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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | I checked with the DNR today. Out of the three nets they had out they netted 24 fish. The biggest was 40" and it was ripe! They are already spawning with 47-48 degree water temps. They said most of the fish were between the 32-35" range. Hopefully it will soon be over and they will get even hungrier than before! |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | Thanks for that report Vince.
Your a good man for helping others with your reports.
Keeping up with all the variables on your home waters just showes your always in tune with whats going on. I wish I had time to come down and fish with you. Keep up the good work putting clients on fish. |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | Some fish are going through the love dance as we speak, but not a huge percentage of them yet.
Mostly small females (40 and less) are setting up to spawn now, and mostly on the main body of water. No fish caught in the channel net.
Most, if not almost all of the big fish, and the majority of the fish have not yet begun to go through the motions yet. I did sneek up on two fish today, one around 39-40 and the other around 36. They were up in 1 foot of water and getting ready to make a little love.
Once the water temps get above 53 and stays there, and continues to rise it will be love making time for sure. |
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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | Thanks for the comments Mr. Koepp! I will be trying to keep up on this as much as I can. I will be out helping the DNR next week at least once and maybe twice with the rearing of these mighty beasts.
The DNR has 3 nets set out. One in the no wake section right after you go under the road and before you get out to the main lake. The 24 fish came from the other two nets that are both located near Echo Bay out on the main lake. I got off the water around 12:30 and the temps were between 48 and 49. I am sure it heated up more with all the sun we got. |
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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | The DNR netted 20+ fish today again. The largest was 43" and they had 5 or 6 over 40". Th elarger fish came out of the net in the no wake area. Some of the females were ripe and some were not. The water temps keep increasing with all the sunshine we are getting. |
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Posts: 8782
| This is sort of off topic but I'm hoping one of you knows the answer. What is it about that particular lake ecosystem that makes natural reproduction not work? Is it that the eggs aren't viable, or that the environment (bottom structure) is not conducive to their survival?
Does the water warm up too fast? Do the eggs suffocate in the mud? Do they just all fall to predation?
The way I understand it is in southern lakes there is no natural reproduction because the eggs don't survive. The fish still spawn and the eggs are still fertilized, though, right? |
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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | You are correct esox. The fish go through all the motions and the eggs to get fertilized. The bottom structure keeps them from going any further. I am pretty sure that there is some natural reproduction but it is on such a small scale that it has no effect. |
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Posts: 8782
| It would seem then, that we could fix that. If its purely providing the right structure, than it shouldn't be difficult. O2 content is another story, however.
Surely someone has thought of this before though... |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | With the amount of siltation in Webster, you will never change the structure, especially in the main areas that they prefer for the spawn. Been fishing Webster longer then the Musky have been there, siltation in some areas has always been a problem. |
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Posts: 1462
Location: Davenport, IA | I was fishing a northern IL lake yesterday and didnt' have a single follow and saw a bunch of muskie fry...so the water was 50 degree and some had already spawned. |
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Posts: 2894
Location: Yahara River Chain | Schuler, you sure that they were muskie and not pike? I would suspect that if they were muskies - if newly hatched would have egg sack on them yet. If it were pike they would have spawned as soon as the ice was off or when the lakes were still very cool. |
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Posts: 170
Location: Valparaiso , Indiana | I seen several muskies today spawning in the backwaters and also heard DNR found some muskies that had already spawned out !
We fish for 6 hours and only had 3 follows all in about 40 feet of water...... LOTS of baitfish hanging out over the deep water right now......I can't wait until they are done spawning the fishing is so S L O W!!!! |
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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | The small hatched fish that you saw might also be a type of carp. As fingerlings both the muskies and this other type of fish look the same with a clear background and black/dark spots. I am going to try and brave the weather tomorrow...wish me luck.lol
Edited by Vince Weirick 4/6/2006 2:47 PM
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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | Met up with the DNR today out on the lake. They netted a 43 and 46" female that were ripe. With the eggs from those they are about 50% of their goal for the rearing of eggs. Not many in the net in the no wake area. They are not going to put out any more nets and will keep the remaining nets in the same places. With the warm temps all next week...hopefully the fish will improve by next weekend. |
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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | Fish are still going through the process. The next 10 days are supposed to be in the upper 60s to mid 70s! It will start picking up VERY soon! We managed to boat a VERY fat 38" fish Saturday. I will post a picture tomorrow. We ended up seeing about 15 fish...all very nice with a mid 40 come from under the boat and just miss the lure! Very exciting! I will be out helping the DNR tomorrow morning with the PIT tag study and netting survey.
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 2006 photos.jpg (95KB - 106 downloads)
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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | Hope you enjoy the picture. I was out with the DNR today. They captured 22 fish and 8 females were ripe. Before what they caught today...they had 1.2 million of the 1.8 million eggs they need for the hatchery. Today was the most ripe females they have caught yet. I spoke with Jed Pearson (Indiana DNR Biologist) and asked how we were doing with estimates of the 6 fish per acre...he said he had originally thought it would drop but from what has been caught and the low amount of recaptures he thinks we still have the 6 fish per acre! |
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Posts: 469
Location: Downers Grove, IL | Thanks for the update Vince. That fish is just too #*^@ pretty. Have you gotten the weagles wet?
thedude |
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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | Have not gotten them wet yet...very close to that part of the season though. Backwater temps today were 60! |
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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | Main lake water temps on Webster were 57+. The DNR has gotten all the eggs they need and have pulled the nets as of today. |
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Posts: 170
Location: Valparaiso , Indiana | What started as a bad day ended up being a good afternoon. Jason & I arrived on Webster today about 2:00pm only to find out, in our hurry to get to the lake on such a nice day, that we forgot the boat keys at home!! Which totally sucks especially when you drive an hour and a half to get to the lake!!!!! Lucky for us Jason's girlfriend, Dena, was kind enough to come all the way out to Webster after she got off work to bring us our keys! When we finally started fishing about 4:00 we found the muskies to be quite active! We had 7 follows from 4 to 5:30 all on tippy darters in water 15 to 25 feet. At 6:05 Dena hooked into her biggest musky yet a fat 38 in musky in 20 feet of water on a Bulldawg.
We would like to congratulate Dena and say thanks for bringing us our keys, I guess it was worth the trip!!!
With all the warm weather the fishing is really starting to pick up. Over the last weekend we had over 30 follows on sat & sun and boated a fat 31 incher on sun.
Also today Chae guided one of his clients to a 38 incher and had several other follows as well !!
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