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Posts: 103
| I was out fishing right before dark last night and I was throwing a weagle when there was an explosion in front of the trolling motor. So I go and look and see a flash of something but did not get a good look. I then went back to reeling in the weagle when I look down and there is about a mid thirty inch muskie looking straight at me with his nose about a half an inch under the water. He was flaring his fins and glaring at me like he wanted to kill me. He did that for about 10 seconds and then took off. I then reeled in my weagle and threw it at him and he followed it right to the boat and went into the 8 for a couple seconds then disapeared. Has anyone ever had this happen before?
Then Late this afternoon I went out fishing before work and was trolling bucktails over 25 feet of water when the clicker went on my reel, so I reeled in the rod I had in my hands and grabbed the rod from the rod holder. When I grabbed it I knew I had a small pike on because it didn't fight at all, so I started reeling in when all of a sudden there was a lot of weight on the other end. So I started cranking it in. It felt like a log coming in because it never fought or anything until I got it to the boat and saw that it was about a 40 inch Musky that had a 20 inch pike t-boned and right behind the Musky was another Musky about the same size tagging along. I got the Musky to the boat and was about to net him when he made a run to the bottom. I then slowly tried to bring him back up when he let go of the pike. Then both Muskies chased the pike around at the boat for a minute and then disapeared. I let the pike swim around by the boat for a little bit but they never came back. |
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Posts: 1296
Location: WI | Lol. In July I had one follow a surface bait up and then get mesmerized by the trolling motor. It was on and the fish still snuggled up to the shaft of the motor, fins sticking out of the water, until the blade probably spooked it and as it swam under the boat I heard it slide along the hull. |
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Posts: 1168
| Kleptoparasitism. It's a pretty interesting deal that's fairly common in birds but some fish do exhibit this behavior. With some of the things I've encountered myself and this anecdote here I am beginning to think that there are times when muskies will do this. Not entirely sure if it is a common trait but if the conditions are right I can be convinced that it does happen perhaps more than we realize. So if this is what they are doing, how do we capitalize on it? |
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| Have a rod in each hand. |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | ulbian - 9/11/2008 12:51 AM
Kleptoparasitism. So if this is what they are doing, how do we capitalize on it?
Bingo. |
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Posts: 8842
| I've had a few fish come up after a bait and spook, only to have a bigger one that was behind them eat the lure. I've only seen it a few times, but both times the fish that spooked was smaller. One other time I had two fish follow, the bigger one was in front.
So in the case of muskies, maybe the bigger fish gets the prey either way?
About the only way I can think of to capatilize on this is when someone hooks a fish, throw a bait right at it in case there's another one hanging around. But then what do you do if it works? Two fish on, one net, nobody to net either one... That could turn into a circus pretty quickly.
Edited by esoxaddict 9/11/2008 1:16 PM
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Posts: 1168
| Two fish on at the same time with no one to net it...well, it's just like fishing alone and netting one. The fish that is ready first gets netted first, then to the 2nd one.
I could be getting my stories crossed up, (Sled, help me out here) but if I remember right, the 50 that Sled caught a few years back in the Rhinelander League chased off a smaller fish. Could be wrong on that...but has that happened to anyone? Follow by a smaller fish only to be chased off by a larger one? THAT is what I understand to be kleptoparasitism as it would apply to muskies.
This might be a bit nutty but what about hanging a decoy below your boat? A muskie is following your bait into the boat, no gills flared, no look of death in it's eyes, and it sees this other "muskie" or predator near your bait. Would that be something that 'could' trip that following fish's trigger enough to get her to commit?
Edited by ulbian 9/11/2008 5:58 PM
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | ulbian - 9/11/2008 5:57 PM
I could be getting my stories crossed up, (Sled, help me out here) but if I remember right, the 50 that Sled caught a few years back in the Rhinelander League chased off a smaller fish.
