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| 50 people pound Webster and all we come up with is a 31 and 30 inch undersized fish. 450 man hours in one day and 2 small fish?
This in not the Webster I experienced last year. The problem I have is, I am scheduled to head back this weekend, and not sure if I should head directly to Tippy, James or Barbee.
What do you think? | |
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| Don't know about Webster. I fished James/Tippy for about 7 hours Saturday and didn't even see one. Hope to get out again next Saturday. | |
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| thanks for the insight to tippy, maybe it was just a cold front or something. It was a bit nippy out there.
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| Robby: I only caught a 26" on Saturday and my partner had three shots a decent fish. It was indeed quite tough. Ice on all our gear for at least the first 2 hours. Water temps were down atleast 12 degrees from only 6 days prior.
Some poeple believe the fishery is effected negatively by a number of things including a substantial multi-round weed "control" application this year. I would also add to the list over harvesting. Look at the photo wall of shame in Ye Ole Tackle Box. Many of those fish are clearly bonked as the photo's have people's basement furnaces in the background. Lets also not forget about the incidental death that ocurs by way of bassers. The fish are all over that lake, not just in the text book spots 23 boats in a tourney were looking for them in. What do you think happens to a 40" muskie which inhales a 4" wiggle wart with two trebles after it breaks them off?
We chatted with a couple bassers who we saw fishing very shallow in heavy cover on their way out after the tourney. They caught 3 muskies and one was described to be well over 3 ft long. Moral of the story - we need to change our tactics, clearly the muskies have.
The numbers for egg production were off 30% from goal this spring. Lets hope the trend doesn't continue. If it does, when we will finally concede that over harvesting is to blame? | |
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| It was blue bird skies. Tough day. Lots of fish could have been caught. We had a 38-40" hooked at the boat, but she got off. We had 4-5 other follows. Not a bad day as far as I'm concerned.
This is musky fishing. Webster is still a killer lake. Maybe the weeds have caused the fish to move around a bit, but they are in there. You just gotta know how to catch 'em.
And Luke, I doubt those bass guys caugth three. I saw them and they said they got one small one late in the day. They like to lie and make the real musky fishermen look dumb. But they are full of it. Yeah, Ye Ol' does have a lot of dead fish pics on their wall, but most of those pics are at least 2 years old....they have been up there for awhile. | |
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| RObby D, this is musky fishing. hell, you hear about parties of 4 or 6 people to to Lac Suel or Eagle for a week or two and getting skunked the whole time. It's just musky fishing, yes, even here in Indiana, the most famous pay pond, they don't want to eat all the time.
tommy h | |
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| Maybe I can be the voice of reason in this fight, yes this would be a first for me.
YES Webster is still a great option for fishing in the lower midwestern region of the muskie's range.
NO Webster is NOT what it was last year.
YES Many many fish of decent size have been caught and killed in the last year and year before. Phishin, I talked to Clendedeednining about this earlier in the year, he agrees.
NO It is definitely NOT fished out.
YES there is still a strong population of muskies in Webster
NO they are not in their usual patterns, a few chemicals tossed into the water had a nice affect on that.
YES people are still catching muskies on Webster.
NO people are not catching the numbers that they were.
YES there is still TROPHY potential on Webster
YES many trophies have been caught out of Webster.
NO the fish are no longer new to baits, a few hundred articles on the lake have brought a few thousand muskie fisherman to the lake, if conditioning is a reality, these fish would be conditioned.
YES YES YES there are fish still catchable in Webster...NO NO NO Webster is NOT the only place to catch muskies in Indiana, but YES it is still the best option for catching muskies there, and the best bet for a trophy.
Slamr | |
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| Thanks to all for the replies, all of them make sense. I guess the one time I was there it was abosolutley crazy on the number of fish we saw. Not only the numbers, but they were huge!
Steve Hulbert, it was nice to meet the Hulbert brothers that you read so much about. Did you win the nice rods? | |
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| You have to remember Webster is Musky Lake, and we are fishing for Muskies. Webster is not a Magical Lake!
Just like my brother said, people get skunked all the time on every other musky lake, but since this is Webster people think differently. These fish are just like any other fish, if they don't want to eat they don't have to. Also these fish learn a thing or two. There are more musky lures thrown in Webster during the summer than alot of places, the fish will start to slow down.
But please remember this is musky fishing, not bass or bluegill fishing. Webster is not a magic lake, it is just like any other musky lake. Sometimes you catch 1 or 2, sometimes you get skunked.
