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Posts: 37
Location: MN | I'm fairly new to muskie fishing so sorry if this has been discussed before....
I've been noticing, on several lakes, where muskies will swim with their head out of the water for quite a distance....and the other evening I lost a 45 " fish up next to the boat and 20 seconds later it stuck its entire head out of the water five feet from my boat and stared at us for about 10 seconds before it swam away....(yes the music from JAWS ran through my head)
Why do they do this? |
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Posts: 293
| Did it say anything? |
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Posts: 574
Location: Elk Grove Village, IL & Phillips, WI | Common occurrence. If you search this forum, it has been discussed many times. |
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Location: oswego, il | Male musky, lost and won't ask for directions. Watch out for the peeed off giant female just below him! |
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Posts: 574
Location: Elk Grove Village, IL & Phillips, WI | Todd's explanation makes perfect sense! |
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Posts: 548
Location: MN | ToddM - 8/6/2015 1:29 PM
Male musky, lost and won't ask for directions. Watch out for the peeed off giant female just below him!
Brraaaahhhaaahhaaa |
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Posts: 25
| I had this happen last fall up at LOTW. My brother-in-law had what our guide called "the fish of a lifetime" going in the 8 for about 5 or 6 turns. She didn't commit. We circled back about 10-15min later and she showed herself again....only this time she was sitting on the surface just staring at us from about 10ft away from the boat. Probably sat there for a good 15-20 seconds while we looked on in amazement before taking a big gulp and swimming off. Our guide said he'd seen it many times in the past and referred to it as a wise old fish almost falling for a bait and then coming back to "give us the fin" before she swam away. |
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Posts: 97
Location: Tulsa, OK | I had this happen on year at LOTW. Fished a saddle and was throwing a jackpot, fish came in hot and looked like it was about to hit, then it surfaced and swam at us with her head out of the water. It was like it said, hold up, let me see if there is a boat over there. Was bizarre. Needless to say, after getting a great look, she changed her mind and swam away. Two days later, same spot, same behavior. I can still picture it like it happened yesterday because it was such a crazy deal. |
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Posts: 8717
| Seen this once up in Northern WI. Probably about a 44"er. Swam right up to the boat with a frog in it's mouth. Knowing it couldn't bite me with a bullfrog hanging out of it's yap, I picked up the fish and removed the frog, and dropped the frog in the livewell for use later on. Frogs are obviously good musky bait. Then I started to feel bad for the fish, so before I released it I took my flask out of my tackle bag and poured a little shot in it's mouth and sent the fish on its way. Wouldn't you know it, half an hour later that same fish swam up with 2 frogs in its mouth. They're not looking for directions. They just want a drink! |
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Posts: 3136
| Strange has it looks it happens all the time...most times I've seen it is with tiger muskies on a lake that has darker water. Nobody knows for sure why they do it one Minnesota dnr muskie biologist thinks it's a way they flush parasites from their gills. In any case it shows muskies eyes are not bothered by direct sunlight. |
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| Few years ago, my son and I were returning to our dock after fishing for a couple hours. My neighbor's daughter and her husband were swimming past, in training for a tri. I stopped so they could swim past without being rushed. He treaded water and asked if we were fishing for muskies. I replied yeah, we were fishing for them, just not catching. He said, how about catching the one that has been trailing us? They said it was an upper 30s fish and had stuck its head out of water a couple times and eyed them up from about ten feet and followed them for 30-40 yards. He is a musky fisherman, laughed and said it was a little unnerving having the fish give you the same look they do a top water. |
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Posts: 410
Location: Wakefield, MI | esoxaddict - 8/6/2015 4:50 PM
Seen this once up in Northern WI. Probably about a 44"er. Swam right up to the boat with a frog in it's mouth. Knowing it couldn't bite me with a bullfrog hanging out of it's yap, I picked up the fish and removed the frog, and dropped the frog in the livewell for use later on. Frogs are obviously good musky bait. Then I started to feel bad for the fish, so before I released it I took my flask out of my tackle bag and poured a little shot in it's mouth and sent the fish on its way. Wouldn't you know it, half an hour later that same fish swam up with 2 frogs in its mouth. They're not looking for directions. They just want a drink!
