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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | With the opener and spawn comming up, what is your take on fishing spawning areas while fish are still spawning?
I have seen guys targeting spawning fish in areas and other guys keeping away from those areas.
I will always try to work areas where fish have completed the spawn.
For example: I like to fish the shallow warmer end of the lake if its a late spawn and the fish are still spawning in the deeper cooler end of the lake(post spawn fish). Or maybe fish the deeper cooler end of a lake if the fish have just begun to spawn in the shallow sides of lakes (pre-spawn fish).
Maybe we should just keep off a lake because it's at that temp and go hit another lake for a week to let them complete the reproduction cycle.
Or - it's legal, fair game, they are only fish.
What is you take on spawning and muskie fishing? |
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Posts: 2894
Location: Yahara River Chain | Mike, please answer me this. Are the fish that are spawning able to reproduce? Or are they just going through the process and no offspring ever hatch?
Many times, when this happens (open season & spawning together) the muskies are not able to hatch due to variables that terminate the eggs. If this is not the case the DNR should step in and place a closed season on the fish during the spawn. However, if they can't reproduce then I would say that it should be ok to target spawning fish. After all we do release them. Or are you thinking that it would to too much stress on the fish with spawn & capture? Something like fishing for them during the summer when the water gets 80 degrees in surface temps? |
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Posts: 2865
Location: Brookfield, WI | Here comes the rookie question. From research, I know when they spawn. Mike talked about fishing non-spawning areas if fish are still spawning, but how do you tell if they're done? Can you see them? I'm assuming when they're finished they don't just kick back and have a cigarette.
Kevin
The plan sometimes requires humbling questions. |
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Posts: 32884
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Yes, you can see them in many cases. Usually a couple males paired up with a larger female, and cruising the shallows. Mike, I think the reason we open later up here is the NR in many lakes, and the desire to protect those fish through that process. I wouldn't think it's going to hurt much if you can get a female to hit, but my experience in the past when our Muskie season opened the first Saturday in May is I caught mosty post spawn females and males. |
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Posts: 1310
Location: Washington, PA | I think fish spawn at differant times. I've seen fish spawn from early march, and I've been on the same waters and seen spawning fish in May, and that's in PA, where obviously it's warmer. Basically, if I see fish spawning, I don't bother with them, other than that, I really don't worry about it. |
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Posts: 1265
Location: Stevens Point, Wi. | Since they're not bedding spawners, I don't believe it would affect spawning success, unless the angler injured or kept the fish. My guess! |
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Posts: 2012
| good luck catching them when they are ACTUALLY spawning. |
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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | I've only seen one fish that was actually paired up, hit a bait, and it was the male. Just like a man, go through the mating ritual, and then in the middle of it, loose your attention because of food. LOL
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Location: Athens, Ohio | I don't really have much experience with fishing spawning muskies. I did, however, quit my membership with B.A.S.S. after a series of articles in Bassmaster magazine, where they tried to rationalize spring bass tournies where bass are caught right off the beds. Perhaps this is a good example comparison of the two sports.
The Bassmaster article talked about well-known pros taking spawning females off the beds, for their weights would sometimes determine the difference between big and smaller pots of money. The articles said it was no problem, since once the bass were released after weigh-in, they would 'just go somewhere else to mate'. Bull.
You can't tell me that you can take a spawning female fish, full of eggs, toss her in a livewell, drive her around the lake all day, weigh her in & wave her around a bit for photos, then expect she'll still be 'in the mood'. At the very least, she has little chance of finding her way back to her original home, and whatever habitat she does find may not be conducive to producing a good hatch.
The articles concluded with the assumption that targeting spawning bass for tourneys was not apparently a problem, since the lakes where that is done show little or no negative impact on bass populations. My question was, how do you know what the population would have been like if you'd left them alone? That's why I like muskie fishing. Any fish caught is, more times then not, released at or near the spot of the catch. rant over, Secrest out. m |
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Posts: 28
| I don't really think that catching musky around spawning time is all that bad if you C+R everything. It's not like they build nests or guard their eggs and hatchlings like bass do anyways! |
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Posts: 203
| If or when I see males running the gauntlet in the shallows it triggers me to start fishing the first breakline off the flats or spawning areas in your neck of the woods. For me anyway, those males getting worked up and moving again tells me to look elsewhere for the girlies.
A lot of times you can get those males to eat or follow a lure. I'm interested in the other sex.
Is it May yet? |
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| I can recall on Kinkaid people catching a few females that were covering the bottom of their boat with eggs...so they will bite...but they don't reproduce there, so it never bothered me... |
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Posts: 723
| yeah, if you've ever witnessed spawning taking place, these fish usually have one thing on their mind. When they are done, usually rest and replenishment. Have thrown a few baits at some on pelican one time, but to no avail (obviously) these fish weren't interested.
Now, prespawn fish will hammer anything in their path, Postspawn fish alike. So you have to decide like said above, do you fish them before or after? Its pretty #*^@ cool watching a big girl getting pushed around by some scrappy males. typical life situation, I saw it at a bar lastnight. |
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