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Posts: 1168
| Pretty slow day on the boards....ugh...maybe this will liven things up.
If you could create from scratch your ideal muskie fishery what would it be?
Here are the loose guidelines...
1) It can't be a fishery that already exists. So don't just say "oh, it's Eagle/LOTW/Mille Lacs... That's no fun.
2) You get to pick everything...forage, clarity, type of system (shield lake, river, flowage, lake), special regulations (motor regulations, tarring and feathering jetskiiers, mandatory eye candy on the beaches...anything) thermocline depth, You name it.
It's kind of a dull day so have fun with it.
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Posts: 32879
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Flowage. About 50,000 acres. Good defined river channels. Good current with a well defined summer pool. I don't care about beaches, and the turbid water discourages jet skis and recreational boaters because they hit the unmarked reefs I want scattered through the system.
Turbid, highy buffered water with LOTS of structure elements including nice breaks, shallow weedy bays, rocks, and islands sporting all the above. Soft rayed forage, with enough emerald shiers to shower in the air everytime a bucktail whizzes through the YOY. Good to excellent population of walleyes and smallmouth bass, crappies, perch, and gills. I like those too.
Good population of nice Pike. Yes, pike do compete, but this has worked out pretty well in some places. I like catching and (GASP!) eating pike.
Put this about 6 hours from the edge of nowhere, but let me get there in about a days drive. | |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Steve, very similar to what I had in mind....which is very similar to something I fish down the road.....At the beginning of the flowage I'd like a nice spillway with some pretty hefty current and some big boulders. A nice sized reservoir above would be nice to help maintain water levels of the flowage in the event of a drought.
Emeralds are a must! I'd also like to see a substancial population of eel pout. I'd set up a closed season similar to that of WI. Trolling would be legal.
And one nice sandy beach located off of a good big fish spot, and the beach would never be empty of hotties. | |
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Posts: 8772
| Well, since we're making a fantasy lake...
As for forage? Ciscoes, Suckers, and Shad (hey we're dreaming right), plenty of fatty oily fish to feed on.
Good population of yummies: Crappie, Gills, Walleye, Perch
Good population of fun to catch: Sm and LM bass, Pike
No rusties, no milfoil, no invasives
Structure: Shallow weedy bays, but none of that spaghetti #*#* that sticks to your baits. Plenty of cabbage and coontail, but the kind that sits about 3 feet below the surface, and has lots of nice pockets and gaps in it. Several points facing in different directions so there's always one with the wind blowing into it. Some weedy areas with small rock piles, nice clumps of watermelon sized rocks on the bottom that create "channels" through the weeds
Current: Must have current! Several inlets and outlets, where the flow changes direction from time to time so the fish aren't always in the same preidcatble spots in the current areas.
Bottom composition: Sand/gravel with countless reefs , humps and rock bars at varying depths, so there's always one or two little nuggets that sit above the thermocline at a level where the bait fish are congregating. Islands galore.
Shoreline: Undeveloped, pristine. Many areas with fallen timber. Surrounded by several thousand acres of wilderness. Several steep rock walls adjacent to current areas
Water chemistry: Moderately fertile with some areas of crystal clear water and other areas that are moderately dark with high iron content, but little or no sediment/silt.
More than anything, I'd want a place with every kind of structure, and several areas with similar kinds of structure so if you find fish in one area you can pick 10 others with very similar features.
Some place you can fish on any kind of day in any kind of weather at any time of the year.
Oh yes, and I want it free from runoff, silt, sediment, mercury, PCB's, etc. I want to be able to drink the water and eat the fish without worrying.
And since we're dreaming? a 3,000 sq ft house on an island right in the middle of it all, complete with sauna, hot tub, all the comforts of home, a pier with power, and a gas pump, and a boathouse, inside of which would live a 621 Ranger, fully rigged, with a bulletproof hull and the ability to get up in the skinniest water. Oh and an intelligent sexy blonde, maybe 5'8" with a nice rack, no vocal cords, and a bank acount that you can't empty.
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Posts: 2323
Location: Stevens Point, WI | I too would take a system with current and defined channel edges. Lots of main lake points and bays off the main lake. Also a system where biologists could do there thing, and politics would not dictate how this system would be cared for.
The beaches are only empty of hotties because they know your coming PP! | |
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Posts: 1462
Location: Davenport, IA | River, with plenty of connected lakes lacking current. 15 feet of visability. Forage of shad, suckers and perch.
As far as eye candy and tar and feathering of jet skiers...its a no brainer.
