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Location: varies | How many floaters / dead muskies did you see this year on the waters you fished. Sad poll but curious of the #'s and hope it's a relatively low number overall. I personally saw 2.  |
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Posts: 20178
Location: oswego, il | I did not keep exact but around ten. I seen them every day I was on lsc.
Edited by ToddM 12/11/2014 6:18 PM
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Location: Eastern Ontario | Personally didn't see any but heard about one and had a guy tell me he had a fish that wouldn't go ( they might have been the same fish.)
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Posts: 556
| 2 real nice 48 Inch range out on Green bay this Fall. Wish anglers up there would practice better release techniques and FAR LESS time posing for Pics. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI | I saw two. One mid 30s and the other upper 40s. The bigger fish was shortly after ice out and it appears as if it had been dead for a while.
In both cases the eagles were eating well. |
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Posts: 619
| Didn't see any floaters this year. Typically see 2-4 year. Floaters are not a good indicator though as most dead fish sink - most do not float at all. I saw a couple release attempts this year that there is no way a fish could survive that abuse. I actually saw a guy also cut hooks and leave the hook pieces in the fish. |
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Posts: 8716
| None this year. Typically see 1-2. Most times there is no obvious cause for mortality but I did find a 43"er on the Fox Chain a while back that was cut open from the jaw to the vent. I am presuming that was a walleye angler.
I know I've had one or two that probably didn't make it. That's part of fishing unfortunately. But there's no excuse for killing them intentionally. Hell, if you're gonna whack it, at the very least take it home and eat it, you know?
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Posts: 2274
Location: Chisholm, MN | I've only seen 1 floater in 16 years of muskie fishing and that was about 15 years ago. |
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Location: MN | Just one. Mid40's. More last year when the temps were higher. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | None for me. It's pretty rare that I see any in the areas I fish. |
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| No floaters, saw the DNR filet a bunch of them to check stomach content though. |
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Posts: 409
Location: Almond, WI | Don't recall seeing any muskies. Did see a 28"ish walleye floating--I guessed delayed mortality because I saw lots of walleye guys fishing DEEP (40'+) reefs the few days before and it was warm water. |
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Posts: 349
| Kirby Budrow - 12/12/2014 9:52 AM I've only seen 1 floater in 16 years of muskie fishing and that was about 15 years ago. Ditto. 5 years of muskie fishing, 20+ years of fishing on muskie waters and I've personally seen one floater. Funny story about the floater... first time on LOTW for the 6 of us on the trip and before we ever wet a line we find a 4'+ floater on our way to the first spot. 15 minutes later my buddy catches a 50.5"... the first Woods fish any of us had seen. What a way to take our LOTW v-card.
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Posts: 463
Location: Sw Pennsylvania | Between LSC and Chautauqua I definitely saw a dozen + this year. Definitely more at St Clair. |
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Location: varies | those multiple, 10+ numbers being seen on LSC is concerning. what a shame. |
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Posts: 20178
Location: oswego, il | On lsc there are alot of fish and fisherman, non musky anglers too. Alot of fish caught. Better chance of seeing a floater. |
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Posts: 32784
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Many.
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Posts: 8716
| I see dead walleyes. And then I eat them, and life is good! |
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Posts: 285
Location: NE Wisconsin | Many floaters on Fox River Green Bay, after opening weekend this year. It was the tail end of the spawn, fish were under stress, rapid warm up, putting more stress on the fish. Many fish were in extremely shallow water where they were vulnerable to foul hooking. A large per cent age of the fish boated were foul hooked. Larger fish foul hooked can take a while to boat, putting more stress on already stressed fish. Wardens were watching, but it hard to prove intent, if the fish is released after a few pic. A lot of pics were taken of fish that never had a bait in their mouths. There were many floaters after the weekend. It is a shame for this to happen to a declining population which totally relies on stocking, and because of VHS, there has been less and less stocking for several years. |
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Posts: 1202
Location: Money, PA | Its like catching/fishing for them...The more time you spend on the water, the more you will see. |
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Posts: 1198
Location: Walker, MN | I can't help but think about other potential variables such as water temps, handling, heath of the fish to begin with...
