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| I agree with Ben Olsen on his Tonka observations. The 1000 number seems absurd. A buddy and I have caught 17 different fish from a smallish spot in the back of a small dead end bay in the last month and a half. We are also no Tonka experts. The 1000 number is thrown out to make people feel better about not boating fish on multiple trips in a row. |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | Actually guest, the 1000 is a bit low it's probably around the 1500 maybe a bit more with all the yearlings that MI has stocked over the past 8+ years. If you look at the stockings and assume that there is little natural reproduction that's pretty close to the number you end up with.
Stocked fingerlings = roughly 10% survival
Stocked yearlings - roughly 35% survival
Now add in natural and delayed mortality and you're getting to that 1200-1500 fish range of adults. Of these you can figure in a mature system without an oily forage fish that 5-8% are 50"+. This is the reason why CPR is so important and why since it was adopted our lakes have flourished.
Edited by Muskie Treats 11/22/2012 8:20 AM
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Ben Olsen - 11/21/2012 2:47 PM
I've always wondered about that "1000" muskies in Tonka! I've heard it several times also. My observations (not scientific) lead me to believe there are WAY more than 1000 muskies in Tonka. My boat has caught 10% of the available fish per year multiple times in the last five seasons??? I'm not even close to that good!! Plus the 100s of follows. I'd bet there are close to 1000 muskies caught per year out there. 100 boats...10 fish per boat...doesn't seem that far off to me! My numbers were slightly lower the last two seasons but that's due to less TOW and not fishing due to high temps. Still managed 30+ and 5 over 50 this year despite June and July off due to my wedding and high temps. IMHO still a very healthy population and good density in Tonka.
Common sense Has spoken......
There are about 20 some guides on Vermilion. and some of these guys and their clients put over a thousand fish in the net a yr. I know a couple of guys that put a couple hundred in the boat a year.
Resorts like VDL,Spring Bay,Whispering Winds,Retreat Lodge,.... Puts hundreds of muskies in the boat .. the list could go on and on.
I've seen some , 1 acre spots and weed beds that had 7-8 fish on them, multiple times.
Think about what Beno said,...... true that. |
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Posts: 719
| a few observations:
Ten years ago DNR estimates for Tonka were around 1100 adult fish...36" and above. About one in 13 acres.
Before the spearing Bone and Deer in Wisc were reported by the DNR to have the highest density of legals (then 32" ? ) at about I fish per acre. This was touted as the highest density of "keepers" in the state my a fair margin.
I would say Shawn has a pretty good idea on current numbers for Tonka with his close connections at the DNR. That puts the Tonka population at about 1 fish per ten acres and most people consider Tonka to be pretty well populated.
The big variable is at what size you base the estimates, if you start at 24-30" you will get a very different number than starting at 40".
I think the biggest message here is how much the fish are recycled on highly pressured lakes. As Ben noted...there are many years where 3-4 guys that I know put around 100 fish in the boat on Tonka...somewhere around 30-40% of the estimated population...add in the guys putting in 30-50...easily another ten to fifteen and you have caught more than the estimated population before you even consider the occasional anglers. And that is just guys I knew personally. It wouldn't surprise me if the population numbers of adult fish in that lake was caught at least twice in an average year.
Edited by bturg 11/23/2012 12:43 PM
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Posts: 8831
| bturg - 11/23/2012 12:40 PM
a few observations:
Ten years ago DNR estimates for Tonka were around 1100 adult fish...36" and above. About one in 13 acres.
Before the spearing Bone and Deer in Wisc were reported by the DNR to have the highest density of legals (then 32" ? ) at about I fish per acre. This was touted as the highest density of "keepers" in the state my a fair margin.
I would say Shawn has a pretty good idea on current numbers for Tonka with his close connections at the DNR. That puts the Tonka population at about 1 fish per ten acres and most people consider Tonka to be pretty well populated.
The big variable is at what size you base the estimates, if you start at 24-30" you will get a very different number than starting at 40".
I think the biggest message here is how much the fish are recycled on highly pressured lakes. As Ben noted...there are many years where 3-4 guys that I know put around 100 fish in the boat on Tonka...somewhere around 30-40% of the estimated population...add in the guys putting in 30-50...easily another ten to fifteen and you have caught more than the estimated population before you even consider the occasional anglers. And that is just guys I knew personally. It wouldn't surprise me if the population numbers of adult fish in that lake was caught at least twice in an average year.
Catch and release works. Another thing to consider is if there are 1,500 adult muskies in a body of water, they're not going to be spread out evenly - they're going to congregate in the areas where they can feed. We have lakes like that where I fish - they are small low density fisheries, but because of the relative lack of structure, the fish are all piled up in the same areas most of the year. Find those areas and fish them effectively, and it really doesn't matter of there are .25 fish per acre of water, or 1 fish per acre.
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