Regulate as catch and release only as well, or possibly a slot limit because I have seen it do great things for other species of fish. | |
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Posts: 785
| First of all NO hotties, they just get you out of your groove while fishing 
The problem is I like so many types of lake systems it makes it tough. I'd say a 3 basin lake with a neck down area between them.
Basin 1 would have a few inleting creeks coming in and would be comprised of primarily rock gravel bottom with points, saddles between islands, and reefs/humps. Reeds would be the primary weed growth with a few deep cabbage edges. Its shape would be more narrow and long Max depth 80'. Lets say 3,000 acres
Basin 2 would have some of these structures but have more sand bottom and more big main lake bays with deep cabbage lines with a shallow band of reeds. Max depth 50', 5,000 acres +/-
Basin 3 the lake will finally transition into an open bowl with big cabbage flats opening to big water, and cabbage covered humps. Throw in a few Islands with cabbage in the saddles and an outletting creek and that would finish off my perfect lake. Max depth of maybe 40' and have this one be about 5,000 acres as well. Basically a canadian shield lake and a Northern Minnesota pot hole lake all in one.
Clarity 5-10', Ciscoes, Suckers, Perch, Whitefish, Crappies, and Bullhead. I'd like a mix of Leech lake and Wisconsin strain muskies (like mille lacs) and throw in good numbers of tiger muskies. Give me a little log cabin and a good woman to come home to every night (or fish with me) and I'd be set for life! | |
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Posts: 227
Location: New Brighton, MN | An undeveloped, private 2,000 acre lake with decent clarity (10 ft), no algae blooms. 1 inlet, 1 outlet. 50 ft max depth. Game species: Smallmouth, Muskies and nice Pike too, so you get the tigers as a bonus from time to time. Plus pike are way too fun in the winter to pass on. Cisco, shiners, and plenty of panfish for a nice forage base. 2 channels to access other lakes for variety. Mixed bottom composition, mostly rock, sand, and plenty of fallen timber. 2 crescent shaped islands. Plenty of structure, but not too much. Rockpiles around the main basin, A few shallow bays where there are nice cabbage patches in 10 ft of water. That's about it... oh, and Lake Trout !
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Posts: 720
| This is a great question,
First off it has to be set in a pristine area Colorado, Wyoming or Montana. With high mountains all around and lots of pine and birch tree stands that come right up to the water. It also must be very remote and quite. Limited access with only one rough road and a landing that only the Marines could make.
This would be a natural lake. Clear and very, very deep. I would say the lake should be in the 40 to 50 thousand acre range with several shallow bays that hold weeds in depths ranging from 5 to 20 feet. The bays would also contain inlets from small feeder creeks that range water flow from a trickle in the dry season to a flip torrent with a lot of rain or snow melt. As well as inlets the water level on this lake would stay pretty level so a couple of larger outflows would also be present. As for island structure it would be all over the place and in small clusters. Each island would be surround with deep water and contain small but very fishable bays or breaks. But I think what would really set this lake off would be the rock reefs. The deep water would be everywhere but for only these deep and shallow reefs breaking things up. The deeper reefs would top out at 12 feet and contain some of the nastiest broken rock and stone you've ever seen. While the shallow reefs would top out at 3 feet and contain small areas of weeds that would be located on the deep water side of the reef. This lake would contain two other structural feature and thats down timber. The timber would be coming off shore would only hanging off into water that is deep. The second would be rock walls with steps in depth starting at 10 feet and going down in 5' to 8' steps .
Forage would be lake trout, ciscoes, suckers, and perch. The presents of a strong smallmouth, pike and walleye population would be competing with the musky for food. Nature will dictate where these fish will hang out. I'll give ma nature this one. I would also like to see plenty of habitat for spawing.
Finally, I would make this a strictly catch and release water. No harvest just let nature do its thing. Also would have a season from ice out to ice up. That way we could fish every possible moment of the season. This has been a lot of fun.
Dave | |
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Posts: 331
Location: Stevens Point, Wisconsin | I think the good lord did a pretty darn good job with LOTW. I would create a lake just like it! Big muskies, pike, bass, walleye, crappie and perch. It also has Lakers and great forage not to mention the prettiest place I have ever fished muskies. No gill nets allowed on my body of water!
Ed
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Posts: 299
Location: Nowheresville, MN | Why make it so hard on yourself?
300 acres
Perfect bowl
no weeds
only "structure" is two humps
5 ft secchi
NO ciscoes | |
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use your imagination