I have only seen two in 21 years of Muskie fishing. Not sure. |
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| slow rollin, why would cut hook pieces kill a fish? I leave pieces on occasion when removing them would cause further injury. I remember this being discussed on here but couldn't find it in a search. Wouldn't the standard rejection process begin and build some scar tissue and recede ect...eventually expelling the piece? Doesn't yanking a buried barb out of gill tissue, tongue or roof of mouth defeat the purpose of cutting hooks? Sorry to derail just curious. |
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Posts: 8716
| Ben Olsen - 12/20/2014 1:28 PM
slow rollin, why would cut hook pieces kill a fish? I leave pieces on occasion when removing them would cause further injury. I remember this being discussed on here but couldn't find it in a search. Wouldn't the standard rejection process begin and build some scar tissue and recede ect...eventually expelling the piece? Doesn't yanking a buried barb out of gill tissue, tongue or roof of mouth defeat the purpose of cutting hooks? Sorry to derail just curious.
Hi Ben
I would presume that if the pieces are in a non vital part of the fish and not apt to be swallowed that they would eventually do just what you describe. And yes, you could probably do more damage by attempting to remove them.
While I don't know for sure, I suspect that many of the floaters we see are a result of being badly hooked, inexperienced anglers without the proper tools, fish being fought too long, held out of the water too long, not released properly, or some combination of the above.
We've had a few that I am not sure made it, even though there was no apparent reason for their failure to revive quickly. One in particular was a 43"er that hit about 20 feet from the boat, and was just dead weight reeling it in. It was barely hooked in the corner of the mouth, hooks came out in the net, and back she went. It took five minutes to get her to stay upright and another 5 after before she swam off. Why? There was nothing wrong that we could see, but the fish didn't even put up a fight, didn't thrash in the net, nothing. It looked healthy enough, but it acted half dead already.
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Location: varies | I too once caught a 50 that had zero fight. I thought I snagged a log until the head poked up from the water. Was clean hooked in the lip. But no fight what so ever. The revival took maybe 2 minutes. I always assumed she had been through this before and learned to be calm? Water Temps were higher that year so maybe that was the cause too. |
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Posts: 718
| Saw a floater once that was over 30 lbs. I looked close and realized it was still alive. We successfully revived it after taking the snelled hook out of its lip. Some perch guy upriver from us is still likely telling the story about the one that got away...
Edited by Bondy 12/21/2014 7:26 AM
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Posts: 64
| I don't know why people try to over analyze this so much. While I understand that proper handling techniques will help with survival -- the bottom line is you are jamming a metal hook into the mouth or other part of a live fish -- and then removing it from it's natural habit (even if briefly). Sometimes they are going to die. Some people act like they are oh so mighty and it's everyone else that has poor techniques, but not themselves. It's fishing -- no matter what you do sometimes these things happen -- but for some reason in the musky world god forbid that you ever mention you had a fish die on you or people will bash you like crazy and try to tell you everything you did wrong. Do the best you can and enjoy fishing. |
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| jamesb - 12/21/2014 9:19 AM
I don't know why people try to over analyze this so much. While I understand that proper handling techniques will help with survival -- the bottom line is you are jamming a metal hook into the mouth or other part of a live fish -- and then removing it from it's natural habit (even if briefly). Sometimes they are going to die. Some people act like they are oh so mighty and it's everyone else that has poor techniques, but not themselves. It's fishing -- no matter what you do sometimes these things happen -- but for some reason in the musky world god forbid that you ever mention you had a fish die on you or people will bash you like crazy and try to tell you everything you did wrong. Do the best you can and enjoy fishing.
Best post of the year, seriously. I have heard from so many guides about how they can fish in high water temps and do this and that but nobody else should try it. Get over yourselves already practice what you preach. |
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Posts: 27
Location: Oconomowoc, WI | Found a 51" on the Chippewa Flowage a few years back during a warm water period. Didn't look like it had been caught recently. haven;t seen many over the years |
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