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Posts: 2361
| Was watching the reporting on the elite series and noted some of the areas they were fishing looked very condusive to not only bass but also toothed predators, catfish and also carp.
I noted we had world reknowned reporter TJDevo there and was curious as to what these guys caught besides bass. It would seem they would have a lot of incidental catches in these areas, including northern pike and muskie if the water temps hadn't gotten up to high.
Anybody know what was happening with that? |
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Posts: 46
| Pike yes. Muskies.. Only in my dreams. |
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Posts: 255
Location: MadCity Wisconsin | For one reason or another muskie are not present in LaCrosse, maybe an incidental catch on Lake Onalaska or the Mississippi. but a rare occurrence. Several can be caught on the Black River N.E. feeding into that region but not a fishable population further down. |
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Posts: 32934
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | This weekend the Bassmasters was at the Bay of Green Bay. |
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Yes, FSF. There are muskies around the LaCrosse Mississippi River area, i.e., because of the Black River confluence with the Mississippi. Not a huge population, but they are there. The furthest south I've seen them is the Goose Island area south of LaCrosse, caught a little guy ~13" while fishing for pike, and have seen others up to ~40" caught by other fisherman..
Have fun,
Al |
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Posts: 410
Location: one foot over the line | A 45" was caught a few years back on the Black River about a mile upstream from where it dumps into the Miss. A muskie catch on the Miss and the southern portion of the Black is extremely rare. Northerns are plentiful and 40" are out there. Lake Onalaska and the numerous backwaters along with some of the wing dams on the main channel are the best spots to try, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, and topwater all work well. Plenty of carp for a bowfisherman with some of the grass carp around 30lbs and the buffalo reaching 45lbs, and lights at night are legal. Lots of Channel cats on any of the 3 river systems (Black, LaCrosse, Miss.) with 15lbs being a decent fish. Crawlers, stinkbait, and chicken livers work best. Flatheads are the one to target with some of them going over 60lbs. At night with live bluegills work best. Work downed timber with some current, below the lock and dam, or up the black river on pool 7 (a go-devil rig is needed for this part of the Black) I don't fish walleyes, but the guys put plenty in the boat below the locks when the time is right, with 10lbers being caught. When night fishin for flatheads i'll always drown a large gob of crawlers, cuz you never know whats down there. A 55" lake sturgeon, 40" shovelnose, 20lb sheephead have all gotten their picture taken with my boat. Also saw a nice pic of a 59" paddlefish. Its a neat fishery that we have here, I do wish we had more muskies, gas is getting expensive driving up to the cabin twice a month. |
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| You forgot Gar....lots of gar, fun as hell to catch and all you need is a piece of macrame cord and a sinker. The gars teeth get tangled in the cord and you can reel them in. |
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Posts: 46
| Would the dnr ever consider stocking muskies in say pool 8 or 9? I would think muskies would thrive in the miss. |
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Posts: 410
Location: one foot over the line | Good question, and I have not heard of anything like this coming from the DNR. I would think that as it is the 3rd largest river in the world, to attempt to manage one particular species in an ever fluctuating ENORMOUS body of water would have to be a daunting task, let alone sharing its shores with so many states sounds like a big mess to me. Don't get me wrong though, IF they did manage to establish a decent population, I would certainly fish them and drink beer. |
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| The Mississippi is designed to move cargo from the north to the south. The fishing is secondary. I doubt the DNR would ever stock muskies there. |
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| There was a discussion about this a while back. I think they were talking more about
Lake peppin on the Mississippi then as they might get populations from around the cities and peppin to move toward each other and make one. I think la crosse would be better with black river and the back waters are better with better channels and islands and sloughs. Even better is pool just south of la crosse. |
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Posts: 20258
Location: oswego, il | Joe Bucher is making a push to get muskies stocked into the Mississippi. I agree with him, would be a great fishery. He was talking about Pepin to start and even mentioned Onalaska. No doubt these fish would get big. One would think it would work looking at the St. Croix. |
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Posts: 410
Location: one foot over the line | I've heard of some giant pike coming from Peppin, not sure if that would sway a DNR choice or not. Lake Onalaska has an average depth of 6 feet and that is over 9000 acres, yes that is 9000 acres. Most of the big northerns that are caught here come up through the ice, the 15 pounders are hard to find on the lake come summer. Would think that a similar situation would arise with muskies. I have fished some of the larger flowages in the state (Petenwell, Big Chip, TFF) and those are giant bodies of water, however, if you have never been on the Mississippi pools and all of their backwaters, you will be amazed. As stated before, Lake Onalaska is around 9000 acres, if you add in the backwaters your looking at around 14,000 acres, and that is at the south end of pool 7. You still have 11 miles of crooked river before you hit Lock and Dam #6, and that does't include any of that backwater. And that's just one pool. I'm not a smart man and my faith in the DNR may be slim, but if they could find a way to manage a muskie population in this river, I'll eat my shoe, and drink a beer. |
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Its no different than managing any other large body of water, actually the MN & WI DNR already manage the Mississippi watershed fishery. The major problem for muskies in the Mississippi around the LaCrosse area is that the vast majority of fisherman don't know the difference between a muskie and a northern pike. So, when they do catch one its going home for the table.
