Posts: 1293
Location: Hayward, Wisconsin |
Massachusetts Wildlife Stocks Tiger Muskies
| November 3, 2015
This fall, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife was able to receive 1,800 tiger muskies (Tiger Muskellunge) to stock in Massachusetts waters from the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife Hackettstown State Fish Hatchery, as part of a cooperative exchange program. As part of this cooperative program, MassWildlife exchanges landlocked salmon from its Palmer Hatchery for Northern Pike and Tiger Muskellunge.
The first nine-hundred tiger muskies, averaging 13 inches long and weighing about a half-pound apiece were stocked in Lake Chauncy (Westborough), A-1 Site (Westborough), and Spy Pond (Arlington) in late October. An additional nine-hundred tiger muskies were received in early November and were stocked in Hampton Ponds (Westfield/Southwick) and Pontoosuc Lake (Lanesboro). It will take 3 to 5 years for these fish to reach the 28-inch minimum size limit.
Tiger Muskellunge are sterile hybrids created by crossing muskellunge, Esox masquinongy, largest of all the esocids, with Northern Pike, Esox lucius. The first stocking of Northern Pike in the Commonwealth occurred in Berkshire County in 1950, while the first stocking of Tiger Muskellunge took place in 1980 when MassWildlife personnel stocked 5,000 tiger muskies from the Pleasant Mount Hatchery in Pennsylvania. The Massachusetts record for Tiger Muskellunge was set in 2001 by James Lambert with a 27 lb. 0 oz. tiger muskie caught in Pontoosuc Lake, Pittsfield.
© 2015 The Fishing Wire.
|
