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Posts: 1237
Location: South Portsmouth, KY | Has anyone ever had any success fishin those deep lake tout holes for muskie on shield lakes. I am talking depths ranging anywhere from 60 to 300 feet deep. Thanks. |
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Posts: 342
Location: Passaic, NJ - Upper French River, ON | Was talking to a guide about a similar thing, but I was wondering if those deep holes held any trout.
He said that guys will throw big topwaters for muskies in the middle of the night when the shad are at the surface and do score. |
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Posts: 224
Location: Madison | If there is oxygen that deep, there can definitely be muskies that deep.
My question is whether or not it's healthy for the fish to bring them up from those kind of depths. I asked a WDNR biologist, who basically said anything deeper than about 30 feet is dangerous for the fish. But I've heard other people say they routinely catch fish at twice those depths, and release them "unharmed."
I would love to hear a definitive answer on this, as the WDNR biologist didn't seem very sure of himself.
-d |
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| Bringing muskies up from 30 feet or deeper can be dangerous unless you can burp the swim bladder for them. It is best to target muskies no deeper than 20 to 30 feet for this reason. |
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Posts: 1237
Location: South Portsmouth, KY | I am talkin about fishin over the deep holes not down all the way to the bottom. I was thinkin that they could be suspended there then diving down to snatch a few lake trout. I was thinkin about throwing bulldawgs lookin for suspended fish around those deep holes. Sorry for not makin it clear. |
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| OK, suspendos can be at any depth. Depending on where the pods of baitfish are you can try topwaters and minnow baits near the surface, crank baits down deeper, or jigs, bull dawgs or fuzzy duzzits even deeper. Just target no deeper than 20 to 25 feet.  |
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Posts: 32934
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I know for certain that muskies suspend over the deeper holes in the summer on trout waters, but these are trout waters that are created by stocking, and are stocked with rainbows and browns that surface regularly out over the deep water. Baitfish are still key, even though they may be targeting trout when present. |
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Posts: 484
Location: St. Louis, MO., Marco Is., FL, Nestor Falls, ON | Steve:
Muskies regularly suspend at 50-60' in Crow (Kakagi) Lake. This is a natural lake trout lake. I can't recommend attempting to catch them, though. Mortality rates are high for fish brought up from those depths. Ocassionally, people fishing lake trout jig them up at those depths during the summer when the trout are in their deep holes. The muskies usually don't make it, though. |
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| If by "burp the swim bladder" you mean poking a hole in the swim bladder, that is a myth. Dead fish.
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| "When certain fish are brought up from depths greater than 40 feet too quickly, their swim bladders, which normally control buoyancy, can overinflate from rapid depressurization. Burping is a technique used on a fish with an overinflated swim bladder. The fish is massaged in the belly region in an attempt to release the excess air in the swim bladder."
Puncturing is not good for the fish |
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| The hole poking method is called fizzing. |
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Posts: 224
Location: Madison | And according to the Ontario MNR, fizzing is discouraged:
http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/mnr/pubs/Fizzing.pdf
Interesting article, with mortality rates for a variety of species. No esox listed here, but considering mortality rates for other species, you can't think it would be OK to bring up muskies from the deep.
-d
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | Have a buddy that was fish for lake trout at Eagle 110' down and caught a 32" walleye.
I also know of a guy (Buck Perry) that caught a bass 120' down. |
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| This may be the place to finally get a definate answer as to the survival rates of muskies caught from deep water (ie 30+ feet).
For those who want to learn more about muskies, you really should consider attending the Dr. Ed Crossman Musky Symposium October 28-30th in Indianapolis, IN.
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | I know I have marked big muskies @ ~120 ft on an NW Ontario Fly-In Lake. Just never considered them as fishable at that depth- to hazardous for the fish. On the same lake, I have caught fish in 80- 100' of water fishing top water twitch baits. They were 100' off a cabbage bed with a fast break to 80 ft.
They may be very catchable at deep depths, but would that justify the end- an injured fish that quite likely will not survive?
Al
Edited by ESOX Maniac 9/23/2005 12:19 PM
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Posts: 484
Location: St. Louis, MO., Marco Is., FL, Nestor Falls, ON | Al: I caught a muskie on Crow this year while fishing for Lake Trout. It was in 120 ft. of water. I believed it was a 25 lb. Lake Trout until I had it up to where I could see it. Instead a 25 lb. muskie. The air bladder was really blown up and repeated attempts to burp and release the fish failed. While it always swam down strongly, it floated back up because of the air bladder. I did fizz the fish as I had no known alternative. The link in a previous post above shows a device easily made to take the fish back to its original depth. I am going to make one just to have in the boat. I still will not target muskies in deep water, however. I fear too many fishermen may begin to target these deep water muskies in an attempt to set a new personal best. Hopefully not. But history tells me it probably will happen. |
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Muskies in Deep Lake trout Holes