another musky was at the waters edge with its head cut off. I had to estimate this fish at about 41" just by the size of the body. Both of these fish were really healthy and you could tell that they had been putting on the feedbag when they were alive. It really amazes me that someone would do something like this! As I got back to my truck one of the wardens was driving in and I flagged him down. I commenced to tell him what I had found, and where, and he said that this is not the first time this has happened this month. From what I gathered, they have stepped up their patrols there and have asked that if anyone is out there fishing or enjoying the preserve, and sees anything suspicious to give them a call. They would love to catch whoever is doing this! So, if you're out at Sterling Lake, in Van Patten Woods and see anything out of the ordinary let them know. I thought you'd all like to know.
Edited by musky54 11/11/2008 4:01 PM
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Posts: 477
Location: Iowa | But they are eating all the other fish!!! Shouldn't they be destroyed??? Some people are still stuck in that mindset. Hopefully they catch someone in the act and hand out a couple healthy fines and take away their fishing license for a while. |
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| That's terrible to hear. I think this type of stuff sometimes happens because people believe muskies eat all the gamefish - a viewpoint that is stuck in some people's mind. It's especially disgusting to hear about those large, highly fecund fish getting killed. Hope they get caught. Probably not much we can do about it though.  |
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Posts: 367
Location: Chicago | That is horrible. I really like that lake. Nice bass in there as well. |
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Location: Cook, Minnesota On Beautiful Lake Vermilion | That makes me sick...I hope they catch them and throw the book at' em... |
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Posts: 371
Location: Dixon, IL | Oh I don't know that! Sterling Lake is one of my favorite musky lake close to my home. I fish there about 10 times a year but I never saw a dead musky that you found. I would report to warden if I find but I hope never happened! There's few people fish for catfish, bass and panfish while other serious fish for muskies. I noticed that bluegills number go down. I fish on shore around the lake many times and I see some bluegills and bass but not many like before so maybe someone blame muskies for eating bluegills and bass but I am not sure.
Muskie54.....is that you drive truck with Wisconsin plate and use a small stand up boat? I wear indian jones hat and carry two musky rods and taclebox to walk around the lake and one time I used a green sat on kayak! |
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Posts: 122
Location: Kenosha, Wi. | Ilmuskie, nope, that's not me with the truck and the stand up boat. I fish from shore there once in a while but really enjoy taking the dog out there to run and just enjoy the walk. |
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Posts: 371
Location: Dixon, IL | Muskie54, Oh, okay! I noticed that you come from Wisconsin so I thought that was you. Several trucks and cars from Wisconsin to come to fish Sterling Lake. Hope someone catch somebody who killed poor muskies! I will keep eye on the lake like hawk! I would ask warden for phone number or text that I can page them if I see someone do something is wrong! |
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Location: N.FIB | whats the size limit on the lake,my guess is what happened to these muskies was illegal,that really sucks and someone probably thinks what they did was funny. |
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Posts: 371
Location: Dixon, IL | 48" size limit!!!!
Not bad for a nice small lake! |
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Posts: 122
Location: Kenosha, Wi. | Yup, 48". I was parked right in front of the sign. |
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Posts: 42
| there are people who do the same thing on the new river.
their argument is that the muskies eat the smallies and walleyes. the main forage down here are white suckers.
i'm sure some smallies and eyes fall to muskies, but they fall to bald eagles too.
people who do this should be fined and jailed.
patrick |
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Location: Twin Cities | People do this everywhere, sucks. I called in some bass guys I saw slit the throat on a big fish in the twin cities this summer. Warden showed up and talked to them, not sure what happened, but they took my statement etc. |
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Posts: 20180
Location: oswego, il | There are some people who believe they eat all the walleyes there. There is a guy called muskymod on some general fishing sites who bragged and posted pictures of the muskies he kept from the lake. That is why the size limit went from 36" to 48". He kept alot of them and believed they were keeping the walleyes from his tum-tum. I have no idea who killed those fish but there is some anti-musky sentiment there. |
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Posts: 281
Location: ROckford IL | People were doing the same thing over here in a Winnebago county lake here in Rockford, some dummy was going around catching these 40+ inchers and slicing their throats and leaving them on the banks to die. I ran into one guy while fishing there and he started talking about muskies killing all the other game fish in the lake, I really got pissed and asked dude if he has any proof to this statement, of course the dude had no clue, I was just about to knock dude over the head, some people just don't understand that muskies don't just target bass and walleyes. I swear we need to educate these people |
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Posts: 8720
| Bigman... People are stupid. They will believe anyhting they hear. If they don't catch a fish today and you tell them its because a muskie probably ate it and they're garbage fish, he'll go around telling everybody he knows that they should all be killed. Beating him over the head won't accomplish a thing unless you kill him. A better option might just be to say "Are you KIDDING? They eat all the rough fish that prey on walleye eggs. Most of their diet is stuff that wrecks the fishing anyway. Muskies in the lake make the fishing BETTER. Why do you think the fishing is so good in Minnesota and Canada? Those lakes ALL have a ton of muskies and its the best walleye/smallmouth, etc. fishing in the world!
That's the beauty of idiots -- if they're dumb enough to believe muskies are eating all their walleyes (think about who is REALLY eating all the walleyes, dumba**es...) they'll believe anything you tell them, too. You just have to do it in a way that makes it sound like you know more than the guy who told them muskies are bad.
In the end they're still going to be stupid, but they'll be going around telling everyone how great muskies are for the lakes.
Edited by esoxaddict 11/12/2008 10:36 AM
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Location: ROckford IL | I know what you mean, education is the key |
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Posts: 371
Location: Dixon, IL | Education is the key....I agreed! Maybe add sign on the lake that explaine that muskies eat carp, shad and suckers. Maybe it help people to understand and let muskies back to the water! Who knows!