True story - Early 1980's: "Old Style" Catch & Release Northern Pike & Walleye tournament. All fish had to be brought to the park building in Riverside Park for weigh-in, release, etc., it was a transport catch & release tournament. They had several very large aquariums set up to hold & display fish once they were registered and to insure they were live for release. I had caught a ~39" northern down by Goose Island. Brought it in for registration, after registration we went to put it in a tank to make sure it was OK. Low & behold all the tanks have +30 inch muskies in them - I point to one of the muskies & asked the tournament official "why are these fish in this tank"? His response:"Those are registered fish". This was early April. I checked all of the tanks, out of ~ 20 fish, 5 were northern pike. the rest were muskies. I voiced my protest to the tournament official's at the weigh in station, they said it was to late, as they couldn't identify who registered which fish. I wrote a followup letter of protest to the tournament committee, and refused to attend the awards ceremony, even though I did win third in non-resident division - resident was someone living in Lacrosse county, etc.
So, the lesson here is that eventually I think they are all going to get eaten..... The Mississippi is a great watershed and has some great fishing around the LaCrosse area. It would take some serious effort to educate the local's and visitor's with respect to muskies versus northern pike.
http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=15...
Have fun!
Al |
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Posts: 143
Location: La Crosse, WI | So the main concern for the DNR in stocking muskies in the Mississippi is that they will all be mistaken for northerns and be kept? I do believe the people that fish the Mississippi may have to be educated with signs and word of mouth on how to distinguish the two. However, most fisherman know the difference between a northern and a muskie. Especially if they have caught and handled many northerns. I think it would be a great idea to get some stocked in there, but it would probably take several years before a fishable population was established. No doubt the Mississippi could spit out some mondos if given the chance! |
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Did you read my last sentence? Historically, I believe a lot of muskies have been caught & kept in the Black River - Mississippi confluence, both in and out of season, including the Lake Onalaska to Goose Island Mississippi watershed area. The major obstacle to actually establishing a fishable population would be education & size limits.
I think it helps that the MI God's Country Chapter worked hard to get the WI DNR to transfer the excess Butternut fish to Lake Neshonoc (West Salem). Now there is some level of awareness about muskies in the area. Maybe its time for a coordinated effort to get a healthy "Mississippi strain" muskie population in the Mississippi/Black/LaCrosse River confluence. Up to now its been incidental population from fish migrating down the Black River.
http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=24...
Have fun!