in that case yeah, but it went one further in-that the smaller fish ate the weagle and then the big fish did ... too |
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Posts: 72
| All this happened after how many brews? Only Kidding |
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| I was jigging for panfish using wax worms on my favorite lake in Vilas County and i caught a small perch,while i was reeling it in, a walleye about 2 lbs grabbed it and out of no where came about a 10 lb. Pike that just nailed the walleye ,as i was fighting all 3 fish my partner grabbed the net and just before he scooped a 54-56 inch Musky came from under the boat and T-Boned the Pike! The Musky took the pike straight to the bottom and just peeled all the line off my Shakespeare ultra light! My partner Mike looked at me and said,"Did that really just happen?". I shook my head yes in Disbelief. True Story......... |
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Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | I can't believe a guy who gets so upset about the use of bobbers would even be caught dead jigging? |
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Posts: 968
Location: N.FIB | Cold Front Kid - 9/12/2008 12:19 AM
YOU NEED TO START WEARING A HEAD CAM
I was jigging for panfish using wax worms on my favorite lake in Vilas County and i caught a small perch,while i was reeling it in, a walleye about 2 lbs grabbed it and out of no where came about a 10 lb. Pike that just nailed the walleye ,as i was fighting all 3 fish my partner grabbed the net and just before he scooped a 54-56 inch Musky came from under the boat and T-Boned the Pike! The Musky took the pike straight to the bottom and just peeled all the line off my Shakespeare ultra light! My partner Mike looked at me and said,"Did that really just happen?". I shook my head yes in Disbelief. True Story......... |
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Posts: 785
| I seen about a 42 do the same to a small pike this year, it just hung on till it got close to the boat them it blasted off and the lure broke loose. Having a follow at the same time would be interesting though. Oh I did catch a 44.5 about 50 yds down the shoreline from the other... so if those fish wouldof been just a little closer it could of happened. |
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Posts: 1168
| So there are multiple people who have had this happen to them. Instead of just chalking it up to "weirdness" what can be learned from this behavior?
Would you come back on a muskie that charged another muskie, pike, walleye, etc.? If you saw a muskie t-bone a pike like this, how strongly would you consider changing baits to match a pike pattern? Is the decoy idea just random craziness or is there some plausibility with it?
Do a search on kleptoparasitism and look into it a bit. There's elements of it that if understood to some degrees, I think they could be beneficial to our pursuit of muskies. Plus it's just dang interesting stuff whether or not it can be applied to fishing. |
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Posts: 8842
| Ulbian, if there's two muskies in one area, I'm for sure going back. First to see if I can catch either or both of them, but also because there's likely to be more. More importantly, to find out what it is about that spot that would make multiple fish want to use it.
As for using a decoy? Well, if it's a really good one I'd suspect that fish may turn off your bait and try to eat it. Which would be cool, but not. As far as an effective way to take advantage of kleptoparasitism?
Hmmm... In most species, the dominant predators eat first. So when you catch a fish and there are multiple fish, it stands to reason the big one will be first caught. Maybe switch to a smaller bait whenever you catch a fish and work through the spot again? |
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Posts: 83
| They might not be trying to steal a meal, I've seen and filmed multiple instances of a musky looking out for the welfare of his kind. Even more bizarre- I've seen these fish befriend, and look after walleye. Got it on film.
Getting back to the thread- I was on a fly in in Northern Ont. fishing for pike with a five of diamonds. An average pike chased it to the boat. A few seconds later I heard a thumping at the bow. The pike had grabbed the tail of the yellow anchor rope that was dangling a few inches above the surface and gotten stuck in the poly fibers. |
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Jim- A new Pike lure?????????????? No hooks needed!
Al
Edited by ESOX Maniac 9/12/2008 7:31 PM
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Posts: 1296
Location: WI | Somewhere a long time ago I read about someone pike fishing in Canada. They stated that if they saw more than one big pike in a small area, it was almost a sure thing that they would catch one of them.
Maybe it's a jealousy thing...ha! |
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Posts: 37
| What a story |
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Posts: 462
Location: Antioch, IL | jimkinner - 9/12/2008 6:34 PM
The pike had grabbed the tail of the yellow anchor rope that was dangling a few inches above the surface and gotten stuck in the poly fibers.
I've seen lures, intended for gar, made out of this stuff with no hooks. Sorry to get this post side tracked. To get back on track a little. I'm not sure if I agree with the big fish always eats first theory. Having worked in the wholesales saltwater fish business for several years I have never seen anything that would justify this (taking into consideration this is all in a captive environment) - Also what I've seen smallmouth fishing makes me question this. Many times I have caught mid sized fish and have had several much larger fish swarm around the hooked fish. (sometimes eating the crayfish being puked up by the hooked fish other times doing nothing and on the good times being hooked by the guy who is supposed to be handing me the net  )
Edited by Fish and Whistle 9/25/2008 1:23 PM
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Posts: 1769
Location: Algonquin, ILL | Just last week while at LOTW I caught a 18 inch Snot Rocket ( Pike ) after finally getting the Cowgirl out of it's jaws ( Had the entire rear Treble in it's face ) I held it in place in the water until it could swim away on it's own then just as I release it a mid 40's Ski take a swipe at it while my hand was still in the water, Glad it missed my hand as well as the Snot Rocket
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Posts: 576
Location: nappanee IN | friday night at the club outing this "good ole boy" decided he was going to give us an earful of what he thought of muskie fisherman.
his wife was telling him to go and he was "lit up" and as he left i noticed he had a stringer of gills still hanging from the side of the boat while it was on the trailer!
we about laughed our heads off, bet they were dry when he got home  and me with no camera!! |
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