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| For those Muskies Inc Chapters that are doing thier own stocking - how long are you holding them and how much does it cost per fish to feed them until that age/size?
Thanks,
Red |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | I believe most clubs buy them from a place such as Minnesota Musky farm and let them do all the work of feeding and delivery. When they get to the ramp that is where it may varie between clubs with some just letting them go at the ramp, and others transporting them to predetermined spots releasing a specific number at each spot. |
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Kevin- There are a lot of club's that do quite a bit more than that, including having their own rearing ponds. Ask Mike's Extreme (Milwaukee), Todd Forcier (WI Rapids), and Jo Musky (Green Bay/Winnibego), ToddM (FRV) . Don't sell the club's short they put in a lot of bucks + manpower.. I think the Twin Cities guy's also have there own rearing ponds.
Good Luck in 2006!
Al |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | Kevin- There are a lot of club's that do quite a bit more than that, including having their own rearing ponds. Ask Mike's Extreme (Milwaukee), Todd Forcier (WI Rapids), and Jo Musky (Green Bay/Winnibego), ToddM (FRV) . Don't sell the club's short they put in a lot of bucks + manpower.. I think the Twin Cities guy's also have there own rearing ponds. "
Al, did you misread the question along with misreading my post?? I stated that MOST clubs just buy the fish to be stocked from a place like Minnesota Musky Farm and let that company handle the rearing of the fish along with the delivery to the lake. If there is a club or two that has their own rearing ponds, then they would not be "most". AS for what else the MI Clubs do, Well, I fish with Todd M quite a bit and know the FRV chapter does not have their own rearing ponds, as a matter of fact, Todd does not handle FRV's stocking program, Steve Crook does. Last time I fished with Steve(couple weeks ago) he was talking how the FRV club would be buying PIT tags for the dnr and possibly helping put the PIT tags on the fish, so no....no actual stocking of Musky by the FRV chapter. I am currently a member of the Webster Lake Musky Club(Chapter #49), a former member of Southside Musky Hawks(chapter#7) and former member of the Hoosier Musky Hunters(chapter #42) so know what else the clubs do. When I was last a member of Southside they had just started stocking Evergreen I believe, and purchased the fish from somewhere and had them delivered... so no feeding of the fish..etc... As a member of the Hoosier club I actually helped stock the barbee chain, fish were purchased from Minnesota Musky Farm and delivered to the lake, where we put them in our livewells and distributed them throughout the chain to specific spots marked on a map for us.. Now I beleive the Hoosier Club purchases items for the DNR to use in their netting surveys such as nets and Pit tags... The Webster Club has its own stocking program too, but no rearing ponds, rather they just purchase the fish from some place like minnesota Musky farm and have them delivered... So, in short, to answer Red's question, most clubs do not raise their own fish, so do not hold them for any amount of time or have to feed them. I am unsure about the cost to purchase them as it can vary depending on how many you buy, that cost can be anywhere from a low of $8 to maybe $14 per fish based on prices from maybe two years ago. Clubs that have their own rearing ponds the cost would be different, but they are not, once again Al, covered by my statement of "most clubs". Attached is a picture of Musky in my livewell from the Barbee Chain stockings.
Attachments
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 '98 Musky Stocking.jpg (55KB - 83 downloads)
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Kevin- I apologize if you took this as a personal attack- The question was pretty specifc "For those Muskies Inc Chapters that are doing thier own stocking - how long are you holding them and how much does it cost per fish to feed them until that age/size? "
Forget the FRV- - poor selection on my part, i.e., listing FRV & Todd M as a reference. I do know the others have their own rearing programs.
Your use of the word "most" was my issue. I don't think that's fair to the club's that do go a bit further. , i.e., you generalize/lump all clubs as having minimal involvement-> just go buy'em & dump them in the lake. It appears you are responding for all Chapter's and not just your own. Ok- I'm sorry I wounded your ego with my petty interpretation of your post!
Al
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | I don't think Todd Forcier does any rearing, though his tournament is a one of a kind deal that generates money for stocking. Todds hard work does not go unnoticed arounf here, as the fishery is better because of his tourney. Todd has donated $$ to our club over the years for feeding the fish we raise, and applaud him for the effort. I also just received his application to join the club, so we will be putting him to work at the ponds very soon!!!!
That said, our club(Consolidated Musky Club Inc.) has been rearing fish and stocking the WI River and Petenwell Flowage since 1981. There were no Muskies to speak of, in the river here before a few club pioneers(Don Kempen was the driving force) got permission from the city of Wisconsin Rapids to use the old waste treatment facility to raise fish. In our heyday, we raised upwards of 15,000 fish per year and stocked not only the river, but also stocked heavily in Green Bay(the bigger barred fish that were showing up for awhile were some of the ones from our stockings).
Due to liability reasons, the city filled in the treatment plant troughs, and we now raise our fish in a local farmers ponds. Though we do not get near the success, we do raise close to 500 fish per year to 10-13" from fry. We start with 2250 fry, so the success ratio is pretty close to what alot of the hatcherys do. The biggest problem we are faced with, is man hours, and feed source. When we get the fry(pinky nail length), they eat pin head minnows that are tough to come by on a good year, and almost impossible to find during a cool spring(hope this year proves different). Once the fish get to be 1.5-2", we can start trapping minows, and then buy feed. It is expensive, but through brat frys, personal donations, and generous minnow dealers, we can usually make it. It is a bit cheaper to raise the fish, but not by a big margin when one takes the labor into account.
Now that we are also stocking Mississippi strain fish into Petenwell Flowage, we will be needing all of the extra support we can get. We are a very small club(numbers dwindling some due to attrition) with a tight budget. We encourage anyone who fishes the area, to join our club($5.00 per year), stop in at our functions, and stop out to the ponds to see the operation and shoot the breeze. We are also hoping the the bigger tournaments will chip in to support our cause, as without our stocking and no known natural reproduction occuring, the Petenwell fishery would suffer greatly. We know that we will never be able to stock the numbers into the system that we used to, but with some DNR stocking taking place, Catch and release taking hold, the increased size limit, and help from concerned anglers, we can sustain this fishery!!
If anyone would like further info./application/yearly agenda for the club, or would like to see the history document I put together for the local travel bureau and tournament officials, drop me an email.
Good luck in 06!!
Jason D. Schillinger
Secratary Treasurer - Consolidated Musky Club Inc.
[email protected]
Edited by Reef Hawg 4/7/2006 5:28 PM
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