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| Are there any decent lakes for tiger musky in Iowa? Are they stocked anywhere? How big are they getting? |
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Posts: 2067
| No... state stopped stocking them over 20 years ago - they never did well when they stocked them. You might be able to catch one on the Iowa great lakes - possible since pike and muskie inhabit the lake - .....but you could fish a lifetime there and never catch a tiger muskie. State only stock pure strain. |
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Posts: 59
| The biologists I gill netted with said that tigers did poorly due to high water temp. We were at Spirit Lake and they said that they hadn't ever seen a tiger in East O or Spirit. They only were there for a week a year, but I'd guess that they were on to something
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Posts: 153
Location: Storm Lake, IA | a guy caught a tiger muskie two years ago on spirit lake during the Iowa Muskie Trail. So there is at least one tiger in there. |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | We used to go after Tigers in Hawthorne lake 25 years ago but I think they drained it and then never stocked the tigers back in it. Shame too since that was a really fun lake. Flooded forest so it was packed full of structure. |
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Posts: 1184
Location: Iowa Great Lakes | Caught my 1 and only off Spirit in 05 or 06,feisty 37", partner got a 42" off West in 07 or so and the one caught on Spirit during the Iowa Trail in 09 also a 42 if I remember correct..... We have seen a few here and there some nice ones some small so they are around...in a fishable population I don't belive so.... |
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Location: Grinnell, Iowa | Tackle Industries - 4/7/2012 10:57 AM
We used to go after Tigers in Hawthorne lake 25 years ago but I think they drained it and then never stocked the tigers back in it. Shame too since that was a really fun lake. Flooded forest so it was packed full of structure.
They did drain Hawthorne about 2 years ago. However, they stopped stocking muskies in Hawthorne many years before that. I believe its Hazel Creek in southeastern Iowa by Keosaqua that was added to the musky program after Hawthorne was dropped. Hawthorne was a fun lake. Fat skis and huge bass back in the day. |
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Posts: 114
Location: Eagle Grove, Iowa | Hazel Creek is in Missouri just north of Kirksville. The lake in southeast Iowa is Sugema. |
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Location: Grinnell, Iowa | Thanks for the correction. I couldn't remember for sure what the name of the lake was. |
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| there are at least 2 in the back discovery pond in muscatine me and my friends are trying to catch one i dont know how they got there but good luck to ya
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Posts: 785
| If your looking to score a tiger I'd look into one of the MN tiger lakes, some in the cities and south of the cities. Not a super far drive over the Iowa boarder and good populations. I'd seen a couple caught out of Hawthorne when I was a kid but am pretty sure those ones were taken home and eaten. |
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Posts: 793
Location: Ames, Iowa | No stocked tigers would remain, but natural tigers would. Back in the dark ages I used to feed and measure the little buggers working for Wayne Hubert at the Iowa Fisheries Cooperative Unit in the basement of Sciences II at ISU. Fun work study job. |
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Posts: 1
| I know that this is very, very old, but according to the IDNR Hawthorn still has Tiger in the lake.
Muskellunge
Season: Continuous
Daily Bag Limit: combined: muskellunge and tiger muskellunge, 1 fish
Possession Limit: combined: muskellunge and tiger muskellunge, 1 fish
Length Limit: 40-inch minimum
Other:
Edited by mysticfallout 5/25/2021 9:02 PM
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Posts: 2067
| Yep, if you catch a tiger muskie in Iowa it has to be 40”... and since it’s NOW been 29 years since the state has stocked them anywhere, good luck catching one... lol! |
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Posts: 2067
| Many non-muskie anglers in Iowa think they’ve caught a tiger muskie, if they are fortunate enough to land one of our stocked fish, could be why the DNR keeps the wording... nothing in this old post has changed, if you want a slim chance at a tiger muskie in Iowa fish the Iowa Great Lakes, or just go buy a powerball ticket your odds of winning a million are similar to catching tigers in Iowa currently.
Edited by IAJustin 5/26/2021 7:20 AM
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Posts: 89
| Iowa stocks tigers in Sailorville because reasons I guess, wish they would split them up and put them in the normal lakes so I could get lucky and get 1 someday.
I know it just says musky, but its tigers I saw the Facebook post when they started.
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Posts: 793
Location: Ames, Iowa | Did not see tigers in your list. The Tiger program in Iowa got busy in 1978. When the state found those fish had little success the money went elsewhere, including the urban trout program. Incidentally, same dates and same story with the grass carp program. Except those fish have been wildly successful to the detriment of our lakes. Other than the naturally reproducing fish maybe found in the IGL or inland rivers like the Des Moines, I doubt there is one tiger muskie remaining alive in the state. |
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| I see that this is a old thread but thought I would provide an update. Like what has been stated above any hybrids caught in Iowa (2021) is a wild fish (not hatchery raised). They could be potentially found in rivers like the Shell Rock, Cedar, Des Moines and Little Sioux due to muskies that have emigrated out of a stocked lake during high water events and also have a pike population.
When this post was started we would maybe see a tiger once every couple of years at Big Spirit/Okoboji's during brood stock collection but in the last 5 years due to increased presumed natural reproduction by muskies (We PIT tag all muskies as yearlings before stocking) we now see 2-3 hybrids every year. Tigers get caught every year on Big Spirit/Okoboji's but the population is very low and would be difficult to fish for tigers and find success. Couple of years ago a tiger was caught on Big Spirit that nearly broke the old state record so there are some bigger fish out there. |
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Posts: 89
| So after a ton of digging i found the 6 year old post that made me think it was tigers. Came from one of the dnr employees who did the stocking.
I will admit a large portion of iowans call all muskies tiger muskies (probably from our 80s stocking program)
I always thought it was something we came up on trade with another state. The size is off for our program, 4 inches, everyplace else gets 12 inchers.
But ill admit this is all I have and it only stuck with me because I've never caught a tiger and wish they would have split them up and supplemented our muskie lakes.
Shrug
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