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Posts: 103
| So I have fished Deer and Bone a combined 4 times in the last 10 days or so and have seen zero fish. I am relatively new to muskie fishing and could be doing everything wrong, but has anyone else had tough fishing recently? I have tried deep, shallow, and trolling. Anyone else?
Thanks
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| To answer your question in one word...YES!! I was there for a week in September and usually on any given year can put a few fish in the boat in a day, but not this year. 3 for the week!! Terrible!! Not sure what the problem is?? Spearing has a lot to do with it I'm sure but to my knowledge, Deer has not been speared in a long time only Bone. |
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Posts: 454
| Are you dragging meat? |
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Posts: 303
Location: WI | Neither lake are the number lakes we used to know only a few years ago. Deer has also been speared. Not to the extent of Bone, but >50 were taken out of Deer last winter. This is not documented and is just what i've heard from a guy that worked a couple jobs with the people doing the spearing. |
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Posts: 103
| I have not been dragging suckers. Maybe I need to try that. |
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| Fished there along time ago but it was always a sucker thing this time of year. you can also try black rubber jigs with double tail or lizard. Fish the deep breaks with the suckers and try thowing the jigs up shallow and working back. 3/8 oz head I think we used. Trust me. It was a hot combo all year there. |
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Posts: 32890
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | That's called a Creature, 4. Been hot on that water since the early 70's. |
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| Fished Deer today for 7 hours.......it was a dead sea! Nada nothing......no one I talked to had any luck either. |
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| I really love these 2 lakes and have had some great times on them both, BUT I have to say that I may be done with them for a long time. In plain english, the indians have destroyed them and they are no longer the wonderful musky havens they once were. Until Wi. can get this issue resolved I am heading elsewhere and so are many others. It is really sad... |
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| I really love these 2 lakes and have had some great times on them both, BUT I have to say that I may be done with them for a long time. In plain english, the indians have destroyed them and they are no longer the wonderful musky havens they once were. Until Wi. can get this issue resolved I am heading elsewhere and so are many others. It is really sad...  |
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| #4fan - 11/18/2009 11:24 AM
I really love these 2 lakes and have had some great times on them both, BUT I have to say that I may be done with them for a long time. In plain english, the indians have destroyed them and they are no longer the wonderful musky havens they once were. Until Wi. can get this issue resolved I am heading elsewhere and so are many others. It is really sad... :(
Sad ending to a once great resource. There are lots of places better. Actually almost anyplace.  |
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Posts: 36
Location: Blaine, MN | I've been guiding and fishing Deer for the last 6 weeks and have done pretty well. We've contacted at least one fish and have seen multiple fish everytime out. Lost some and netted the others. Caught some real nice fatties! |
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| Same experience on Deer over 1 1/2 days this Fall. Saw plenty, several follows, hooked two and netted 1. Still pretty fair for so close to the cities. |
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| I just hope that these lakes get back to what they once were or even better with numbers. With the major numbers that get hit by a spear every winter that will never happen. Somethings got to change! I would be up for helping in any way possible but we all know that any lake that gets hit this hard will never have a great fishery. When people say that this lake is "fair" that is waaay off of what used to be. It WAS down right GREAT!! I hope to see those days again out in this area. |
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Posts: 580
| Not trying to imply that spearing is a good thing....but, its not such a terrible thing for the densities on these lakes to come down a bit. There are still some quality fish out there and although numbers aren't what it used to be, the average size and body condition is improved.
10-15 years ago the population estimates on these lakes were at about 1 adult fish per acre, and if you were into seeing and catching 32-38"ers, these lakes couldn't be beat. But a healthy muskie fishery should have densities more in the range of 0.3-0.5 adult fish per acre. With the reduced stocking quotas and assuming the tribal spearing is what is being reported, I'd imagine the densities are now more within the target range....and some nicer fish are showing up....
Again, I'm not condoning harvest by spear. Honestly, images of dead muskies with spear wounds laying on the ice makes me sick.
But the bottom line is, there are still more than enough muskies in these lakes to keep you busy, and some nice ones too. |
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| Matt, I agree with your points and I know what you are getting at. I also agree with the fact that too many small muskies in a system is no good either. I am sure you also agree in the fact that MANY of the large muskies were speared out and some fish that surprised a lot of people with 45"-50" fish were killed is not helping out these lakes at all. Granted, a thinning of smaller fish is needed sometimes but not numbers close to 300 large fish on an 1,800 acre lake. I am not trying to argue by any means, just stating facts about how a small group of people have single handedly decimated a great population of fish on these lakes. These lakes are almost 100% dependent on stocking. How much money is lost now due to this and how much is it gonna take to replenish the fisheryand is it even worth it if they are just gonna be speared out anyways? It is a really bad situation any way you look at it. How much money are baitshops, motels, bars, resturants ect... losing out on because the people like me and probably hundreds of others will no longer make trips to this area until the fishing has come back? JMHO |
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Posts: 32890
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | There is no 'resolving' the Treaty issues; the issues were resolved with the cases going all the way to our highest courts. As sportsmen and women, we don't even HAVE the 'right' to fish...it is our privilege granted to us by state license. The Tribes DO have the 'right' and it will not be reduced or taken away from the Tribal members without the complete consent of the Tribal Governments. If we want to see spearing reduced it means we will, as sportsmen, need to work closely and positively with our DNR, GLIFWIC, the Tribes, and our state government to encourage fewer muskies are harvested. The winter harvest needs to be part of the reported TAC, there's the best immediate resolution in my mind. |
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Posts: 55
Location: Arena WI | I fished bone 9 different weekends this year. Saw many, caught some and lost others. I have fished it since 1992 and have seen the size of the fish increase in size over the years. I was happy that they went to a 50" this year, but what good did it do? I have not seen a 45" fish in three years and I used to see them every day for several years. They are doing a lake survey starting this year and I believe this will tell us alot. Then the DNR can talk to the tribal warden and then he can decide or suggest to the tribe after that. We cannot stop this but can hope that the winter muskies are part of the spearing quota which would help greatly. My opinion of the spearing is it put the lake back to about 8-10 years according to my records. Lets all hope that something changes before Im' too old or gone to catch a 50 "on Bone. |
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Posts: 580
| Birdsnest, I'm not to argue with your first-hand experience, but I can assure you that there are plenty of muskies >45" swimming around in Bone right now. I'm aware of several up to 49" caught this past season. Of interest are the Muskies, Inc. records from the past couple of years...whereas historically less than 20% muskies caught have been >40", it's been over 30% the past couple of seasons. That's a nice trend.
