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| This year there is full four week difference in the WI musky fishing seasons, May 1 for Southern Zone, May 29 for Northern Zone.
I know that has a to do with the calendar and where the weekends fall but it supposedly is also based on biology and spawning cycles. Is that really justified by science? Do they base in in part on the number of southern zone lakes that don't have natural reproduction?
It is what has been done and I will enjoy fishing for panfish, walleyes and pike prior to musky opener but the full four week difference this year made me wonder about the reasoning. | |
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Posts: 167
Location: Tomahawk, WI | Yes, there is some science to it. However, even if the science showed that there was no reason to open the season that late in northern wisconsin, It would still be a tough sell. Traditions are hard to change in this state. | |
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Posts: 1247
Location: E. Tenn | The same question might be asked about the Minnesota opener being the first Saturday in June. | |
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| banditman - 5/6/2021 7:46 AM
Yes, there is some science to it. However, even if the science showed that there was no reason to open the season that late in northern wisconsin, It would still be a tough sell. Traditions are hard to change in this state.
Perhaps, but I don't think this is like the tradition of gun deer season always starting the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This year I have not yet seen any musky spawning by my dock, so maybe it is a good thing we aren't fishing until end of month. Have a small patch of sand that gets sun right next to my dock and almost every year see some spawning activity there. Nothing special about the spot I can see, but they use it. | |
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Posts: 35
| Just go pike fishing. No one keeps musky anymore haha | |
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| Shroomskie - 5/6/2021 4:23 PM
Just go pike fishing. No one keeps musky anymore haha
Some of the biggest pike I have seen or caught on our chain have come while fishing for crappies in the spring. One shoreline on the north side of the lake attracts both pike and crappies, plus I see a ski in the same area from time to time. | |
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Posts: 32880
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I believe Muskie season used to open North and South at the same time. Was a long time ago when I got a Guide button instead of a license. | |
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| sworrall - 5/6/2021 8:56 PM
I believe Muskie season used to open North and South at the same time. Was a long time ago when I got a Guide button instead of a license.
Maybe in the 70s? | |
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Posts: 32880
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I think so, yes. | |
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Posts: 611
Location: Michigan | If it were really based on science, it would go by water temps and not by calendar dates if the purpose is to truly protect spawning fish. | |
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Posts: 1247
Location: E. Tenn | jasonvkop - 5/7/2021 2:06 PM
If it were really based on science, it would go by water temps and not by calendar dates if the purpose is to truly protect spawning fish.
...and how do you propose to do that months in advance? | |
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Posts: 121
Location: Twin Cities Metro | miket55 - 5/7/2021 1:50 PM
jasonvkop - 5/7/2021 2:06 PM
If it were really based on science, it would go by water temps and not by calendar dates if the purpose is to truly protect spawning fish.
...and how do you propose to do that months in advance?
By using historical data on a number of lakes to determine an average date for when water temps indicate that spawning would typically be complete. To be a little more granular, you could divide the state in half and have two different dates, one for the warmer southern zone and a other for the cooler northern zone.
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Posts: 32880
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | WDNR:
Life Cycle: Muskellunge spawn from mid-April to late May, when the water temperature rises from 50 to 60 F. The males and females seek out warm, shallow areas, swimming side-by-side over several hundred yards of shoreline, depositing eggs and milt simultaneously at irregular intervals over the bottom. Females can lay between 20,000 and 200,000 eggs a year, with larger females producing greater numbers of larger eggs. Spawning seldom lasts more than a week. When it’s over, the adults leave the spawning grounds, providing no parental care to the eggs or young. Muskellunge return to the same area each year to spawn. 3
The translucent, amber-colored eggs hatch within about two weeks, and the newly hatched “fry” begin feeding on zooplankton (microscopic aquatic animals) the day after they hatch; after a few more days, they switch to eating live fish. Young muskellunge are eaten by northern pike, bass, yellow perch, sunfish, certain aquatic insects and occasionally, other muskellunge. The “fingerlings” will reach from 7 to 13 inches by summer’s end. They continue to grow rapidly during the first five years of life; males mature in four to five years, at 28 to 31 inches and females mature in five to seven years, at 30 to 36 inches. Adult muskies have no aquatic predators, but may fall victim to disease, large birds of prey, or people. Muskellunge can live to about 18 years old, but fish up to 30 years of age have been documented.
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The water temps have been back and forth in that range for weeks here, and the difference between far North and North Central can be quite a bit. Seasons are created to cover relative certainty the spawn has occurred across the entire range. | |
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| sworrall - 5/8/2021 9:25 AM
WDNR:
Life Cycle: Muskellunge spawn from mid-April to late May, when the water temperature rises from 50 to 60 F. The males and females seek out warm, shallow areas, swimming side-by-side over several hundred yards of shoreline, depositing eggs and milt simultaneously at irregular intervals over the bottom. Females can lay between 20,000 and 200,000 eggs a year, with larger females producing greater numbers of larger eggs. Spawning seldom lasts more than a week. When it’s over, the adults leave the spawning grounds, providing no parental care to the eggs or young. Muskellunge return to the same area each year to spawn. 3
The translucent, amber-colored eggs hatch within about two weeks, and the newly hatched “fry” begin feeding on zooplankton (microscopic aquatic animals) the day after they hatch; after a few more days, they switch to eating live fish. Young muskellunge are eaten by northern pike, bass, yellow perch, sunfish, certain aquatic insects and occasionally, other muskellunge. The “fingerlings” will reach from 7 to 13 inches by summer’s end. They continue to grow rapidly during the first five years of life; males mature in four to five years, at 28 to 31 inches and females mature in five to seven years, at 30 to 36 inches. Adult muskies have no aquatic predators, but may fall victim to disease, large birds of prey, or people. Muskellunge can live to about 18 years old, but fish up to 30 years of age have been documented.
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The water temps have been back and forth in that range for weeks here, and the difference between far North and North Central can be quite a bit. Seasons are created to cover relative certainty the spawn has occurred across the entire range.
Interesting read. Explains why I have seen spawning musky from late April to mid May in different years. With temps dropping down to low 20s last night, not sure what happened to water temps. From Wed. evening to last night, water temp dropped almost 2 degrees in the same spot I fished both nights. | |
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Posts: 1258
| The Minnesota walleye opener was chosen because it virtually guarantees that the spawn will be over by the time opening day comes. There have been a few very late springs when there was a threat of closing some particularly vulnerable spawning grounds(Cut Foot Sioux, etc.), for opener. I can only remember a couple of times that actually happened, over the last 25-30 years, and that is only when the ice is barely out in time for opener. | |
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Posts: 1290
Location: Hayward, Wisconsin | According to the Wisconsin DNR's "Mr. Musky", the late Art Oehmcke, some cold springs can drive muskies from the spawning grounds. Sometimes they come back in and some years they just don't spawn at all...lost year classes!!
Ice out early this year, but continued COLD fronts and below freezing nights, doesn't bode well for this years spawn class...sad. | |
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Wisconsin Musky Fishing Seasons