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| It's an odd sight. One lake I fish on has some river otters in it. So when I saw something on top of the water as I was trolling around the corner of an island, I thought was one of the otters at first. But when I got closer I could see it was a Musky swimming along with his head almost completely out of the water...like a periscope. He went down and then back up again for 15-20 seconds. It was kind of creepy. Have you ever seen that? |
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| I saw a northern pike do this, two different days.
It would have it's head completely out of the water, swimming real slow. It's head would be moving from side to side. I went up to it, with the trolling motor, and it would swim down slow, like a muskie being released. It came up three or four times, in the following fifteen minutes.
A few days later, I was fishing the same area, and the same fish came up and did it again. It was at least 40 inches long. This time it only came up once.
I thought it might of been trying to swallow something big, but after seeing it the second day, I'm not sure.
It was a weird site!! |
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Location: Ontario | I'm sure it was discussed here before - I was never lucky enough to witness this my self |
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Posts: 264
| Ya I have seen it a few times, it's pretty spooky looking though. |
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Posts: 177
| Seen this happen once with a musky swam around like it was injured then dissapeared.Casted a few times and got it to follow twice but not take during the 8.Wish i had video camera that day. |
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Posts: 512
| ski glider - 8/1/2010 11:57 AM
Seen this happen once with a musky swam around like it was injured then dissapeared.Casted a few times and got it to follow twice but not take during the 8.Wish i had video camera that day.
I believe this was talked about on here before, and there was a video of it as well
strange for sure
Dave |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | There were some BIG girls on Waconia that would always do this on hot days. One came up and circled my neighbors dog and kids as they were swimming. Dog barking, kids screaming, and of course he was laughing his ars off at the whole deal. Said the musky came up twice for about 45-60 seconds each time. |
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Posts: 3147
| has strange has this seems,,,its very very common probbably like whales jumping out of the water in Alaska,,especially with tiger muskies and especially on dark water lakes ion calm hot days in july and august,,very common to see this on twin cities tiger muskie lakes |
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Posts: 536
| there gulping air because of their swim bladders, you'll see them porpose doing that too as well as just sitting there on the surface. Controls there boyancy in the water as well as helping them digest food! |
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| Hi, I heard of a Musky in Dryden, Ontario, do this and when the fisherman approached he realized the Musky had a baby beaver in its mouth !! |
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Posts: 383
Location: SE Wisc and Vilas County | i have seen this happen twice both times on the same lake in vilas county both times it was windy and both fish were swimming into the wind. |
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Posts: 59
| I have seen gar swim with their head out of the water and lay with their back and head out while bowfishing at night. I thought they were gulping air as that lake has terrible algae blooms and bad summer fish kills (not a muskie lake). I would think most muskie lakes have at least decent water quality and dissolved oxygen. |
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Posts: 35
| Here's a video from on here from Pineview. I've personally seen this numerous times on a lake stocked with Tigers in the central part of WI.
http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/videos/10.11.2008/1181/Body.Surfaci... |
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Posts: 3147
| I dont think anyone has pinpointed why they do this,,I asked a Minn DNR metro biologist why they do it and he said he thinks its to flush parasites out of their gills..it proves one thing,,muskies arent that sensitive to sunlight if they have their heads out of the water |
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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | Yep, I have seen Tiger Musky do this in my neck of the woods...........strange.
jed |
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Posts: 83
Location: Antioch IL | I was fishing with Todd M and he should me this happen. I as like i have never seen this before. It was a tiger muskie also. |
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Posts: 457
| We saw a huge fish well over 50 do this on vermillion about 7yrs ago. The fish had her whole head past the gill plates above the water and was swimming vertically. Swam like this for about 25 yrds, craziest thing that I have ever seen, looked like a spade shovel moving back and forth across the water. We marked the fishes location and came back to her only to have my buddy hook her and have her shake off after about 20 seconds. Was a tanker for sure, had an eyeball the size of a beer can. Good times for sure. |
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Posts: 618
Location: Bloomington, MN | "its to flush parasites out of their gills" ...previous post
My friend always said there goes another infected one with "Gill Fleas"!
