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Posts: 16
Location: north metro | I am sure you all are getting the twitch to get out. we have 6 boats going out. 2 on deer 2 on bone and 2 on yellow. I will be out with my boat on deer for saturday and then which ever lake thats been moving the most fish is where i will be sunday. anyone thinking about going out at midnight because of this warm weather? feel free to join us for a few beers and lunch on shore around noon if your on deer for opener. big green over tan lund with a 150 vmax. usually i stick with the smaller bucktails for opener weekend, but with this goofy spring we have been having i plan on maybe chuckin show girls and jr cowgirls or some decent size shriver spinnerbaits and letting my big daddy and phantoms hit the water everyone once and awhile. whats everyones plans for opener? anyone going to be fishing in the area? i love getting big groups of boats all together ready to pounce on fish that have been moving all day and then as soon as some weather changes or pressure moves or moonrise is approaching start the stalking and watch 3 or 4 fish get boated and then back into the water for the next weekend. love to hear everyones plans for opener! happy fishing! "catch the momma get a picture, let her go.. catch the grandma get a picture then get a lax" catch and release muskie anglers only please! if your a muskie killer get out of this topic. |
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Posts: 576
Location: Elk Grove Village, IL & Phillips, WI | It's still a month away!! Unless you are planning on "pike" fishing this weekend. |
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Posts: 16
Location: north metro | im not into that. im waiting for opener. a month is no time my friend. 31 days is alot less then 70 which is when i started counting down
Edited by DKMKmuskyman 4/27/2010 11:40 AM
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Posts: 576
Location: Elk Grove Village, IL & Phillips, WI | Cool! I started counting as soon as the season closed. Long, long winter! I got the twitch bad too! |
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Posts: 60
Location: st. croix county, wisconsin | i am so pumped! I started counting down at 100. only 32 days left! |
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Posts: 61
| We aLways hit southern wi for opener. Pumped up! Been counting for 90 days... Kinda like jailtime sentence.... No musky fishing for the next 90 days. We are not on those lakes but good luck! And good fishing to all who make it out!
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Posts: 929
Location: Rhinelander. | yeah I think pike fishing sounds fun. Isn't it a shame so many anglers need to to do that to enjoy the season we used to have. |
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Posts: 32935
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | No, Don, it isn't. |
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Posts: 929
Location: Rhinelander. | It is im my book as anglers in the southern 2/3rds of the state get to fish a month earlier and many times they are fishing for muskies during the spawn. Yet here in the north we can't fish musky in the month of may. As you know its not the females seldom bite during spawn so its males your catching. I've asked many of the older guides and very few can recall ever catching a muskie with eggsin her. Yes it happens but not often. I'd even be happy with it if they made May up here strictly c& r. Mosy are returned by muskie fishermen but I guess everyone worries about the other anglers keeping one. I'd love to see it reopen the 1st sat in may
Edited by Don Pfeiffer 5/1/2010 1:21 PM
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| The fish need the rest during the spawn. Why would you want to harrass a fish that is already highly stressed? |
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Location: Latitude 41.3016 Longitude 88.6160 | Baby Mallard - 5/1/2010 1:35 PM
The fish need the rest during the spawn. Why would you want to harrass a fish that is already highly stressed?
I'm 100% with U.
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Posts: 1030
Location: APPLETON, WI | PIKEMASTER - 5/1/2010 2:06 PM Baby Mallard - 5/1/2010 1:35 PM The fish need the rest during the spawn. Why would you want to harrass a fish that is already highly stressed? I'm 100% with U. +1 Me too. |
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Posts: 619
| Baby Mallard - 5/1/2010 1:35 PM
The fish need the rest during the spawn. Why would you want to harrass a fish that is already highly stressed?
agree, STOP the harassment |
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Posts: 32935
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Stop what harassment? Season in N WI doesn't open until end of May. Most of southern WI the Muskies spawn, but there's little or no NR, and the muskies are usually done spawning in advance of season anyway. |
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| My comment was towards Don wanting to open the northern region of WI the first week of May. Nothing wrong with fishing in southern WI right now w/ the season being open.
Edited by Baby Mallard 5/1/2010 8:47 PM
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Posts: 32935
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I was wondering what SR meant. |
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Location: Rhinelander. | Here is my point as well as I can make it I think. I'm not looking for an arguement on this. I'm just saying it would be nice to have it opened early again. I can't show you data that backs this up and I don't think anyone can show me data that is has done wonders for the fishery. Been fishing here many many years and I don't see a change except that we have a shorter season. The later start was put in years ago for mainly one reason. It was to stop all the other anglers from keeping muskies that they caught while fishing for bass,walleye and panfish. That was the main reason. if you were at the meeting back then you'd recall it. A c7r release month solves that problem.