Even 48" limit at Sterling Lake don't help and we will watch the lake as hawk! Anyone who kill less than minium limit get fine and jail!
Fishermen(women) who keep everything in Chicagoland area that we called them bucket people!
Next best thing I can think of is meet warden and get know them and get phone or text from them then just in case we find someone who break the law then we can let warden know asap! |
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Location: New Hope MN | How much do you guys think the average 40"er eats in a day? 1 pound? |
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Location: madison wisconsin | Good call bigman. I myself run into people that hate pike or muskie because "they eat all the other fish". When you begin to have a discussion about it with them, the poeple I talked to had no clue and really needed to be educated. And when you try they just hand motion you off! But of course they were right! |
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Posts: 371
Location: Dixon, IL | dtaijo174.....40" can eat as big as 18" long!
Muskie Mania book by Ron Schara
Muskie Length & avg length of food......
30".....3.1"
36".....8.3"
40".....11.8"
45".....16.1"
50".....20.5" |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | ILmuskie - 11/12/2008 12:51 PM
dtaijo174.....40" can eat as big as 18" long!
Muskie Mania book by Ron Schara
Muskie Length & avg length of food......
30".....3.1"
36".....8.3"
40".....11.8"
45".....16.1"
50".....20.5"
ok lets do the math for a 40". I'm guessing 12" walleye is about 14Oz or 7/8lbs.
That's rough 320lbs of walleye/yr at the MAXIMUM feeding rate. We all know they slow way down during the winter.
Each year, anglers in Minnesota keep roughly 3.5 million walleyes totaling 4 million pounds.
~source:http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fish/walleye/index.html
food for thought. |
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Posts: 371
Location: Dixon, IL | Here in Illinois....Muskies love shad! They grow quickly and fat but rare live longer than 12 years! Walleye and Bass is way low for muskies to eat! No shad....they like to eat carp, suckers, shiners, perch, panfish, walleye, bass, catfish and many more! Perch and suckers is high percent for muskie to eat! |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | ILmuskie, I think you are correct. Muskies do eat a variety of species. I'm simply pointing out the worst case scenario. I am more inclined to think they feed on cisco and suckers more than anything else. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | A couple of other things to remember:
1) Walleyes have lateral line systems just as muskies do, and I have to believe they are just as well-developed. So the chance of them being ambushed by muskies doesn't seem nearly as high as some might have you believe.
2) Walleyes have a tapetum lucidum, a structure that enables them to have far keener visual acuity than a musky. Here's a summarizing reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walleye
While I have no doubt whatsoever that Walleyes find their way into the diets of muskies, the opposite is undoubtedly true as well. But when's the last time you heard some say they wanted to "kill all the walleyes cause they keep eating the musky fingerlings"? Hey, maybe *that's* why we don't have any significant natural reproduction of muskies here in Green Bay? One of the gazillion and one walleyes living in Green Bay ate them, apparently...
Bozek & Burri ( http://www.mi50.com/docs/diets.pdf ) found that walleyes make up a very small percentage of muskellunge diets. So I simply cannot accept any logical argument purporting that muskies are responsible for the decline of walleye populations...pretty much anywhere. Walleyes are voracious predators--every bit as aggressive as muskies are. I will argue to my dying breath that a given biomass of walleye will eat WAY more forage than the equivalent biomass of musky. And look at the density of muskies in Lake Webster in Indiana--very high indeed (about 6.46 adults per acre in 2005, http://www.in.gov/dnr/public/julaug05/news5.html); it seems as though it's still a pretty good bass fishery, the last I've heard.
I agree with the sentiment that they should find these criminals and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.
TB
Edited by tcbetka 11/13/2008 6:08 PM
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Location: Chicagoland | I love this lake, but this is disturbing! I hope whoever did this gets what's coming o him |
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Location: oswego, il | From Muskymod:
"This story is spreading like a true urban legend.....first off I find it unbelievable. The thought of so called "ignorant anglers" beheading large Muskellunge in order to protect more sought after species is absolutely propostorous....Secondly, this story is undocumented (no photos or video) by a supposed Musky angler who decided to just walk the trails on that given day instead of actually fishing....hmmm, sounds fishy.
A few weeks ago I stopped by Sterling to take a surface temperature, near the piers in the launch area I noticed a rather large and absolutely dead Musky in the low 40's....the reality is that subsequent death happens, whether it be improper handling prior to release or deep hooking. Unfortunately what happens to these fish after the fact is pure speculation and hearsay....Informing already under-staffed Rangers about a phantom Musky slayer on the loose seems like a waste of a precious and limited resource....when in all probable reality, some not-so fortunate angler found said large musky dead, and severed the head for a partial mount.
Having documented more than 1,000 trips to this body of water in the last 30 yrs I can safely say that this lake is under-fished by knowledgable anglers....Having caught scores of 40-47" Muskellunge from these waters accidently on purpose while fishing for other species, only proves of their abundance and astonishing growth rates.....the sad thing is that the only reports I read about this lake are of skunkings and phantom Musky slayers.......Kudos to Todd and the originator of the questionable aforementioned thread.....please feel free to spread this one around the net as well.
Mod "
www.youtube.com/muskymod
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Posts: 8720
| I found a 44"er floating with its belly sliced open on the Fox Chain a few summers back. Just so happened to be the day after a walleye tournament. I suppose someone wanted the internal organs for a partial mount? Or maybe it was swimming really really fast and hit a sharp rock?
If this muskymod fellow is for real he ought to know the best way to get a lake to suddenly become overrun with muskie anglers is to publicly declare it to be underfished and talk about how many big fish he's caught there.
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