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Posts: 255
Location: MadCity Wisconsin | Just a note to let you know that two 28" Leech Lake/Upper Mississippi strain muskies have been caught on Lake Monona in Madison, Wis. since May 4th. The anglers that caught them said they put up a great fight for little guys. The first batch of 500 were put in Monona in the fall of 2005 and were around 12" in length. DNR says they grow around 6 inches a year for the first 5 years or so.
The fingerlings were put in from direct contributions from members to Capital City Muskies Inc. at the approval of Wis. DNR.
Looking forward to years ahead, grow babies grow!
Steve R |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | It's always cool to see the results of your efforts. We started seeing a lot of our stocked fish on Minnetonka a few years ago. I look at them like my children now...that need a good spanking every once and a while  |
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| That's true, I fish Tonka a lot and last year I caught a ton of 4-7 lb fish - actually I'd prefer not to catch them but usually you can't keep them off your bucktails. Neat to see and hopefully the survival rate will be good! |
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Location: Contrarian Island | here's a future 50 incher from last nite...29"s ....sure are growin fast in Monona!
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 29 leecher 6-24-08.JPG (21KB - 1141 downloads)
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| Good to see the little guys growing so fast, and they are beautiful fish. |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Madison, WI | By any chance did they get stocked in wingra?!?! If not I know of one that made it over the spillway... |
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Posts: 574
| A few friends of mine caught some of them a while ago near olbrich
11-20-06 according to the pics
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DSCF0390spot.jpg (47KB - 194 downloads)
DSCF0391spot.jpg (36KB - 158 downloads)
DSCF0394spot.jpg (36KB - 184 downloads)
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| keep in mind that not every small fish with spots is a Leech Lake strain; the Wisconsin strain fish can look very similar at times when they're small and they have pronounced spots as well at that size.
in the Madison lakes, the Leechers have been getting one fin clipped, so look for that to tell the difference.
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Location: The Yahara Chain | lambeau - 6/26/2008 7:49 AM
the Leechers have been getting one fin clipped, so look for that to tell the difference.
Actually Mike the Wisco fish that go stocked for the side by side study also got fin clipped. One strain had the right one removed and one strain had the left one removed. I am not sure which side they did on the leechers. Maybe somebody can clarify that for us. |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | The fish that Nelson is holding is definately a Leecher. While some fish from WI waters will and do have alot of spots as 'children', they don't possess such defined spot separation so spherical in shape into the 30" range. The pics of the fish in the water, could go either way, but with nelsons fish, there is no doubt. There have been a few that have shown up in Petenwell as well, and the difference is even more glaring here, as the small WI fish lose spots within a few weeks after being stocked, normally. |
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Location: The Yahara Chain | Magruter - 6/25/2008 12:47 PM
By any chance did they get stocked in wingra?!?! If not I know of one that made it over the spillway...
Last year CCMI purchased some LL fish for Waubesa and Wingra. The Yahara Chain did not get the amount of fingerlings that the fisheries people had requested, so we were allowed to fill the rest of the fish by purchasing LL strain fish. The Waubesa and Wingra were not fin clipped as they are not part of the side by side study. The leachers would still only be about 12-14" long in those lakes. |
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Posts: 280
Location: McFarland | I caught one that looked just like Brads on Waubesa the other night. Cool looking fish might have been a little bigger then that one. |
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Posts: 216
Location: Belleville, WI | Here's a 30 my buddy got with me yesterday on Monona. Pretty fish.
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30.JPG (39KB - 246 downloads)
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Posts: 2361
| None of those pictured look like any I have seen in WI. I would like to say I have seen a lot of huge WI fish, but I am limited to saying I have seen a lot of SMALL WI fish, and they don't look like theseuns!
Edited by firstsixfeet 7/1/2008 8:59 AM
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| I have seen the Leech lake strain as well on Monona last year. We got a couple that we estimated at 26-28 inches. I think if we want these fish to get to 50 inches we need to handle them with care. Why does everyone need to take a picture of a 28-30 inch fish. I understand if you are new to the sport and its one of your first, but please try to practice water release on these small guys to ensure they can make it to 50 inches. We all will benefit in the future |
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| John, that's funny you say a 30 incher is fragile when in reality a 50 incher is probably more fragile than the 30 incher...and I did handle it with care and wanted to take a pic of it ...cuz it was the 1st leecher in my boat and was a cool fish...the fish was out of the water 10 seconds..unlike the 50 inchers that some have out of the water for a 5 minute photo session....
