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Posts: 1283
| I was always under the impression that muskies in IL did not or could not reproduce in the wild until I saw this picture of a fish caught 10/30/14. As far as I know they havent stocked the lake since 2012 and those fish were and avg of 11". So where did this little guy come from? This lake has been stocked almost yearly from 2007-2012 with about 5000 muskies in total. I have seen no info on 2014 stocking if there was any.
Edited by achotrod 11/3/2014 6:30 PM
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 Baby Buski.JPG (79KB - 420 downloads)
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Posts: 1283
| Sorry guys looks as if they did stock 842 fish avg 11.8" on 9/4 in the lake. Still would like to know why they dont reproduce in IL? |
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Posts: 8716
| The way I understand it is that they spawn just like they would anywhere else. The main reason that reproduction isn't successful is that the lakes we are putting them in lack suitable substrate for the eggs to develop. Urban and agricultural runoff changes the water chemistry. Shoreline development removes a lot of the areas where eggs would successfully reach maturity. Boat traffic creates a lot of silt and stirs up those areas effectively suffocating the eggs. The water warms up too much and too quickly in the spring.
I suspect (though I do not know for sure) that a very small percentage of the eggs do hatch. But successful reproduction requires a lake ecosystem that lends itself well to egg development. Whether it's predation of eggs and fry by other species, pollution, runoff, development, climate change, water chemistry, invasive species, or some combination of those factors, the bottom line is that we're putting muskies in a lot of places where they just can't reproduce. Even if those lakes and rivers did once possess native strains of musky, those environments have changed.
My thought is that eventually we will learn enough about the genetic factors involved with different strains of fish that we will probably be able to produce viable reproducing fish in some areas. But as it stands now, we're stuck with stocking as the means to populate our lakes. |
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Posts: 1283
| Thanks for the reply EA makes sense to me. |
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Posts: 95
| Muskies do naturally reproduce in Illinois. The fox river for example has had muskies for as long as i can remember. The first Muskie I ever saw first hand from the river was in 1985 and it was 48" caught below the St. Charles dam. The first stockings of the fox chain were in 1982 so there is no way it came from there. There are plenty of streams along the fox suitable for spawning. I also believe there is probably a population of muskies in the Illinois river that nobody fishes for now because so many fish have went down the river in high water that they have to be there. |
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Posts: 20178
Location: oswego, il | Muskies have been stock in lake holiday forever. It flows into the fox river. I know of big fish caught from there from the 70's. They make their way into the fox river.it is possible from some of the floods we have had for those fish to get above dams on the river. |
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Posts: 1283
| Some muskies in the mid 30s were just caught in the Des Plains river in Cook Co. Although Im betting they are escapees from Busse woods. |
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