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Location: Oswego, IL | Thought I would share this, you may have already read before.
"I have been fortunate to fish for muskies across the United States and Canada for the past eighteen years. I have pursued them in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Kentucky. I have also fished Lake of the Woods in Ontario regularly. During my musky fishing excursions, I have witnessed non-musky anglers catch muskies and kill them on occasion. They would state "These darn muskies are eating all of my walleyes!" This common fear is caused by the large size and nature of fresh water's largest predator. It is true that muskies will grab an occasional walleye or bass, but they truly prefer soft-rayed species like gizzard shad and suckers. Typically muskies will grab a struggling walleye, sauger or bass because it appears to be a dying or wounded fish, and muskies are creatures of opportunity. This appears to be an easy meal for them and it is why they will grab the fish battling on the end of an angler's line. Numerous studies done by Departments of Natural Resources in states like Wisconsin prove that the favorite forage of muskies are non-game fish species.
Most musky population goals in Wisconsin target a population of 0.30 to 0.50 adult fish per acre. Walleye populations are usually at three or more adult fish per acre. A recent graduate thesis project done in Wisconsin examined the food habitats of Wisconsin Muskellunge (Burrie 1997). Thirty-four musky lakes where sampled over a four year period, with 1,092 muskellunge (eight to forty-six inches in length) examined. Only six walleye (0.9% of the diet items) were found in all the samples. It is far more likely walleye, cannibalizing walleye, has a bigger effect on the walleye population than then minimal amount of walleye eaten by musky." I thoroughly agree with this study and I have always said that an adult musky will eat no more bass, walleye, and sauger than adult bass, walleye, and sauger will eat of their own. All of these species mentioned are predators, and all of them will eat what they can catch, regardless if it means they are eating one of their own. The bottom line here is that a number of scientific studies have shown that muskellunge aren't always the "Bad Guy" they are thought to be on a given body of water. What prompted me to write this piece is because of a scenario that occurred this past summer here at Caesar's Creek Lake, located near Dayton. The ODNR has stocked this popular lake with advanced musky fingerlings since 1998, and the fish are now thriving and have been reported to up to forty-two inches in length. I am certain there are a few bigger ones present. I fished this impoundment a number of times this past season and personally caught a good number of muskies between thirty and thirty-seven inches long. There were some local bass fishermen this past summer who declared war on these newcomers and I saw two muskies floating dead with their throats and gills cut. These local bass anglers fish this lake regularly each week and some of these anglers have the same misconceptions that I mentioned above. They are afraid the muskies will ruin the bass and saugeye populations in the lake, and that is simply not true"
Quoted from a Tom Dietz article.
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Amen, Reverend. Amen.
TB |
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Posts: 8781
| You hear it all of the time... I like to point out all the other boats and anglers on the water on any given day and say something along the lines of "You want to know who is eating all the walleyes? Look around. How many of those pople will take home their limit today? And tomorrow and the next day? A musky only eats once about every three days, and usually not anything you'd want in the lake to begin with. How much fish do YOU eat?"
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Posts: 512
| http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=50... |
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| "A musky only eats once about every three days"
Is this a fact or myth? I honestly do not know and would like to hear if this is a factual statement.
Good artical Tom!! |
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Posts: 2024
| Guest - 5/6/2009 2:04 PM
"A musky only eats once about every three days"
Is this a fact or myth? I honestly do not know and would like to hear if this is a factual statement.
Good artical Tom!!