That was the elusive esox retriever, it was trying to play fetch. |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Muskies ask a similar question about people all the time. Scuba gear really confuses them. |
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Posts: 8717
| Being serious for a moment, there has been some talk among biologists that this behavior is something to do with removing gill parasites. I've never seen it in cold water, only during the hottest part of summer. Could have something to do with low oxygen levels in the water? |
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| here in the metro its all too common. They do it to see who the next sucker coming is to tease with follows never intending to eat. |
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Posts: 559
| milje - 8/6/2015 9:23 PM
esoxaddict - 8/6/2015 4:50 PM
Seen this once up in Northern WI. Probably about a 44"er. Swam right up to the boat with a frog in it's mouth. Knowing it couldn't bite me with a bullfrog hanging out of it's yap, I picked up the fish and removed the frog, and dropped the frog in the livewell for use later on. Frogs are obviously good musky bait. Then I started to feel bad for the fish, so before I released it I took my flask out of my tackle bag and poured a little shot in it's mouth and sent the fish on its way. Wouldn't you know it, half an hour later that same fish swam up with 2 frogs in its mouth. They're not looking for directions. They just want a drink!
That was the elusive esox retriever, it was trying to play fetch.
A drink for two frogs I am in, the US dollar is not worth that much. |
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Posts: 1283
| Happened to us Sunday. My GF has a nice low 40s come in super hot. It saw the boat and turned off. Couple seconds later its just swimming at the surface with its head out of water flipping us the fin. Very cool! |
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Posts: 7
| I have seen them come up and porpoise like a dolphin but never what you guys are explaining. |
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Posts: 360
Location: Algonac, MI | We call it sharking. See it all the time on LSC, no matter the time of year. Very, Very common, in the Thames River, with heavy stained water.
No scientific data, be we always figured looking for birds and/or bait. Seen them pounce on both, over the years. In addition to planer board releases, up to 2 ft off the water.
Just last weekend, had one attack a release that was skipping on the water intermittently.
Edited by Contender 8/12/2015 12:22 PM
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Location: Chisholm, MN | esoxaddict - 8/7/2015 6:37 PM
Being serious for a moment, there has been some talk among biologists that this behavior is something to do with removing gill parasites. I've never seen it in cold water, only during the hottest part of summer. Could have something to do with low oxygen levels in the water?
I happened to see one do it this year on MN walleye opener with 50 degree water. Not that it's not a parasite, but that was pretty cold. I've seen this happen twice. The other 2 times were later summer. It may be far fetched, but my opinion is that they are looking around. They follow baits without the intention biting, so why wouldn't they just be curious about what's above the surface? Either way, it's really cool! Love muskies! |
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Posts: 141
Location: Minnetonka | On Saturday, we had been fishing pretty hard all morning and had seen a few fish, but in the middle of the afternoon, the action died down on a deeper weed edge. We decided to eat our sandwiches that we packed and wind blew us into an area of about 6 foot and no structure. The motor was running as we sat there BSing and talking about what we'd try next. I then heard a disturbance on the surface and looked to my right to see what looked like a high 30s inch fish about 4 feet from the boat and swimming towards us. I said "muskie" in time for my buddy to get a look at him as he turned to the side as if he were intentionally looking at us and then he swam away. It was too ironic for a fish to surface so close to us on a bare, muck flat, so I thought it might have something to do with the engine vibration that attracted him. Regardless, we had a pretty good laugh about it, since it looked so much like he was taunting us. he was out of the water passed his gills and seemed like he clearly acknowledged our presence. Too funny. |
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Posts: 535
| me and my brother on opening wkd seen a mid 40's doing this in about 3' of water for quite awhile. we had her follow about an hr earlier in that same spot. she was about 47". interesting thing was her whole head and gills were way out of the water and easily over a minute, I would say somewhere between 2-3 mintutes . I always get my fish back in the water as quickly as I can and go by the rule of thumb about "holding your breath that long then either can they saying". Im not gonna change that rule for myself but it really makes you wonder.
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Posts: 37
| It happened to me on Eagle Lake many years ago. It brought up a discussion on reincarnation with my fishing buddy. |
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| a couple years ago I was launching my boat on Lobster and noticed one swimming with its head out. Putted over to it and noticed it was a 40 or so tiger in 16'. Got my boat right next to it and as I just put my net into the water to scoop it tail first, it slowly went down. Thought it would have made an interesting catch story. My boat right next to it didnt phase him a bit. |
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Posts: 470
| Saw this one this AM on Webster Lake.. Looked to be in the upper 30's
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Posts: 348
| See it all the time in PA waters but they are always tigers doing it. Pures seem to break surface quick an gone |
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Posts: 86
Location: colorado | I live in colorado. We only have tigers here, Its a very common to see them swim with there heads out of the water. Every day on every trip. I have never heard of anyone catching that fish though. one time i came off the lake and a couple that had been out in a canoe told me. Did you know that this lake has Alligators. |
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