Al
Edited by ESOX Maniac 7/5/2012 12:30 PM
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Posts: 143
Location: La Crosse, WI | I understand what you're saying but education and size limits seems like a pretty easy problem to solve. I think the most difficult part would be finding the funds to continuely stock it. It would be a great musky fishery though wouldn't it? Hopefully sometime in the future... |
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Posts: 410
Location: one foot over the line | Out of curiousity, does anyone have any idea how many muskies have been stocked in the Wisconsin River/Petenwell/Castle Rock/Lake Wisconsin? and for how many years? Would be interesting to compare percentages between the 2 river systems, keeping in mind that the Wisconsin is a drop in the bucket compared to the Miss. The comment about education is certainly valid. The dude who caught that 45" a few years back had to ask at least 3 different people what it was before he got the right answer. But, just like most of the boat landings that I have been to in muskie country, there is a nifty little yellow sign with a muskie on it, which would certainly help around here. Additional point: If they stocked muskies around here, there is a good chance that a bunch of northern Wisconsin bars would go out of business because i stayed home to fish. |
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Location: Sun Prairie, WI | beerforthemuskygods - 7/5/2012 2:47 PM Out of curiousity, does anyone have any idea how many muskies have been stocked in the Wisconsin River/Petenwell/Castle Rock/Lake Wisconsin? and for how many years? Would be interesting to compare percentages between the 2 river systems, keeping in mind that the Wisconsin is a drop in the bucket compared to the Miss. The comment about education is certainly valid. The dude who caught that 45" a few years back had to ask at least 3 different people what it was before he got the right answer. But, just like most of the boat landings that I have been to in muskie country, there is a nifty little yellow sign with a muskie on it, which would certainly help around here. Additional point: If they stocked muskies around here, there is a good chance that a bunch of northern Wisconsin bars would go out of business because i stayed home to fish. Todd Forcier should be able to get you some information on Petenwell stocking. http://www.forciersguideservice.com/ Mark Saemisch may be able to help you with Castle Rock stocking info. http://www.muskiemarks.com/ |
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Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | BFTMG, If the Miss gets muskies you can still come up Nort just to patronize our fine taverns. We locals keep a few bars open but we can only drink so much. |
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| Al, I rember the Old Style tournament! Yep lots of muskies were mistaken for Northerns.
Once again, first and foremost it's a transportation system, the fishing is seconday. The body of water is managed much closer by the Corps Of Engineers than the DNR. (just a few weeks ago I watched a petroleum barge lock through, if you haven't seen this you should)
As someone who grew up a Riverrat fishing every species it had in a boat, from shore through the ice and hunting it's islands all fall, it's doubtful the DNR will tackle this one and quite frankly I hope they don't. Many other better choices in the land of cheese, beer and Packers. |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | gtp888 - 7/6/2012 2:39 PM
beerforthemuskygods - 7/5/2012 2:47 PM Out of curiousity, does anyone have any idea how many muskies have been stocked in the Wisconsin River/Petenwell/Castle Rock/Lake Wisconsin? and for how many years? Would be interesting to compare percentages between the 2 river systems, keeping in mind that the Wisconsin is a drop in the bucket compared to the Miss. The comment about education is certainly valid. The dude who caught that 45" a few years back had to ask at least 3 different people what it was before he got the right answer. But, just like most of the boat landings that I have been to in muskie country, there is a nifty little yellow sign with a muskie on it, which would certainly help around here. Additional point: If they stocked muskies around here, there is a good chance that a bunch of northern Wisconsin bars would go out of business because i stayed home to fish. Todd Forcier should be able to get you some information on Petenwell stocking. http://www.forciersguideservice.com/ Mark Saemisch may be able to help you with Castle Rock stocking info. http://www.muskiemarks.com/
Petenwell has been nominally stocked for about 30 years now, beginning with Consolidated Musky Club Inc.(Don Kempen etal) in 1982. In the 80's the fish were raised in what was once the city waste treatment plant. When the club had a surplus, they were used by other clubs, some of which even made it into green bay back then. Now we purchase fish and on even years 300-500 Leech Lake strain make it into Pete, and odd years, Wisconsin River fish. The first leechers were stocked 7 years ago though only a couple have been documented as showing up as captures, with none in any of the spring DNR surveys as of yet....
Todd Forcier has been very instrumental going on 20 years, stocking 300-500 fall fingerlings per year with proceeds from his tournement. Not aware of another annual Musky tournament that sticks that much back into its' local resource. Todd is also a member of the club, and helps with our stocking as well.
The DNR has also sporadically stocked Pete for the past few years, typically ranging from 2,500 fish on surplus years, to none for a couple years.
For sake of comparisons, the flowage has seen somewhere between 800 and 3,000 fish per year over the past decade. At over 23,000 acres and the second largest lake in WI, it is still a low density fishery. If you'd like more specific stocking data from the club, Todd, and the DNR, I'll round it up.
Jason Schillinger
Secretary/Treasurer
Consolidated Musky Club, Inc.
Edited by Reef Hawg 7/6/2012 11:37 PM
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Bassmasters LaCrosse musky question