Im looking for a genral rule of thumb on stocking muskies, Typically I understand that if you get 1st year fish (hatched in April stocked in October ) 10-14 inches long that 1 fish per acre is average (except Webster), in a average lake , with fair survival good forage .
What if you stocked 18-20 inch holdovers what would be a good rule of thumb on numbers stocked per acre ?
The reason I ask our club is looking at a 900 acre lake would 200 18-22" get lost in a big lake
Posted 12/15/2010 1:56 PM (#470724 - in reply to #470618) Subject: Re: Stocking numbers
Posts: 291
Location: Minneapolis
Lake Harriet in Minneapolis is just under 400 acres. It gets 175 muskie fingerlings (10"-14") every other year. I believe the MN DNR uses 1 muskie/littoral acre as its guideline for stocking.
The 175 muskies Harriet gets every other year is plenty.
Posted 12/15/2010 5:04 PM (#470758 - in reply to #470724) Subject: Re: Stocking numbers
Location: The Yahara Chain
In the past when our area fisheries manager has spoken at our club he stated that around 80% of the first year fingerlings get lost to various predators. Once they get to two years old they are safe from said predators. So according to his assumptions your 200 two year old fish would be equal to 1000 of the 10-14"ers. I think it would give you a nice year class.
Posted 12/19/2010 8:23 AM (#471119 - in reply to #470758) Subject: Re: Stocking numbers
Posts: 86
Bytor - 12/15/2010 5:04 PM
In the past when our area fisheries manager has spoken at our club he stated that around 80% of the first year fingerlings get lost to various predators. Once they get to two years old they are safe from said predators. So according to his assumptions your 200 two year old fish would be equal to 1000 of the 10-14"ers. I think it would give you a nice year class.
Agreed. I have heard fairly similar numbers from fisheries biologists in IL.
Posted 1/27/2011 5:01 AM (#478064 - in reply to #453779) Subject: RE: Stocking numbers
Posts: 322
One of the main lakes that I fish is around 750 acres. DNR stocks 375 muskie a year. Every once in a while I still manage to put the smack down. If 20% survive....75 muskie a year that is like .10 fish per acre!!
Stocking numbers