I've never seen a "natural" do it, but have witnessed tigers on Shabbona, IL, Clinton Lake, IL., and numerous tiger lakes in the Twin Cities. I just think the tiger/hybrid muskie is naturally a burnt peanut! |
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Posts: 285
Location: NE Wisconsin | I have seen it several times. Whenever I was close enough to identify the fish, it was always a tiger. |
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Posts: 3147
| any truth to the rumor african tigers swim with there heads under water  |
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Location: Twin Cities | And of course, these fish cannot be caught...  |
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Posts: 480
| I can confirm the african tigers report, I saw this numerous times working with Dr.Jane Goodall in an overlapping study years ago.. The Hungarian runt tail beaver swims like this as does the Burr county whitetail deer, Persian groundhog and Egyptian pit viper. You do not what to catch any of these mammals or reptile with hook and line. |
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Posts: 169
Location: Houlton, WI | ive seen it happen a number of times. no clues why they do it |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | hh, Yes. And some humans swim with their head below water. |
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Posts: 1144
Location: Minnesota. | sworrall - 8/4/2010 10:01 PM
hh, Yes. And some humans swim with their head below water.
Not a bad tactic. Just think you could whistle underwater to call 'em in.
No, really, you can. Just swing your head side to side and before the water fills back in just whistle. Amazing results.....
(ahem, cough, cough)......
Jeremy. ( I actually had some guy believing this around 30 yrs. ago!) |
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Posts: 59
| I actually saw this on Round Lake in Wisconsin, trolled up to the fish and netted it. It was a 46 inch Tiger. Round is very clear and this day was very calm on a hot day in July. |
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Posts: 723
| weve seen them swim around like that, almost earie cause they have such a blank stare almost like a greatwhite shark. hehe
most of the time i always thought they were trying to finish sucking down whatever they just ate. kind of like if you break off a fish, and it has the bait in its mouth,
it comes to the surface to dislodge it. in this case, they are prolly simply saying
"#*^@, why did i take such a large bite" |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Lebanon,Mo | How would you like to spend 30 years under water not knowing whats up above??? We strive to get under water by scuba gear,cameras,etc just to see what's below.I think it's normal to see a fish with it's head out of the water,its a problem when they get beside your boat and you pet them till there tail wags....I need out of the heat,be close to 100* the last 15 days.. |
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Posts: 3147
| what would be cool is if you could legally stand on the front deck and lasso them,,maybe legal?? not hook and line but line??? |
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Posts: 2269
Location: SE, WI. | Interesting...Yes, back in the 80's when the tiger musky was more prevalent in pewaukee, I would see this act often. Now that the lake is 99% trues, I rarley see this occurance anymore. Interesting why it is more dominant with tigers??? |
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| I think there are two different things being discussed here. The tigers swimming with their heads "body surfing" and the regular muskies sticking their heads up.
My family has netted two different fish - a northern pike and one muskie that were fairly stationary, sticking their heads out of the water. Both were choking on large ciscos/tulibees. One was a 21 lb pike many years ago on Inguadona, blind in one eye, choking on a 2-3 lb cisco. The second was a muskie on the Indian Lake Chain, about a 12 lb fish, doing the same. One possibility is an inherent survival device to help swallow the stuck prey (using increased gravity out of the water). This happens when fighting muskies/hybrids on live bait, as well. Sometimes their first response is to stick their head out and "periscope."
My first time on LOTW in 1985, and I've never seen it so consistently since, was a July, 90-plus degree occurance... We worked our way into Burrow Bay and when we stopped to fish each mini-bay, fishing it from point to point, a muskie would stick its head out of the water in the pea-green soup conditions. The head would be out from 3-5 seconds or so. As soon as we would come off plane, wait a bit, we started to look around, almost expecting it. Sure enough, a head would come out, seemingly looking around to see what had entered their bay - never more than one fish per location. Weird. As 5:00 hit, we saw no more do this for the remainder of the trip. None of these fish followed or reacted to lures. I've never seen more than one fish do this at a time, since, in a day.
DC |
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| Saw this on the weekend on the Ontario side of Lake St. Clair. We actually trolled over to it thinking it would spook but it just sat there looking at us. I scooped it up in the net. It was about 36 inches and as clean as can be no marks or nothing, a real beauty. We released after a pic and off it went just as calm as ever.
D
Musky - Odd Behavior
Question
Why do musky sometimes swim slowly with their head out of the water? I have seen this twice in the last 2 years.
Answer
We receive more descriptions of unusual behavior associated with muskellunge than most other fish. For most of us trying to catch a trophy muskellunge, the "odd" behavior is swimming toward a lure and turning away just as one's heart begins pounding in anticipation of an attack. From time to time, we do hear from anglers who have witnessed similar "head above water" actions like you describe.
There are a couple of theories about this action, including:
Since muskellunge attack prey from the side and then swallow them head-first, the musky might bet taking one last gulp associated with consumption of a large meal.
Musky like to be well acquainted with their surroundings and are surfacing to get a "better look around."
Muskellunge have also been seem "basking" and occasionally "porpoising" with their backs out of the water. This is suspected to be associated with getting to warmer surface water, perhaps to increase metabolism and aid digestion of a large meal (reptiles seek warmth for similar reasons).