I don't buy that based on watching muskies in my aquarium. I think it depends on prey size more than anything. |
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Location: Oswego, IL | Im not saying this is a for sure FACT, but Its funny though, think if we ate something 30% the size of yourself which most claim a muskie will eat something this size, when do you think you would be hungry again? Example, 1- 180lb man eats a 1- 54lb pizza we would feel sick for days. lol |
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| amen, heres my .02 anyways if they want to wage war why dont they take it out on those carp? they rut up all the veg. eat eggs ect? I dont see why other anglers(non ski) dont see that all eco systems need a top pred. then you here the bass guys bitchin about all the bass being long and skinny, well no #*#* you kill all the pike, and "accendentally" kill the skis. dont get me wrong I enjoy to catch all other species, a bite is a bite but come on. all the carp I catch go in the dumpster or the local hmong/chinese pop will gladly take them off your hands. the other day I saw some kids fishing for carp and they threw everyone back in the drink. I tried to eplaine that they are a non-native species and what they do to the eco system and they responded by saying "why, theres thousands of them" thats my point ya know. the part of mn I live in only has two lakes that are stocked for skis, and one otherone were there is hatchery that sometimes floods and some fry gets in the lake. so call it 2 1/2 lakes and the hundreds of anglers that would kill to have a decent fishery without all the land owner killing them saying the same thing. this spring I saw one landowner on a lake near fairbault that took his pitch fork and killed a 40+" and then later, he killed another. wtf! im mean obvously the lakes in mn are mostly managed for walleyes, and in wi. they are managed for mainly muskys. ive notced a huge increase in haters here in mn, is it just me or what! the funny thing is that its mostly older people, babyboomers ect.... I wonder if its cause most of theyre years angling was when the regs wernt that enforced or what but just an obsevation. one year I got to ride along with the wdnr on one of there electo-sampling boats near madison. and that was a cool experiance and I got a chance to speak with a fisherys biologist all day on these topics and after along bitch session on both of our parts, he said simply that the dnr doesnt have the manpower or resources to deal with these problems. back to the original topic, it take 5-8 yrs for a walleye to be a min. of say 6-8 pounds in a fetile lake with agood forage base and it takes skis what 20 to be 40-45" so why cant people understand that the fish have been living together for thousands of years before people started fishing, and the fishery was probably healthyer then , even with all the slots, regs ect......... well anyway could go on forever but. I wish people would look at the big picture and realize that the number of muskie anglers are on the rise and sooner or later there will hopefully be a turn around in the thinking and ethics of anler.
-e- |
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Location: Oswego, IL | Lets not debate on this, its always a tough one, and really we would all be bitchin to the quire. Just thought that was great stuff, and sure maybe some of us dont believe everything. Look theres a UFO!
Essoxaddict - Exactly!
Guest - No crap, I mean Carp! lol Hate them #*^@ things |
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Posts: 83
| A musky fisherman blames someone who keeps a trophy, and claims he ruins the fishery. A walleye angler cannot blame another walleye fisherman for taking his limit, because he is doing the same. So he blames the musky. We can blame carp if We want to, no one will stick up for the carp.
What is it that always makes us want to blame another fisherman, or native fish?
I'd say nobody should be pointing fingers. Did you have your lawn treated so you didn't have all those dandelions? Do you water it all summer so it stays nice and green. Did you flush that old RX down the drain? We don't want the kids getting into those! What did you do with the left over minnows? That dark colored one must be a different species, never saw one like that before. I'll fix that gas line later, it's just the connection. It only drips a bit, that's all. Vote no on that sewer project, the taxes will kill us. It's only a summer place! My septic is fine unless we get a lot of rain. It's slow out here on the big lake, and the wind's starting to pick. let's put it on the trailer and head for that inland lake, It's only 20 miles, and we've got four hours of daylight to burn. We can be on the water in 45 minutes!
The carp thrives because we introduce it, and give it lots of nutrients and stuff we drag into the lake.
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Posts: 2361
| Let me say this, Tom Dietz is full of it, and doesn't know what he is talking about. Muskies DO EAT ALL THE WALLEYES.
Dietz needs a good rap in the head with my fryin pan. That would straighten him out.
