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Posts: 36
| Do the Muskie’s in the The New Jersey Lakes and Reservoirs do any spawning on their own or is it all 100% stocking?
Thanks,
Tony |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Looks like stocking pretty much, according to the NJDEP's site anyway:
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw//wwartjs.htm#musky
They have stocked pike there as well, so if there is spawning habitat available, my guess is that both species will find and use it. So I'd bet there is at least *some* natural reproduction going on there; although it would be interesting to find out how many young of the year (YOY) fish they've found in electrofishing or seine netting efforts. You should be able to email one of the biologists there, and ask about YOY and on-going stocking numbers--that will pretty much tell you the story. If they are stocking relatively few fish per year yet are still finding YOY muskellunge, then there is likely some successful natural reproduction going on.
That site doesn't say much about the strain of muskellunge used however; nor does it talk much about where they got the fish from. But if they are stocking pike and musky in the same waters, I hope they used brood stock from a sympatric population. If they take musky from waters where both species have co-existed historically (sympatry), instead of where muskellunge have existed without pike (allopatry), then there is a much better chance the two species can co-exist. Otherwise, they tend to use much of the same spawning habitat in many cases, and the pike fry will eat the musky fry, because pike tend to spawn earlier than musky.
The link given to the NJ Muskies Inc. chapter isn't valid, so I'll have to do a little research to find a contact person out there. Maybe they can give us some more information.
TB
EDIT: Here is another link I found, with a few more details...
http://www.kneedeepclub.org/Species/muskie.html
Down towards the bottom there, it talks about where they got the fish from. I don't know much about the PA fish, but the Leech Lake fish are healthy and hearty, and should do well in the presence of pike--as there certainly are pike in Leech Lake.
Edited by tcbetka 4/28/2010 1:20 PM
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Posts: 551
Location: Columbus, Georgia | Link to New Jersey Chapter 22 Muskies Inc. is:
http://www.mi22.com
Edited by cjrich 4/28/2010 7:13 PM
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Posts: 474
| Just saw this thread
According to the NJDEP DFW biologist and hatchery staff all NJ muskies are stocked fish. They were first stocked in Greenwood Lake by Muskies Inc then Echo Lake
Now all the fish are raised by the NJDEP DFW from those original stock.
Those fish were bought from the Minnesota Musky Farm and brought to NJ
Here is a link to the NJ DEP operation.
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/htown-trapnetspawn.htm
Pretty cool stuff. I have volunteered with the WCC and had the opportunity to go out to check the trapnets in spring and stock muskies in the fall.
We hope to have a state biologist and a few founding Muskies Inc members at the next couple Muskies Inc meetings. We are inviting them to talk about musky program, determining tiger from pure strain fish, the different strains of pures in NJ and the history of the musky program in NJ
See the link in the previous post
Meetings are open to the public and held last Tuesday of every month in Denville NJ |
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Posts: 36
| Thanks for all the replies!
My friend got a nice Spring New Jersey Yak Muskie that was loaded with spawning scars. Don't know if we will see any baby Muskies?
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Posts: 2893
Location: Yahara River Chain | Going thru spawning and having viable fish from a hatch are two different things. Yes, muskies spawn, they do everywhere. The question is is the bottom and quality of water makeup feasible to allow those egs/sperm to hatch. Here in Southern WI they do spawn, but because the bottom makeup is mainly muck, the eggs are suffocated or eaten by predators like carp and other fish. The carp in the system will also stir up silt and that also covers the eggs and they do not hatch.
Just because a fish has spawning scars, it does not translate into fish (or possible fish).. |
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