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Posts: 94
| Good Morning there is great news for winter musky fishing in the south.
The state of Tennessee this morning passed a new 50" size limit for muskies on Melton Hill Lake and Dale Hollow Lake. The new limit will start on March 1 2010. Those of us who fish these waters want to thank the hard working folks with the TWRA and the TWRA commission for realizing the potential for musky fishing in TN. Extra thanks go out to Jim Negus, one of the TWRA biologists working on the musky program, for his persistent behind the scenes work on the 50" limit.
We would also like to thank all of you, from out of state, who came here and fished the lakes and let the TWRA, thru letters and emails, know how much you enjoyed the experience, these helped a lot.
Last, but not least ,a special thanks goes out to Doug Johnson for volunteering his time, the last few winters, to help Jim with some of the musky program projects. Doug's help had an enormous influence on the direction the musky program in TN is heading.
Chris Jersild
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| thats awesome news, hope PA does this sometime soon! | |
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Posts: 91
Location: Pinckney, Michigan | Wow! That's great news. Good work! It looks like the state of Tennesee moves a little faster than the rest on musky size limit issues. | |
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Location: Warroad, Mn | Chris: GREAT NEWS! I heard from Jim a little and it now sounds like the TWRA is looking at increasing the stocking rates to one fish/acre on MH I'm looking forward to what these lakes will be doing a little futher down the road. I expect great things! Doug Johnson | |
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Location: East TN | This is great news for us, and would also like to thank Jim Negus for his personal efforts towards the musky program here in Tennessee, and as well Doug's help during the past few winters as well. I am looking forward to when we can consistently start pulling 50's out of this area!
You northern boys won't have nothin' on us! LOL J/K 
Edited by BubbaTn 10/30/2009 1:06 PM
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Location: Musky Tackle Online, MN | Awesome news, Chris. Keep up the great work down there!
Aaron | |
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Posts: 57
| Jim, Doug, Volunteer Musky Club and everyone else that donated time or has taken the effort to contact the TWRA asking for regulations to protect the fishery, THANK YOU.
To all of the Bait and Tackle manufactures that have generously donated baits, rods, etc. to support the Volunteer Musky Club to aid in stocking efforts and Muskie & CPR awareness, THANK YOU.
Keith Clark
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Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Way to go Tennessee!
Thanks Doug and Jim and Others for your hard work and dedication.
I'm going to plan a week sales trip down there this winter,.......With the Boat following, of course.
Oh, but don't tell the wife. She thinks I work to hard sometimes..................
Now maybe Kentucky will get their head out of the sand and take notice...........Cave Run and Green River needs to up their size limit. !
Jerome | |
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Location: Sw Pennsylvania | the beast the musky - 10/30/2009 12:31 PM
thats awesome news, hope PA does this sometime soon!
The Moraine Musky Assoc is working on getting Lake Arthur size limit increased to 50". It may get the ball rolling if things work out... | |
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| Thanks for all your help Doug and people like Chris ,Jim Negus,and the rest of the Tn. Club for the work they did. Now we have a good chance at some real trophies to release.
Soon as the arm gets a little better I hope I get a chance to fish with you, Doug, this time when you come down for Winter fishing.
Stan | |
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| This will be interesting, but I would much rather see a concerted effort put in to stock one of the upstream or downstream reservoirs, or some of the other coolwater reservoirs in the state. Melton Hill is a somewhat limited fishery at best, and increased stocking may or may not improve the fishery there. I think it is a question mark. Not opposed to the 50" mark as a musky fisherman, but it will be of much better use in Dale Hollow protecting the limited spawning resource in that lake, and the most successful fish in THAT system. In Melton Hill it will result in most of the fish dying of hooking and handling mortality, or old age, and as a selfish musky fisherman, that's ok with me, but I think 45-47" might have been more in line with utilizing the fish until full maturity, and then still allowing harvest at the top end. It is not a question of reproduction in Melton Hill. It is put and take. Hopefully, if the stocking increases the density, the somewhat problematic nature of population distribution in the lake, will not result in disease outbreak and mortality that could potentially crash the population.
Any musky enlightenment in the SE is welcome. I mean we still have guides fishing warm water periods and bashing the resource that way, to the point of one guide(TN) claiming in his web space, that basically "we could have caught more than we got(in August I believe)if it hadn't taken so long to revive the fish we were catching" whoo hooo! Musky fishing is pretty well exploited down here as much as possible, with smorgasbord ethic, and not one that the states seem very interested in, so TN taking an interest is a very good thing imo.
Forward looking, innovative, and in touch with reality, are not things I associate with the KY DNR at this time. However that might change at any moment. The unrestricted size limit and harvest regs in lakes where muskies have all the room and forage to get massive, is not a logical use of an expensive resource(musky fingerlings). It also troubles me that there has evidently never been any type of study correlating costs and return in an area like Campbellsville and Columbia, that are economically depressed after losing their manufacturing base. This and the fact that they trot out unbelievable density statistics so bull+++t defying that even a politician would have to laugh at them.
All in all, good for TN, hope more work and study is in the pipeline for the future. Ohio ought to be a lesson to all of us down here as to how fragile the fisheries are, long term. | |
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Posts: 375
| another vote for PA doing the same as just makes sense...! | |
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50" size limit