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Posts: 174
Location: Ontario | A couple of months ago,I visited a taxidermist in Ontario who specializes in reproductions. Im getting a muskie done that was caught and released last year.
After working out the details of the work,we started to discuss techniques and styles of bait used by many of his customers.
He then told me that 10 of the biggest fish brought into his shop over the years all had one common fish in their bellies,and asked me to guess. Suckers,crappie,walleye,bass,???
Nope... Catfish !!
Will post a photo of reproduction when ready |
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Posts: 32880
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Bullheads are definitely on the menu. |
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Posts: 20212
Location: oswego, il | Thats why I put cornmeal in the clearcoat of my baits. |
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| Muskyfix has a channelcat pattern for his modivators that's pretty cool |
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Posts: 455
| You would think that the fins on a cat fish would do some damage to a muskies belly. Interesting. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | Not much different than dorsal spines on bass or sunfish |
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Posts: 2010
| chasintails - 12/13/2012 7:33 AM
You would think that the fins on a cat fish would do some damage to a muskies belly. Interesting.
They are going to try and kill it before swallowing but I'm sure they often do get their throat all slashed up....muskies aren't smart they just eat, monster muskies choke on large meals and die, a 60" fish was found dead with a large carp stuck in its throat a few years back...by the time they are 20+ years old you would think they would know what they could try and eat? Stupid fish
Edited by IAJustin 12/13/2012 7:53 AM
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Posts: 173
| 80% of the fish biomass in the Ottawa is catfish. Muskies might eat a lot of the most common fish ? |
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| that's they reason why they swallow bullhead and other fish head first.i just hope anglers will not start to love the taste of catfish. |
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Posts: 32880
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Catfish is VERY popular as table fare. |
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Posts: 2010
| larryc - 12/13/2012 8:10 AM
80% of the fish biomass in the Ottawa is catfish. Muskies might eat a lot of the most common fish ?
there are over 75 species of fish present in the Ottawa and catfish make up 80%? |
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Posts: 415
| sworrall - 12/13/2012 9:14 AM
Catfish is VERY popular as table fare.
Yup, and if caught from the right water they are quite tasty. The best catfish I ever ate my buddies caught trolling for Kings on Lake Michigan on a downrigger 80ft down over 160 feet of water. Delicious! |
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Posts: 280
Location: McFarland | Has anybody ever tried bullhead/catfish as bait on a quick strike? Might hurt hooking them up I suppose but could be worthwhile... |
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Posts: 20
Location: Bowling Green, Kentucky | ski' patrol - 12/13/2012 9:56 AM
Has anybody ever tried bullhead/catfish as bait on a quick strike? Might hurt hooking them up I suppose but could be worthwhile...
I have been wanting to try it. Thought about trimming the spines with pliers. Think about how hard it is to hook a muskie, those spines probably don't bother them. Little catfish make wonderful big catfish bait. I was fishin a pond one time in a boat. Found a 6-7 pounder with a 1/2 pounder (both catfish) stuck in it's mouth, with a crawfish jig in its mouth, wrapped around the log. Cut the fins off the little one and freed the big one. Funny. |
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Location: Lake Tomahawk, WI | Favorite muskie meal...My first reaction is to post a wise crack like "my favorite muskie meal is fillet on the grill, skin side down, basted with some garlic butter, with a big platter of home made fries", but I thought better of it. 
Talked to many taxidermists over the years (WI), bullhead and crappie seemed to be the choice, crappies especially in the fall. There was a study done on the Manitowish Chain a few years ago suggested soft fin forage, mainly ciscos, made up the majority of muskies' stomach content.
JS |
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Location: Contrarian Island | i was thinking the same thing Jay when I saw the thread title....
wasn't there an article in MHunter within the last year or 2 that was a study of stomach contents and the majority at least on this lake or chain were small perch???
I had heard from a dnr bioligist the muskies in the madison chain sure like sheepshead
Edited by BNelson 12/13/2012 10:58 AM
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Location: Lake Tomahawk, WI | Brad, yeah I think there was an article in MH a few years ago, but thought the results were ciscos. But, my memory isn't what it used to be. Maybe Jordan can chime in here and set it straight. I think Kopke was familiar with the study as well.
JS |
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Posts: 8773
| They eat. Whatever there is to eat. Different lakes have different forage. From everything I've read, they prefer redhorse, ciscoes, fatty pelagic baitfish, much like we would prefer a nice steak or a deep dish pizza. But if there's no steak and no pizza, and we're hungry? Whatever is around gets eaten.
