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Posts: 284
Location: Eagan, MN | Watching programming on Shark Week was interesting. Through transmitter tracking and visual identification, one research group found that Great White sharks tend to form close-knit 'clans', which stay together for years, travel great distances together, and show annual spawn and foraging site fidelity year after year. These clans had a definite social hierarchy as well.
I couldn't help but wonder: Do muskies also develop these 'clans' and similiar patterns of behavior in terms of predictable group migrations associated with spawn and foraging site fidelity?
Brian |
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Posts: 1291
Location: Hayward, Wisconsin | Possible, likely, partially unproven. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | Watched a presentation by Dr. Chris Wilson ( OMNR & Trent University ) ( twice ) dealing with DNA research on different river systems flowing into Georgian Bay there was very little mixing of the populations and the spawning site fidelity was equal to that of salmon. |
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| I've observed wolf packs on Tonka. maybe 5-6 in their 40's on the surface in deep water all hanging out together. I always wondered if they have some sort of order when feeding on bait balls like sail fish, Tuna and other species do. |
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Posts: 1039
Location: North St. Paul, MN | As far as hierarchy: I had something happen to me a few weeks ago fishing bass, walleye, pike. I had a mid 20" pike come cruise in on the bait, I twitched it a few more times, and the northern veered off to my left. I thought that was very weird until the second it cleared the bait, behind it a 17" large mouth bass crushed my lure. I did not think that would've been the case and would not have believed it until I saw it with my own eyes. It's interesting to think about hierarchy within species, but also the hierarchy between species of fish. |
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Posts: 284
Location: Eagan, MN | Larry, you're one of the few here with actual tracking experience. Were any of the transmitter fish you followed ever originally from the same school or aggregation? Or, were they all caught from different locations when first implanted? Just wondering if you saw any evidence of musky forming these clans in your research.
Like others, I've seen large schools of musky, generally of the same size class, in very close proximity to each other. My experience has been that they come and go together. Are they related? Do they stay together for long periods of time? Forage cooperatively? Sometimes wish I was a fisheries researcher and could study these questions scientifically.
Roller, I've not seen it between fish species, but had a similiar experience fishing Price County Wisconsin one summer. A musky of average size showed up to follow my bucktail. Trailing the bait for a few seconds, and still quite a long distance from the boat, she shot away from the Bucktail as if hit by a cattle prod. What the...? The reason for her behavior became immediately apparent. A larger musky came up from behind and took over following the Bucktail. The original fish disengaged completely. No strike from either fish, though I was left with the very distinct feeling the smaller fish was clearly yielding to the larger fish.
Edited by BrianF. 7/14/2015 10:17 PM
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Posts: 1291
Location: Hayward, Wisconsin | Brian: It was impossible to know if the fish were "from the same school" or together. We did have multiples in the net several times but no way to know when they got in there over nite or were together or not. We had 10 transmitter fish in Eagle Lake and they were from five different nets in various locations from the middle section of the lake. One of the fish was angler caught the year previous in Vermilion Bay. The Wabigoon fish I had no knowledge of where they were captured. Never found any of them together.
When tracking them I initially had a mission to try and recapture them (using a barbless single hook spinner bait) in order to pump their stomach and see what they were eating. On one occasion I was casting to a transmitter fish (I could tell within a couple of feet where they were) and I caught another fish (non-transmitter) of the same size as the transmitter fish. They were obviously traveling together. Even though it wasn't a transmitter fish, I was still able to pump her out and get a stomach sample that would likely be similar to what the transmitter fish was eating.
As an aside, I found it interesting that one large (33 pound) female had several crayfish in its stomach...
It wasn't abnormal in Eagle while angling to see a large female and a small male traveling together...and of course, the smaller fish always got to the lure first...if they hit at all! LOL
I also observed occasion on Eagle where apparently a large group ("school"?) were herding baitfish upon to a self and feeding on them...raised several different fish in a very small area in a very short period of time.
A similar occurrence occurred one summer in a deep cabbage bed area...the entire lake went nuts for about 3 hours and many, many muskies were caught and then it was over like someone turned out the lights. Fun, but it doesn't happen near often enough, although last week be had an interesting evening in Canada; we lost two right away and both were over 50...one of them mid 50's and then started to connect as my buddy Will nailed his personal best at 55.5 and ten minutes later, my other buddy Klaus and I got a double header, his 43 and mine 46. Neat net photo! Klaus got another 45 before it was over...all in about 2 hours.
Still lots of mysteries out there as to when and why these durn fish hit!
On another occasion, I ran the graph over a transmitter fish on a deep reef in 33 feet of water and ended up with 6 large size marks on the graph. A "school" or "family"? I have no way of knowing, but it was definitely interesting!
Edited by Larry Ramsell 7/15/2015 10:20 AM
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Posts: 8782
| I've had enough occasions where there were multiple fish together on the same spot to make me believe they do travel and feed together. Whether that's a result of seeking each other's company or simply using the same travel routes and feeding in the same place I have no idea. We see them together all too often for the old adage of them being solitary creatures to hold any water. |
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Posts: 1828
| Not quite a "clan", but,
the first fish I caught this year, I hooked it way out on the cast. when I got it within 15' of the boat, I saw that another musky of the same size was coming in with it. Keeping pace with it, staying within a few feet. Almost like he was waiting to see if the [hooked] fish would drop the "food" so he could get a chance to take a bite. These were mid-30"ers. |
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Posts: 1283
| Ive had at least 5 occasions this year alone when basically every cast a fish, if not a couple would show up within a few minutes then be gone. Actually happened to me on 8/8/15 fishing every cabbage bed on a deep 500 acre lake. Nothing on any of them for hours then its like a light switch got flipped on and saw 4 within 15 casts. The two bigger fish(mid 40s) got spooked as soon as they saw the boat, one little under 30 chased and missed in the 8 then my brother nailed a 35 casting back to where the bigger fish came from. After that it was over like the switch got turned off. 3 hours later my GF had a fish around 40 and thin come up hot on a different bed but he was the only one home. Wish I could get them all to eat. |
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