#4fan, I don't really disagree with you either...its very disappointing to learn of 45-50" muskies now dead...and I wish something could be done to stop that, or at least reduce it. Steve's suggestions say it best.
I fished Deer and Bone very hard for many years during the infancy of my muskie addiction. It's been about 10 years now since I was fishing the lakes regularly, having moved south to Madison, but I still get up to Polk County on occasion. Back then, we saw and caught TONS of fish in the 30-38" range, but only an occasional 40"+. I always thought that there were 2 things that these lakes really needed, in order to reach their full potential: (1) reduced population densities, to allow peak or improved growth rates; and (2) reduced fishing pressure.
Anecdotally, based on what I've seen in my occasional trips back to these lakes over the past 10 years, the fishing pressure does seem to be down. (Couple times, I've been able to launch and get an actual parking space on a summer weekend morning on Deer--that was unheard of 10-15 years ago). I'm assuming this is partially a result of the greatly improved muskies fisheries in the MPLS metro lakes, keeping some of the MN anglers closer to home....I imagine with the attention rightfully being given to the winter spearing harvest, this will result in even more reduced fishing pressure, which I don't think is a bad thing.
It will be interesting to see what the upcoming DNR surveys show. The last surveys, done in 2005, seemed to illustrate the positive trends in size structure, growth, and body condition, and attributed it to the reduced stocking and the overall populations being reduced to more healthy densities.
I hope something can be done with the tribal entities to reduce the spearing. If so, these fisheries sound like they are poised to really flourish.
But in the meantime, to be honest, I'm not going to shy away from fishing these lakes. There are still plenty of fish, and some really nice ones. Couple in the reduced fishing pressure, and I'm actually pretty optimistic about these lakes either way.
Anyways...that's my $0.02...
Edited by Matt DeVos 12/2/2009 11:52 AM
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| Very good points guys. I am happy to see that the lakes are getting the attention from the DNR that they deserve! Granted, these lakes may have been put back some years but better than what could have been. I look forward to the future of these lakes! |
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Posts: 639
Location: Hudson, WI | Any reports of spearing this year at all? I've fished Bone most of my life and it has definitely been an odyssey. In the 4 years previous to last year, there definitely was a trend of fewer fish, but of much higher quality. I was actually of the opinion prior to last year that Bone was in the best shape it had ever been in. Last year was a different story. Absolutely dead. Scary dead. |
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Posts: 303
Location: WI | Around 100 speared on Bone this year (not as many as past year because water clarity is not as good the winter).....so....they decided to try doing some 'catch-up' on Deer. I also believe they've done some recruiting to get more involved. I saw a couple spearing on Deer this past Saturday....
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Posts: 639
Location: Hudson, WI | I should probably not post my feelings about that, Grant. |
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| That really is a bummer to hear that PEteacher, awful news. |
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Posts: 59
| Just fish the apple river instead |
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Posts: 639
Location: Hudson, WI | Or another lake in the area that spits out a few fish....
Ol' Larry and I are coming up this year for crappies. Can't believe I missed it last year. |
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Posts: 454
| Moltisanti can't catch fish regardless of where he goes! Adam if you want crappies you should let me know..........Got a lake that spits out tons of them every spring.....I hate cleaning fish so they are all yours! |
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Posts: 639
Location: Hudson, WI | Tony, Slim lives on a lake in Alexandria and you can't believe the crappies until you see them first hand. We caught a 4 man limit in less than 2 hours every day, not a one under 11", biggest was 17 1/2".
You're right about your first statement. Only I would put the only sub-legal fish in the Tuffy all last year. |
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Posts: 59
| adam- fishing has got to be good this year with the early warm streak coming through. should be able to get on those bigs one right away this year! |
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Posts: 227
Location: New Brighton, MN | Have they ever speared Cedar, Wapo or Blake ? I would be surprised since the numbers are much lower on these lakes.
Does the DNR respond to heavy spearing years by stocking these lakes more in following years? just curious... |
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