(Walleyes Completing Their Growth Cycle..jpg)
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 Walleyes Completing Their Growth Cycle..jpg (17KB - 48 downloads)
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I must be a muskie. I eat walleyes every chance I get. |
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Posts: 1529
| mmmm battered walleyes and perch. if your a muskie i am a cormorant.
actually here on l. st clair muskies have a good status. they bring millions of dollars to the sportfishing industry.the largest issues for any gamefish is enviroment factors. |
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Posts: 89
Location: Breezy Point, MN | Firstsixfeet,
I guess the pan full of walleyes says it all! LOL!......Typical mentality up north I guess!
Edited by Tom Dietz 5/7/2009 7:15 AM
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Posts: 95
Location: LOTW every chance I get | Umm, I'm pretty sure firstsixfeet was being sarcastic. Maybe could have put a smiley or something to make it clear. |
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| Tom, I'm pretty sure the dude was just joking, you may want to hit your edit button..
Does anyone know how often muskies eat? It is true they only eat once every three days. I have heard others state this, but still don't know if it is fact of fiction? |
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| muskies eat till there full. i have caught muskies that have had baitfish sticking out of there mouths. they still hit baits. when there on theyre on. |
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Posts: 8781
| woodie bait - 5/7/2009 8:03 AM
muskies eat till there full. i have caught muskies that have had baitfish sticking out of there mouths. they still hit baits. when there on theyre on.
And then how long is it before they eat again? I've always heard the three day number, but I never really gave it a lot of thought. How often DO they eat? I know they don't usually eat when I'm on the water but...  |
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Location: Oswego, IL | Hey Tom, didnt think you were a member here bud. Good stuff though! I really enjoyed it. |
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Posts: 158
| I really don't think there is a 'fact or fiction' type answer for when or how often they eat. One muskies eats a big sucker and doesn't eat for a couple days. One eats a bluegill for breakfast and one for dinner. Nature is so variable there isn't anything set in stone. All I know is sometimes one eats around 8:30pm and it is usually a pink cowgirl.
"She falls down the well, eyes go crossed. She gets kicked in the head by a mule, eyes go straight, I don't know."
I really can't stand some of the anti-muskie sentiment that I hear around some Minnetonka walleye circles, but then if I try to splain my point no one believes the 'musky' guy. "Hey guys, musky aren't the bad guy" and they think I am only saying that because that is what I fish. So I really don't even preach to the walleye guys I know anymore. Great article Tom, I will probably forward the link to some of peolpe, it will mean more coming from a different source.
TB |
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Location: Oswego, IL | Hey after viewing that monsterquest show, we should also included in thier diet,
1. A MANS ARM
2. A LITTLE BOYS LEG AND HAND.
TOTALLY HILARIOUS! WTF? |
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Posts: 574
| esoxaddict - 5/7/2009 11:03 AM
woodie bait - 5/7/2009 8:03 AM
muskies eat till there full. i have caught muskies that have had baitfish sticking out of there mouths. they still hit baits. when there on theyre on.
And then how long is it before they eat again? I've always heard the three day number, but I never really gave it a lot of thought. How often DO they eat? I know they don't usually eat when I'm on the water but... ;- )
We caught 2 extra fat fully stuffed pooping all over the boat muskies last year about a 3 days apart. These things must have been gorging for days. Full or not, right meal crosses them I dont know if they can pass it up!!
Would a fat girl pass on that piece of cake cause she had steak, mac n cheese, 3 cheeseburgers, pancakes, shrimpsalad, fudge, waffles and a tuna sandwitch a hour before?
Who knows?? Gotta be more often than every 3 days?? |
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| When a friend and I are at the launch and the walleye guy says your muskies are eating all of my walleyes we just say my muskies are not eating them we are!!!!! |
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Posts: 172
| Name 5 lake that have best popular walleye fishery in minnesota and I promise you in those top 5 will have more than 3 lake that have trophy muskie fishery as well
Lotw
Mille lacs
Lakle vermillion
Cass lake
Leech lake
And they have best of both fishery in minnesota. |
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