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Posts: 8780
| It's my understanding that the fish do spawn and produce viable eggs, but that the eggs don't survive because of the lack of appropriate egg development habitat, too much silt, etc.
Would it be too much of a stretch to attempt to create a spawning area on a particular body of water?
Are there other factors at work (like the water warming up too quickly) that would prevent this from being possible?
Is it just too expensive? |
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Posts: 1120
Location: West Chester, OH | My understanding is that here, in OH, it's silt & that will be impossible to overcome.
We get a little rain, the water muddies & the eggs are compromised as the silt particles settle. Even wave action on a windy day will cause water near the shoreline to cloud.
It's a muddy world down here.... |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Probably more effective to just raise them in the hatchery and stock the lakes than put the effort into trying to restructure shoreline habitat for the fish.
Another contributing factor could if there is a reproducing northern populations. Muskies and northern spawn in similar areas however the northerns spawn at a lower water temp than the muskies. So the pike have a head start on the muskies and turn the musky fry into forage.
Mike |
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Posts: 36
| Never thought of that but it could be a good idea. Maybe create some current areas to get some areas without silt? An idea I have always had is too lower the water in flowages when the pike eggs are released. Then raise the water a week or two later when the muskies should be spawning. The rivers here are over populated w/ stunted pike and there is no limit on how many you can keep so I think the biologist may want to get rid of some pike. It may be a bit overboard to do this though? |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Please see my recent post in the Research thread about stocking ponds. Even the best designed ponds have problems, I guess.
The other factor is the extreme fluctuations in water depth during the spring in our man-made lakes and dam-controlled rivers. Spring floods are hell on the breeding process, you really have to go to the smaller creeks around here to find the natural repro. m |
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Posts: 8780
| Great reading Mikie!
I'm sure there would be considerable obstacles to overcome. Seems to me that watershed management is one of the underlying issues that would need to be dealt with. But unlike trying to raise fingerlings in a rearing pond, all you would really need to do is make sure the eggs hatch. Yes, there would be predation issues, but those are present in the naturally reproducing populations as well.
I don't know enough about it to be sure, but it doesn't seem like it would be that complicated to take the areas where muskies spawn and modify them somehow so that the eggs survive long enough to hatch.
Maybe not everywhere, but there have to be a few places at least where it would be possible. |
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Lakes with no natural reproduction