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Location: Fridley MN | Wondering how guys have done on Pokegama Lake in Grand Rapids. I know its a newer musky water and I am wondering if its worth trying yet. I fish the Mississippi from the Blandin Res. downstream and would like some other waters in the area to try. |
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| Give it 10 years. Let them grow up. |
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Posts: 540
Location: MN | Has it even been stocked yet? |
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Location: Fridley MN | It has been stocked. I found it on the Mn Muskies Inc website. It is listed as a new muskie lake. |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | I don't think you need to give it 10 years but those are still going to be some little teeny babies at this point....I would tend to think 4-5-6 years you might have something worth catching possibly, but not really at this point... |
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Posts: 734
Location: Watertown, MN | First stocking was last fall, and believe it is an alternative year stocking plans, so yeah 10 years for 50's, 5-6 for decent fish, but you will only have 2 year classes to fish. Plus rumored that there was musky already in this body.
Troyz |
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Posts: 897
| 10 years for 50's? It's gotta take longer than that doesn't it? How big were the fish that were stocked? |
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| muskies have been documented to reach 50" in 11 yrs in quite a few MN lakes. |
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Posts: 909
| whynot - 1/28/2010 2:24 PM
10 years for 50's? It's gotta take longer than that doesn't it? How big were the fish that were stocked?
49.5"  |
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| It largely depends on what strain they stocked it with. |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | Troyz. - 1/28/2010 1:12 PM
First stocking was last fall, and believe it is an alternative year stocking plans, so yeah 10 years for 50's, 5-6 for decent fish, but you will only have 2 year classes to fish. Plus rumored that there was musky already in this body.
Troyz
It's not a rumor, they are there. Pokegama is connected to Blandin which has a nice little native population. they are both connected to the mississippi. |
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Posts: 925
| I had this conversation with a buddy of mine who has been bass fishing Pokegama for over 20 years. He was peeed that they stocked muskies and I pulled the old "they are native to that lake already" and he called BS on me. He said neither he or anyone else he knows that fishes that lake has ever caught or seen a musky. Regardless, I'm happy to have a new lake to fish a few years from now. |
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Posts: 742
Location: Grand Rapids MN | Been through the same thing with people saying they are were not in there. Funny how people fish Jay Gould for muskie and there is a short river connecting the two systems. And as mentioned all of these waters are attached by the same river system. There's also Lake trout in Pokegama but people hardly ever catch any but they are in there. Usually a few here and there are caught during the first part of the fishing season. Just because people pitch jigs and spinnerbaits to shallow weeds all summer for bass and don't contact a low density fish in a pretty good size body of water doesn't mean they are not in there. |
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Posts: 112
| I think the biggest sucess story is the fact that it was stocked last fall, despite significant opposition. |
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Posts: 540
| I'm glad it was stocked and if is attached to the missippi river there in there! now there is more : ) |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | Actually it was stocked 2 falls ago in 2008. It'll get stocked again this year in 2010. |
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| It would of been stocked a few years earlier but some geniuses decided to try and get gull stocked also. so poke went on hold until gull got shot down. at least that's what the rumor at the boat landing was a few years ago. |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | It's interesting that they stocked 2000 fingerlings in a 2000 acre lake. Doesn't really seem like enough to build a population from scratch. I wonder how many will survive to adults..? 250? 500? And why take a year off? Doesn't it make more sense to split 1000 each year instead of 2000 at once?
Does anyone have a link that shows their stocking plan for this system or maybe a stratgey plan on introducing ski's into any new systems? It would be interesting to look at. |
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| Either way it's a sweet lake and it's being stocked...better than we had before, I wouldn't be complaining too much. |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | Pokey Gama - 1/29/2010 8:37 AM
Either way it's a sweet lake and it's being stocked...better than we had before, I wouldn't be complaining too much.
Please don't misunderstand my desire for a better understanding of stocking strategy with complaining. I'm thrilled Pokegama is being stocked. |
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Posts: 112
| Shawn, thanks for the correction. I forgot that one year has already passed.
I can't speak for the DNR about their strategy for stocking Pokegema, but the other Itasca county musky lakes have a ratio of 1 adult musky for every 3-4 acres. So, 500-700 adult muskies for Pokegema might be realistic. Depending on the survivial rate, which I think is pretty good for this size, they might be on track to achieve a similar population in Pokegema. |
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Posts: 177
Location: Cohasset, MN | Pokegama is over 6000 acres. Also, the Blandin reservoir fish are primarily (if not all) stocked. |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | stocker - 1/29/2010 6:13 AM
It would of been stocked a few years earlier but some geniuses decided to try and get gull stocked also. so poke went on hold until gull got shot down. at least that's what the rumor at the boat landing was a few years ago.
Sooooo, you're saying that when a different chapter of MI tries to get muskies stocked in a lake then another chapter they're "geniuses"?
The quagmire that resulted with the Gull Lake fiasco eventually led to the formation of the Esocid Long Range Plan which is responsible for the additional 5 lakes that are being proposed right now. Being one of the people who put his summer on hold to see Pokegama stocked only to get hosed by the DNR on Gull I take some aception to you comment. Especially one from a chicken on the internet that probably didn't do squat to see that either lake go stocked. |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | dtaijo174 - 1/29/2010 6:32 AM
It's interesting that they stocked 2000 fingerlings in a 2000 acre lake. Doesn't really seem like enough to build a population from scratch. I wonder how many will survive to adults..? 250? 500? And why take a year off? Doesn't it make more sense to split 1000 each year instead of 2000 at once?
Does anyone have a link that shows their stocking plan for this system or maybe a stratgey plan on introducing ski's into any new systems? It would be interesting to look at.
The DNR bases their stocking based on literal acres (water 15' and shallower). That's why it doesn't seem like a lot of fish. By having lower stocking rates and spacing the year classes the fish seem to do better because they're not competing against as many mouths. Think of it this way, a 10" fish and a 17" fish are going to be foraging in a lot of the same areas but a 10" fish and a 25" fish are going to be after different forage.
You can find the Long Range Plan on the DNR's website. It enplanes the stocking practices and densities. |
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Posts: 21
| Muskie treat is pretty much on. MN manages these types of water for trophies, not numbers. I would expect that they may even decrease the amount stocked, once a strong base population is established. This type of stocking is why you go to MN for the big dawgs and to Wis for the high 30's and low 40's. |
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Posts: 3156
| 10- 11 years for 50 s,,,why not these are first generation stocked fish which will have choice at the size forage they want and weve all seen how first generation stocked fish do in other MN Llakes even the little ones that are less then 500 acres |
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| June 22 2007 it was brought to a vote by the DNR to the esox workshop and Northerns Inc the Darkhouse and Sportsmen for responsible muskie management caused it to be delayed 1 year it had nothing to do with Gull. |
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Posts: 3504
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | I would like to take a second to give Shawn Kellet a bit of overdue thanks for what he has done for MI and the Minnesota program. I've met him only once, but I don't think it would take much to spend some time on the water with him....he's welcome in my boat anytime for the work he has done...
For a guy who sells screws, I'd say he's got a pretty-darn-good head on his shoulders and a definite knack for getting things done muskie-wise.
Thanks again Shawn
Oh...by the way, that C3 reel and rod I purchased from you are still going strong after some 5 years or so...
steve |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | When you need to get things done,..... Shawn K. is the man !
Thanks for your time and working for us regular muskie guys Shawn.
I need to go out on tonka with you sometime this season.
Jerome |
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