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| bn,
Don't sweat it. I wasn't calling you out directly. Good luck out there everyone. Hopefully soon the Leech lakers will grow bigger and bigger 
John |
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| last night in our tues league a 34.5" leech lake strain was caught and released....that is to date the biggest anyone has caught....fish is about 4 yrs old...they are growing FAST!
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| Leechers, smeechers it's all about ther quality of the fishery and the forage present. I am sure those fish won't outgrow the WI strain or get any bigger at the top end. LOL
Seriously, I predict a 50" Leech strain in 8 years. That based on personal experince from some orriginal stockings in the metro area! You guys are in for some seriously fun fishing!! |
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Posts: 8782
| I predict a 50"er coming out of the Yahara Chain in the next year, regardless of how the LL strain fish do. I also predict that the Yahara Chain will NEVER be the kind of fishery that the larger lakes in MN have become regardless of what kind of fish we put in there.
Edited by esoxaddict 8/27/2008 4:39 PM
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| we've been saying the same thing the last 5 EA...guys who fish it day in and day out and it hasn't happened...maybe it will..but i won't be surprised if the 1st one is a leecher |
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Posts: 8782
| 5 years ago everybody said those fish topped out at about 45", too. They've magically gotten bigger and bigger since the 45" size limit was passed, and with the high water this year and the lack of pressure and boat traffic that came with it? This is the year.
To be 100% honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened already and whoever caught it never said a word...
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | Not sure who "they" were EA...but those of us that knew...knew better...since we saw BIG fish a lot longer than 5 years ago (lot of them were tigers)...however, not many of them. NOW its just a numbers thing...the HUGE year class is finally reaching the 46-49plus range....The 45 inch size limit didn't do this....BUT it is helping to protect the year classes coming up behind.
Not sure where this thing will "balance out" at....but I personally think we have probably 1-4 years and then more and more 50 inch class will be caught. More of that large year class and following year classes reach that magic mark, the more will be caught. Question is, then when the BIG year class is through...and other years come up...what kind of "fiddy catch rate" will we see on the chain?? 2-3 a year?? or 10-20 a year?? be curious to see once this chain isn't a "new fishery" but a fully established, equilibrium of year classes (if there is such a thing) where and how many fiddys we will have on a year to year bases.
I for one am going to try darn hard this fall to register the first fiddy out of mad chain in Muskies inc...I know that much
Cory |
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Posts: 580
| I think Cory is correct. Just personal opinion based on totally unscientific observations, but it sure seems like every year we are seeing better numbers of bigger fish, which is that year class growing up that Cory is referring to. Right now, these fish seem to be mostly in the 46-47" range (and very girthy)....at least there sure seems to be a bunch of fish in that size range right now. Just a guess, but I'd say at least two more years and 50"ers will start showing up with some regularity. I think the 45" size limit can only help but ensure good future year classes as well.
And I do believe that there are definitely 50" fish in the chain right now. I know that I've seen at least one....
Good luck finding that 50" this fall Cory, but I'll be trying to beat you to it!! |
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Posts: 179
Location: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan | Those sure look alot like the Great Lakes spotted musky.....I am holding one the same size as in the first picture, 29" and the next picture is me holding the grown up version....not at Leech Lake.
Rod
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g225/rjbass/29inchesOct292005.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g225/rjbass/tn_bigfishfixed.jpg |
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Posts: 224
Location: Madison | the HUGE year class is finally reaching
Forgive the stupid question, but I assume from looking at the DNR database these are the '96 class of fish? There's no significant natural reproduction on the chain AFAIK. Anyone know why so many more fish were stocked in 96 compared to other years? Pretty interesting stuff. |
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| I agree that 50inch are present with more coming up. There was an approx 5 day stretch this spring where I saw at least 5 fish that were 48 or better at the Wingra spillway. One was a Hybrid....the others natural. My best to date is 40 from Monona and these fish dwarfed it in terms of girth/head size. Unfortunately, I also found a 44 floater in late June, so pressure and poor handling will take its toll. I would kill for a 28 right now though.....slowww year for me! |
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