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Posts: 639
Location: Hudson, WI | I've rigged up channel cats on the Croix 4 or 5 times and let them drag behind. Never got touched, but it's been August/September. Never tried it in the fall. |
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| larryc - 12/13/2012 8:10 AM
80% of the fish biomass in the Ottawa is catfish. Muskies might eat a lot of the most common fish ?
with all the pressure perch and crappies,walleyes gets from fisherman it's quite possible.
do you have by chance a link for these studies?? |
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Posts: 280
| Here is some information from a Musky Hunter magazine a few years back.
It's from a study conducted from 1991-1994, in 34 different bodies of water in Wisconsin. 1,092 muskies were examined, of which 375 stomachs had something in them, containing 582 food items. Here's a portion of the chart that contains the most common items.
PREY/Total # Found/# of Stomachs Containing Item/% Frequency/% of Diet (lbs.)
Suckers/49/45/12%/46.6%
Minnows/40/35/9.3%/4.6%
Yellow Perch/175/123/32.8%/16.9%
Panfish/41/34/9.1%/4.5%
Crappies/33/29/7.7%/7.0%
Bass/17/17/4.5%/3.1%
Walleye/5/5/1.3%/3.4%
Pike/Musky/8/8/2.1%/4.7%
Bullhead/5/5/1.3%/2.4%
Unidentified/100/84/22.4%/3.0% |
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Posts: 8773
| Mad Musky - 12/13/2012 4:52 PM
Here is some information from a Musky Hunter magazine a few years back.
It's from a study conducted from 1991-1994, in 34 different bodies of water in Wisconsin. 1,092 muskies were examined, of which 375 stomachs had something in them, containing 582 food items. Here's a portion of the chart that contains the most common items.
PREY/Total # Found/# of Stomachs Containing Item/% Frequency/% of Diet (lbs.)
Suckers/49/45/12%/46.6%
Minnows/40/35/9.3%/4.6%
Yellow Perch/175/123/32.8%/16.9%
Panfish/41/34/9.1%/4.5%
Crappies/33/29/7.7%/7.0%
Bass/17/17/4.5%/3.1%
Walleye/5/5/1.3%/3.4%
Pike/Musky/8/8/2.1%/4.7%
Bullhead/5/5/1.3%/2.4%
Unidentified/100/84/22.4%/3.0%
Kinda proves they'll eat anything. I wonder how much of that has to do with many of the lakes having yellow perch as their main forage component. Seems odd that they would prefer perch over walleye in those numbers unless there were just a lot of perch in the lakes they sampled. Interesting stuff. |
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Location: Minneapolis | here's another interesting study.
http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/fish_wildlife/fisheries/species/muskie... |
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| it's almost impossible to tell their favorite meal,each body of water is so different,and each place have his own fish species population.i have seen the stomach content of a big fall musky and guess what all the minnow where smaller than 4 inch,so they have no best meal,they are just opportunist feeders.imo they don't get fat and healthy by traveling milles just to find a big school of perch |
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Posts: 173
| Might be able to get a link that's in English. Quebec Ministry published the population survey. "If" Marc still posts here he can link it. |
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Posts: 2024
| IAJustin - 12/13/2012 9:18 AM
larryc - 12/13/2012 8:10 AM
80% of the fish biomass in the Ottawa is catfish. Muskies might eat a lot of the most common fish ?
there are over 75 species of fish present in the Ottawa and catfish make up 80%?
Biomass refers to the amount of living organisms per unit area. To my knowledge the only ictalurids (catfish spp.) in the Ottawa are channel cats and brown, black, and yellow bullheads. It's true that for several of the reaches of the Ottawa the biomass consists of a disproportionate amount of ictalurids, namely channel catfish. I can't find any publications/documents at the moment other than this website: http://www.briancoad.com/ncr/contentsncr.htm |
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Posts: 8773
| Did anybody catch that there was more than one instance where the prey item found in the stomach contents was a mouse? How does that happen exactly? I'm thinking human intervention? |
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| mice swim. more likely a field mouse hopped in the water and started swimming, but was intercepted en route to its destination... |
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| Please remember when I was a kid we kept most legal muskies that is just what you did back then. I couldn't wait to clean them up to see what was in thier stomaches. Some odd things I remember... a red eyed wiggler spoon in one and a small painted turtle in another and of course countless fish from minnows to 15 inch walleyes. Have been all about catch and release since about 1984. I do miss disecting the stomachs though to see what they were eating. Did have a 52 incher die about 15 years my neighbor and taxidermy man called me over when he skinned it. He had 2 very large crayfish sitting on the table. Looked like they could walk away. That fish grabbed to crayfish then inhaled a 9 inch Wiley Lure. |
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Posts: 8773
| Guest - 12/13/2012 7:45 PM
mice swim. more likely a field mouse hopped in the water and started swimming, but was intercepted en route to its destination...
All animals can swim. (Based on the hamsters I had as a kid that escaped and met their demise in our sump pit, though, they can't swim for very long...) But why would they be in the water in the first place? |
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