Disturb them is not if a reason. You have so many boats out there allready fishing that a few more musky anglers won't be that much added pressure. You have your choice if you'd want to fish an early oprner or not. Some of us would and some may not. If you made it a strictly c7r season in may it would eliminate the main reason it was changed.
You also need to know that those females rarely bite during spawn or just after. Yes you see them sometime swimmining around but sledom catch them. What your catching are the males and there are plenty of them in most lakes. C7r does work and those smaller males get put back in by most.
Here in the north we have to watch the spearing of them. Then we have to wait another month extra to fish them. Then in the fall we have a much shorter season. It would really be nice to be able to fish them legally rather then have to say we are fishing for walleys or northerns. it just seems like a mixed up mess that could be easily changed. its opening weekend here and many of he lakes have seem a small amount of pressure and some more. Opener up here is not like it use to be. Those fish are not to disturbed. If you talk to most people up here they will tell you how the opening weekend does draw nearly as many as it use to. Muskie anglers are a very small percentage of all the anglers that fish up here.
So as not to start an arguement here on this and get it frozen if you pm with your response I'll reply if I have a reponse.
Edited by Don Pfeiffer 5/2/2010 9:54 AM
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Posts: 1764
Location: Ogden, Ut | It's somewhat unfortunate Don, but you probably won't find any data to support an early opening any more than you would find data to support keeping it closed during the spawn. Angling during the spawn is a highly contentious and divisive issue among anglers. It is by far more of a social issue than a biological one. And an issue that most fisheries managers won't touch due to the public outcry generated when fish are allowed to be targeted during that time in their life history. My feeling has pretty much always been that seasons do more for social expectations and local economies (creating an 'opening day' event) than they do for fish populations. Admittedly, that has been an opinion formed and derived from where I have worked, your mileage may vary. Yeah, I'll probably take a goodly amount of heat for that from a bunch of people that just 'know' it's not that way, but I'm speaking from experience rather than some shroud of 'know-it-all-ness' that seems to envelop folks that, as previously alluded to, have a philosophical stake in the issue.
Certainly there are systems where it is beneficial to allow the spawn to ensue w/o additional disturbances, but many muskie fisheries are completely supported by stocking and even most of the ones sustained wholly or partly by natural reproduction have a limiting factor to recruitment other than spawning success. My guess is that very few muskie fisheries are limited by the act of spawning itself, it is more often something else that limits recruitment.
I guess it's just another in a long list of issues and practices that have more clout in the sliding scale of ethics arena than in the biological one. Seasons, live bait, multiple lines, snagging, spearing, trolling, length limits, barbless hooks, etc. generally don't have easily observed population level effects on muskies, but all invoke some sort of immediate gut reaction regarding their level of public acceptability. You probably won't get a room full of angler to agree on even the short list of issues I brought up despite their relatively minimal impact on the resource in many cases.
Anyway, have fun fishing when you can, and don't worry about it too much when you can't.
S.
Edited by sorenson 5/2/2010 10:30 AM
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Posts: 32935
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I agree with Sorno. The same issue has been batted around regarding Largemouth bass, and it's been pretty much proven that fishing them during the spawn C&R has little to no effect on recruitment. I'd bet almost anything that would hold true with Muskies, especially since they are 'broadcast spawners' and by my experience much harder to catch during the act.
The idea that they are 'tired' and more susceptible to a percentage increase in angling mortality might have merit, but I can't find anything in the literature to support or refute that idea.
The reason I support a closed season up here is because that's what the majority of my peers want, and it's what's done in MN as well. I don't mind the wait, there's plenty of other fish to catch.
I argued several times it is not a critical biological issue, but then, neither is trolling. It's currently what's accepted up here, and when a recent attempt to step on the process legislatively (bad idea all the way around) failed miserably, it became very clear to me the majority prefers seasons as they are.
To be honest, Don has been sparring with me quite a bit here over the last year, and I'll spar back when I get a chance.
All this said, I would think there would be more concern over the explosion of Largemouth Bass up here, and the fact they are over protected by size limit and season to the point where's there's no question in my mind about the impact on NR for walleyes, and certainly a negative impact on Muskies as well. When I see literally dozens on the Studio icefishing on lakes where I used to see none, and the creel and surveys show decreasing NR for 'eyes and muskies on those waters and no other variable to identify, I'm going to mention it and eventually do what I am able to make it a priority to look at the situation carefully. |
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