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| Message Subject: More old muskie history especially MN & NW WI | |||
Larry Ramsell |
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Posts: 1275 Location: Hayward, Wisconsin | In the July 1, 1886 issue of "The American Angler" an article entitled "The Game Fish of the West: The Mascalonge of the Mississippi" by J. Gerrard appeared. This was back when there was a LOT of confusion in the identification of muskies and pike and several different scientific names for them were bandied about. It got sorted out much later in the early 1900's. At any rate, there were several references therein about giant muskies. Here are some examples of both: "...Communications to 'The American Angler' give other local names, and statements of large size as Chatauqua Lake Pike, Alleghany (sp) River Pike, Muskingon (sp) River Pike &e., and weights of 45 and 75 lbs. "Roosevelt in his 'Game Fish of the North", sets it down in the list of species of the Esox genus as Esox vittatua or 'White Pickerel of the west,' but gives it no further notice... ..."In the scene laid along the bluffs of Lake Pepin (Mississippi River) the fish taken was this now under consideration and being a different fish, was improperly called by the same name (this referred to the plainer green muskies Gerrard later referred to as 'Mud Muskies"...the typical coloration of muskies found in the dark waters of NW Wisconsin)... "...This is the fish that has just and rightful claim to the name of great Northern pike...(Gerrard was trying to claim that western muskies should have this title). There is fairly reliable authority that one was taken two years ago (circa 1884) in Lake Court Oreilles, head waters of the Chippewa (River...this is of course quite incorrect as LCO is the headwaters of the Couderay River, which runs into the Chippwa River far below its headwaters), that weighed 110 lbs. Those of 30 to 80 lbs are freely spoken of as common in the lakes of the Wisconsin pineries (ya right). In the parlance of a hunter who camps in those woods "They are as big as a man.' ... "...This fish was formerly quite abundant in Lake Pepin, and in the river at the mouths of such clear streams out of the pine woods as the St. Croix, the Chippewa, the Black and the Wisconsin. It is now more rare as the washing from land in cultivation has rendered the water of the river turbid, and unsuited to this fish...This change in the character of the water consequent upon the settlement of the country will account for its disappearance from other streams where it was known to the early pioneers of the west..." In the 1928 book "Bait-Casting" by William C. Vogt, there is a great photograph of Vogt landing a 32 pound muskie from the St. Croix River...on a fly rod! He also captured a 22 pound northern pike on that same trip and equipment! That muskies have always been available in the St. Croix River is not well known. In addition to the aforementioned, in his book "Guide to Best Fishing", Robert Page Lincoln, a known muskie expert of his time, noted that the Dell of the St. Croix below Taylor's Falls are where one would find any muskies present. In talking with a former Minnesota Research biologist about the St. Croix, he, like me, was of the belief that muskies had been native to many of the feeder streams of the upper St. Croix as well. Hope you enjoyed this bit of history and I'll leave you with this thought... "Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don't have film."...Stephen Wright | ||
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