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Posts: 1360
Location: Lake "y" cause lake"x" got over fished | For those of you who live in the metro MN area, and have been at this for a lot longer than I, I have a question.
With how messed up the weather has been with all of the warm spells and the fact that I am expecting ice to be off the lake a little sooner than normal. Does that effect how the Muskies will spawn? in your experience does it effect where they will be (as far as structure or depth goes) in the lake? Just trying to see if anyone has had a similar experience in the past and could shed some light on this strange weather situation?
Thanks in Advance |
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Posts: 536
| I know that it doesnt always have to do with water temps but the length of the daylight, like last yr for instance the water temps were cold when it was time to spawn and they went anyway! |
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Posts: 833
| My thought is that it is probably too early to tell at this point. We could have a cold wet spring or continued warm/dry spring. Who knows?
A side bar to this: When Tonka locked up last year fall it was down 2'-3' from normal. I wonder what kind of impact this will have on the season if it persists?
Edited by Brad P 2/22/2012 3:48 PM
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Posts: 1360
Location: Lake "y" cause lake"x" got over fished | Brad -
That is a good point, I have not thought about how low the water was low at the end of the year. But in the beginning of the year it was super high too, so maybe it will just revert back to how it was again, and be high. With the lack of snow however we may not get the same affect as it will not have as much melted snow to bring the lake up. I hope that it is not going to effect anything.
thanks for the replys guys |
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| hey as far as weather goes it's so different every year I think it's near impossible to pattern before you hit the water on opener.
i don't think water levels will have a great effect on the fish, other than changing the character of some spots due to variances in weedgrowth. pretty important to pay attention to on a lake like tonka that has spots on the spot all over the place. |
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Posts: 3147
| If I understand the question right its about muskies spawning in the metro??? is there really much of any muskie spawning on metro waters other then them just going through the motions??
sorry if I didnt understand the question |
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Posts: 1360
Location: Lake "y" cause lake"x" got over fished | Though most of the lakes are stocked with fish, there is evidance that the muskies are naturally spawning in certain areas. In fact, I myself have witnessed muskies in mid spawn swimming together on a few of the metro lakes over the years. The biggest suprize for me though, was I saw this occurance two different times last year on Tonka, which totally shocked me. I thought of all of the lakes that it would be one of the last based on water traffic and fishing pressure. But it seems as though it is not effecting them as bad as I had origanally thought. Though it may not be the majority of the fish that are spawning, but I know that some are. Some is always better then none. However like the other guy said it is almost impossible to actually track the elusive fish, but most of us follow some kind of pattern on our preffered lakes year after year at the beginning and the end of every season. I am just hoping that the lakes I enjoy fishing in early season are not to effected by the strange weather patterns leading into it. |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Muskies spawn (go through the motions) everywhere they are established by reproduction or stocking. If conditions are not right, there will be little recruitment or none; happens on lots of stocked water across the range. |
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Posts: 8781
| The way I understand it is that muskies spawn wherever they are, but factors like a lack of suitable substrate, silt/runoff due to shoreline development, and rapidly warming water cause the eggs to die. I've always wondered if it's possible to create "artifical" spawning areas on some lakes to help recruitment, but I've never been able to get an answer on that. Steve? |
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Posts: 531
Location: Hugo, MN | I think if weather patterns continue like this, we'll have an early ice out and will see advanced weed growth by opener. Even if weed growth is 2 weeks ahead of normal, I'd expect to see a good opener. Last year was a slow June for me. I saw a ton of fish, right where they should be, but they wouldn't eat. I attribute part of that to the cold spring and relative lack of good weed growth. I typically see a good number of fish opening weekend, but catch more the second and third weeks as the weed edges get more defined and fish take to their summer spots. IF we see a warm spring, I wouldn't be surprised to find some eaters on opener. |
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Posts: 833
| I don't see how we could revert to last year unless we get a serious monsoon of a spring. In 2011 we were coming off the 4th snowiest winter on record and an average ice out (April 15th on Tonka.) It was also very cold all the way up until the opener. This year we barely had 12" of snow and aside from what we got this last weekend all of it has already melted. That would be some swing, not impossible, but certainly extreme.
Given that there is over 3 months until Opener I don't think trying to predict conditions is very constructive. (no offense) I brought up the low water question only because I'm curious if anyone on the board has had experienced in those conditions in previous years and is willing to share any insight. |
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Posts: 86
Location: north metro, MN | as has been said it is pretty early to start making predictions, but its not a bad idea to start thinking about it. I think it was two seasons ago when we had a really warm spring and on opening weekend the water temps where what you would expect in early July. Opening day I was out on White Bear and we moved a lot of fish and boated a two. 15 feet and deeper was the ticket on opening day.. don't see that often |
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Posts: 1360
Location: Lake "y" cause lake"x" got over fished | I have been fishing Tonka my whole life. Not always for muskies as I'm just really starting to get into the Musky thing. I have been an avid Musky hunter for about 3 years now. But over the course of my fishing life, Tonka has had plenty of opening seasons where the water was low like it had been at the end of last year. I am not to concerned about the water level. There has been plenty of years where it was low and didn't effect the fish to much. What I believe it did effect is more just the water warming up quickly in the shallow inside weed edges. thus making it harder to find them in those spots. But With the size of Tonka there is always so many different hiding spots and structure for them to sit in.
In the main lake area structure can vary tremendously within a short distance of water. There is always places for them to hide. My concerns are how fast the weed growth will be and if it will then effect the beginning of the year? Will it make it better? worse? I guess we will just have to find out. I have plenty of experience fishing bass and northern in the spring when we have had strange winters. However i have never seen a winter like this and then tried to fish for the skis, I have plenty of learning to do, I know it is going to be a long journey but i can't wait.
My Grandfather has been fishing muskies his whole life, he still tells me that he learns something new about the fish every day. Which tells me that I have a LONG way to go. But I LOVE every thing about the sport and the people who support it.
We all know that Musky fishing is probably one of the only fish that requires a lot of studying, and homework. Just trying to learn all I can off the water, so when I am on the water I can increase my chances any way that I can.
Hopefully the weather wont effect it to much.... and who knows, maybe the strangeness will help at the beginning of the year, like the other guy said. Some of the best fishing comes about 2 weeks after opened when the weed growth is a little thicker. so maybe warmer waters, means faster weed growth thus more fish... Lets hope!
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MN metro Weather, Ice, spawning effects?