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Posts: 128
| A few photos my buddy snapped of a headswimmer Tiger.
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Posts: 128
| another
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| A couple of months ago I was pitching a bucktail in a swallow water bay and this, what I thought was a duck's head just pops up out of nowhere 15 feer from the boat. After, staring at the crazy duck swimming, I come to find out it's a musky with it's head out of the water coming right towards the boat. I started pitching my lure but the musky just swam off and disappeared, what a friggin' crazy experience. |
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Posts: 61
Location: Anoka | Yes it sure is weird on June 11 me and my partner were fishing the metro muskie tourny on Indy when he says hey look at that snapping turtle lol I turned and instantly knew it was a huge muskie 48 to 50 leech strain head completly out of the water and mouth open half way I scarmbled to change lures I threw a shallow invader she followed but wouldent eat I then came back to that fish 5 times she followed every time but just wouldent eat but thats how my year has been going oh well still fun
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Posts: 3868
| Seen it, but it did not compare to seeing a snake swim one weird day. I think FishOn was with me at Lake Y in Da Yoop. This snake thought it was the Loc Nest Snake, about 6' long swimming hard with about 14" of his neck and head out of the water. Bright brown with yellow, I was told later is was likely a corn snake. Big enough to take a baby away from dingos, man.
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Posts: 531
Location: Hugo, MN | I netted a 41" Tiger that was doing this on Yellow Lake in Wisconsin. She let us net her calmly, and released like any other caught fish, never to be seen again. I've also seen Leech Lake strains do this on White Bear Lake. Caught a 48" a few years ago that I saw swimming like that. When we got close enough it went subsurface, then I threw a cowgirl out in front of it and boom! That's the only one I've ever even gotten to follow, let alone strike a bait after seeing it swim like that. Pretty neat to see. |
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| Today we were at a little lake in New Mexico called Bluewater Lake, noticed the muskies doing this a lot more in the late afternoon, it was the first time we ever went muskie fishing and it was something unexplainable to us. Never seen a fish do that before and we've been around. Good to know why they do that. Thanks for the info posted on this page. Happy Fishing everyone. If you all have any pointers on how we can catch these guys next time. That would be awesome. We got stumped today, but it was sure was a good time!!!! |
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Posts: 86
Location: colorado | The tigers here in Colorado, do this a lot. I didn't realize true's do not do this. The lakes I fish for pike I don't see them doing it.Alway thought it was a musky thing. Interesting. |
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Posts: 120
| I fish a tiger lake here in PA, and have seen them doing this same thing quite often as well... Also never seen a pure strain do this, or a nothern for that matter. I've seen pures come up and porpoise, but not surfing, looking around like the tigers do.
Twice it has been after getting their attention with a lure... In June I had a big fish come up and whiff on my crank bait--30 seconds later it was back up on the surface swimming with its head out looking around, lol. Just like the pics...So wierd! Great pics btw. |
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Posts: 661
Location: Sussex, NJ | saw a tiger do this one time on a lake in NJ. My buddy threw a magic maker at it and it came after it instantly. We missed the fish but it sure was awesome to watch! |
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Posts: 313
Location: Bemidji, Lake Vermilion | Caught a 50.5 this summer after watching it head out of the water off and on for about 5min. Smoked a hawg wobbler, had a guy and his kid vacationing in MN but from CO watch the whole thing unfold. Fun stuff. |
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| Seen it on Miltona many times. Yesterday we saw a bunch doing it, flat calm all day.
Never had luck catching one that did it though. |
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| Also saw this on Tonka on Wed. A closer look showed that somebody had recently caught her and had obviously had both fingers firmly in her eyes, probably to "quiet" her down while the unhooked her. 45 in, so not legal although I wish I had put her down. Don't really know how a blind musky lives. Don't tell me they can live without eyesight. |
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Posts: 209
| skid - 9/30/2012 5:31 PM
Don't tell me they can live without eyesight.
Well, this is exactly what you just told me not to do, but I've heard of studies where they cut the optic nerve of fingerlings and find them still alive several years later. On the other hand, I still hate seeing people hold fish like that.
Edited by MuskieMark01 9/30/2012 11:53 PM
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Posts: 173
| Don't tell me they can live without eyesight.
Sorry to go against your instructions but they can and do live totally blind. One large female in the telemetry sudy on the Ottawa River was blind at tagging but keeps spawning .
I'm not suggesting that the eye socket hold is acceptable , just that muskies can and do survive injuries fishermen assume are fatal. On the other hand some "strong" releases turn up dead a few days later. |
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