Mike Hulbert | |
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| And sometimes you loose four fish boatside in one day!....right Slamr![:bigsmile:]
Ok...I lost one too![:bigsmile:] | |
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| Sometimes you have them on for 2 minutes, then you lose them.....right Jason? And get it straight, I lost 5 that day!
And like Mike said, it's muskie fishing....for a while there, the fish were very under-pressured, maybe a bit less bait shy (see dumber). Now it's muskie fishing.
Slamr | |
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| Rob D,
Yeah, it was cool to meet you too man. No, we didn't get the rods. I thought we were gonna for a minute, but it didn't happen. They were given away to raffle ticket holders....I bought $60 bucks worth trying to win the rod I thought I deserved, but no dice.
And Slamr, there haven't been that many fish taken out of the lake. Believe me. So you talked to Ben C., well, that doesn't hold any water either. There are still pigs in Webster and I'd put it against almost any lake in the world under 1500 acres...and Webster is only approx. 500 acres fishable.
It's still one of the best lakes to catch a musky. Period. It's practially a brood stock lake....excuse me, it is a brood stock lake.
But you're right Slamr, there are no fish in there, stay off the lake, it's a waste of your time.[:devil:] | |
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| Webster including Backwater is about 785 acres total...yeah, I know you said fishable acreage. I have had a cottage in this lakes area since '94 and have been coming down to this area fishing since the '70's. Lots of people who have not heard of catch and release are around these parts. With Bass Tourney's almost every weekend in addition to the local club tourney on wednesday nights that is a ton of pressure for webster, this doesn't include the locals who live on or around the lake and the people with summer places that fish it. Just cause their fishing for bass doesn't mean that is all they are catching. Then you tack on all the guys specifically targetting Musky on this lake and that is a lot of fishing pressure. #1 stop also has pictures on their bragging board, decent amount of dead ones there and most of those pictures are less then a year old. My point here is there are very few lakes that get the pressure in 3-4 years that Webster gets in one. Would love to see the Indiana Musky lakes become either a catch and release fishery or follow Illinois' lead with the 46" limit, enforced. About the only lakes I know of that get the type of pressure that Webster gets is the Fox Chain or maybe Pewaukee. The fact guys are driving past Shabonna, and the Fox chain to get to Webster shows the type of pressure it recieves. | |
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| Kevin I agree with you on the limit increase or C&R only. This is a brood stock lake and as such is the future of the IN muskie fishery. Last year they were off egg production goal by 30% if I heard correctly. How many years in a row can the lake miss its egg production goals before we end up with big year class gaps in what was certain to become one of the best states (rather then just lake webster) we have ever known, other then MN of course? I got an email from the INDNR a while back indicating they intend to continue to treat that lake as a put-n-take fishery with the current limit. I hope they don't realize the potential damage of this decision after its too late to recover. | |
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| 3eI live only 30 miles from Web, and a guy I work with has had a place on Backwater for about 10 years. I know that some of the locals dont like the crowds caused by the musky fisherman and they kill everyone they catch, size doesnt matter. I turned one guy in for keeping undersized fish, but I dont know if they caught him. I think he gets most at night while fishing for crappi and either gigs or snaggs them. Its a shame, I just decide to fish serious for musky a few months ago and I hear that it may not last. I know there are some Musky lakes in southern Indina that not many people know about. So I may be driving south soon :( If anyone has any ideas on what I can do to help let me know. I just joined the Musky Inc club in Webster Saturday, so I hope that will at least help with stocking. See ya on the water,
Randy | |
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| hehehe..correction: they kill every musky they catch, not the fishermen. Sorry..dont want to scare you guys away.
RandyW | |
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| I did a little fact finding myself, webster is 585 acres(not including backwater) of which 387 acres is less then 10 feet deep, (approx. 68% of the total lake area). Backwater is 189acres of which 95% is under 5 feet deep. Total area 774 acres. Randy, don't be too discouraged about fishing around this area. There will continue to be a pretty good musky fishery in this area. I would love to see all tournaments, yes ALL tournaments banned from these lakes. The fishing pressure is just too great to handle tournaments on any of these lakes. No offense to those who put together the fall and spring musky tourneys, I do know money collected from these tourneys goes to stocking more fish. However the bass tourneys return nothing to the lakes. I'm sure Neva's and Ye old Tackle and a few other businesses benefit but not the lakes or fisheries. | |
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What is up with Webster