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Posts: 42
| Why do musky sometimes swim slowly with their head out of the water? I have seen this a quite a few times on the water here in PA. I've gotten some anwers to this question like.....
•Since muskellunge attack prey from the side and then swallow them head-first, the musky might bet taking one last gulp associated with consumption of a large meal.
•Musky like to be well acquainted with their surroundings and are surfacing to get a "better look around."
Just wanted a valid explaination as to what you guys think. |
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Posts: 483
Location: NE PA | My understanding was that it had to do with high temperatures and low oxygen levels in the water. |
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Posts: 8782
| Heard all of those. Also heard it was something to do with gill parasites. I guess we'll never know until someone learns how to ask one and one learns how to tell us. Helping to digest a meal? Might explain why they never seem to pay any attention to lures. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | I researched this a bit a while back...maybe a year or two ago. There should be a thread here on the forum with a discussion. I believe the most likely explanation was that they were taking advantage of the most oxygenated section of the water column, right there at the air/water interface.
TB |
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Posts: 908
Location: South-Central PA | The only muskies I've personally seen do it are tigers. Not sure why I haven't seen pures. Saw 7 in one day on my favorite PA lake. The water temps were low, it was the beginning of June- a bright, sunny day. It seemed like everywhere I looked there went a fish with it's head out of the water.
jeremy |
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Posts: 173
| I kind of doubt we'll ever KNOW ,as Jeff said. We watched one swimming head above the water last year on the Ottawa. Drizzly cool day with water temps in the 60's. Good current so can't see oxygen as a factor. DougJ is likely most accurate saying " Because it makes them happy" .
Edited by larryc 3/13/2014 8:16 AM
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Location: Eastern Ontario | Their looking to see if Laz is on the lake all muskies fear him 
Edited by horsehunter 3/13/2014 10:10 AM
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Posts: 455
| They are giving you the stare down. |
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Location: oswego, il | Cast in the area. These are male muskies who like the rest of us males, refuse to ask for directions. There is a peeed off female right below him. |
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Location: Aurora | Stubborn males!
Chased one down with the trolling motor a few years back and was able to see that it had a tail hangin outta it's mouth.
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Posts: 50
Location: North Central PA | See this often but last Summer I saw one swim very close to the boat doing that head out of the water stuff and he had a rubber crawler going out the side of his gills under the gill cover. Had been hooked and broke off and I figured he was trying to shake that loose. He was found dead on shore about a week later and went about 42 inches. Hate to see one go this way. See many others doing that and they have no lures that I see. I have heard the gill parasite idea and also the low oxygen but it seems that the oxygen would be lowest on the tail end of summer when the weeds start to die back and temps are very high and they seem to do this the least during that period. It is usually more toward June. |
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Location: Northern Illinois | Ive seen it at wingra dam spawning area. They are looking for more oxygen thats all. |
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Location: MN | muskyhunter07 - 4/4/2014 7:15 AM
Ive seen it at wingra dam spawning area. They are looking for more oxygen thats all.
And what exactly does oxygen look like? 
The two times I have seen it has been on a lake that would seem to hold plenty of oxygen-It's big, deep and has current. They were both big females 50+ doing it over deep water. I just figure they were checking around for musky boats before eating a big injured sucker. |
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Posts: 358
| I have seen this in the Susquehanna River and was amazed by it. |
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Posts: 1202
Location: Money, PA | We saw one swimming like that at St Clair last June...It was a mid 40s fishing swimming up close to the surface with head slightly out of the water...We trolled up close to it and as our board lines just went over the fish, it jumped and did a back flip nearly hitting the line! It was the wildest thing we ever seen a muskie do! When it hit the water, it swam off into the depths.
We can all have our beliefs and opinions about why they do this. I myself do not think they are trying to get more oxygen just because water contains more oxygen than air so the last thing they would want to be doing is sticking their heads/gills up into the air. I just think it may be a basking type thing or resting the bladder or even frolicking whatever.... |
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