muskies

Catching Muskies – All About Muskellunges

By Alyssa Bentley

Quick Facts:

• Muskies can live to be 30 years old
• Maximum length of a Muskie: 6 feet
• Maximum Weight of a Muskie: around 70 lbs
• Trophy Length: over 4 feet
• Trophy Weight: over 40 lbs
• Mature females tend to be bigger than males, but mature and grow at a slower rate.

Muskies are a non-schooling predatory fish, who are generally tend to stay out of eyesight of each other.

They usually lurk near drop-offs from rock or sand bars in the middle of lakes, along weed beds or other vegetation, and in shady waters close to shores that are fringed with overhanging trees. They prefer larger lakes with deep and shallow basins and large beds of aquatic plants.

They have a typical ambush predator design, elongated body, flat head, and caudal fins placed far back on the body.

The stealthy muskie hunts by waiting motionless. When a fish swims by (any fish, including other muskies) they strike, impaling the prey on their large canine teeth, rotating it, and swallowing it headfirst. Strangely, the size of the fish a muskie eats appears to be related to the ultimate size it can attain. As the fish grows larger, the size of its prey naturally varies more. Even if plenty of small fish are available, a muskie may not be able to grow large without large fish to eat. Muskrats, ducks, shrews, mice, and frogs also appear in the stomachs of muskies from time to time.

A Varied Diet:

Muskellunges are known to have a varied diet. They will eat other muskies and any fish they see, as well as ducklings, smaller muskrats, shrews, mice, and frogs, and the largest Muskies are known to eat whole adult ducks. There is one report of a Wisconsin man in 1999 who was dangling his feet in the water (not fishing), when a medium sized muskie lunged and attempted to swallow his toe! He ended up pulling the muskie out of the water and extracting it from his foot. The foot required 66 stitches and he was eventually allowed to keep the fish, despite the non-legal size and non-legal method of fishing.

It is not recommended to use your toes as bait.

Other Facts about Muskellunges

Muskies and Pikes (or “Northerns) look very similar. The foolproof way to tell a muskie from a northern is to count the pores on the underside of the jaw: A muskie has six or more. A northern has five or fewer.

The tiger muskellunge (E. masquinongy x lucius or E. lucius x masquinongy) is a hybrid of the muskie and northern pike. Male hybrids are almost invariably sterile although females are sometimes fertile. Some hybrids are artificially produced and planted for anglers to catch. Tiger muskies tend to be smaller than non-hybrid muskies but grow faster. The body is often quite silvery and largely or entirely without spots but with indistinct longitudinal bands.

Though interbreeding with other pike species can complicate the classification of some individuals, zoologists usually recognize from zero to three subspecies of muskellunge.

• The Great Lakes (spotted) muskellunge (Esox masquinongy masquinongy) is the most common variety in the Great Lakes basin and surrounding area. The spots on the body form oblique rows.
• The Chautauqua muskellunge (E. m. ohioensis) is known from the Ohio River system, Chautauqua Lake, Lake Ontario, and the St Lawrence River.
• The clear or barred muskellunge (E. m. immaculatus) is most common in the inland lakes of Wisconsin, Minnesota, northwestern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba.

Catching the Muskie:

If you want to catch a muskie, you’ll need a heavy bait-casting rod, substantial level-wind reel, 20-35 pound test line, a variety of artificial lures or live bait, and a lot of patience. Allow at least 20 minutes in each location before moving on-the large fish usually aren’t very active.

It takes the average angler 20-80 hours to catch a legal musky!

Muskies are generally not food fish. As predator fish, if the food fish in their region have small amounts of toxic substances in their systems, they will gather in much greater quantities in the muskellunges who feed on them. Before eating a muskellunge, pay attention to the fishing advisories of the lake or the state that you are fishing in.

Threats to the Muskie:

The health and success of the muskellunge relies heavily on the health and availability of aquatic plants in their environment. Minnesota anglers are beginning to notice that some of their favorite “weed beds” seem to be disappearing, thus reducing the spawning sites and hunting grounds of the muskies they like to catch. Measures are being proposed, including greatly reducing the number of docks allowed on a lake shore, thus reducing the human footprint on the lakes.

The Muskie and the Northern Pike are both considered sport and trophy fish in Minnesota, and are thusly valuable to the sport fishing community and the tourism economy, but over-fishing does hurt the population of this solitary fish.

So fish carefully, and practice catch-and-release fishing with this fish in order to preserve its continued abundance in all the great lakes.

Alyssa Bentley works for a Website Advertising company. This article is written for Fishermans Pool.com – a great resource for finding a Chartered Fishing Boat [http://www.fishermanspool.com] where you want to fish.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alyssa_Bentley
http://EzineArticles.com/?Catching-Muskies—All-About-Muskellunges&id=1056167

Powered By WP Footer

muskies

Catching Muskies – All About Muskellunges

By Alyssa Bentley

Quick Facts:

• Muskies can live to be 30 years old
• Maximum length of a Muskie: 6 feet
• Maximum Weight of a Muskie: around 70 lbs
• Trophy Length: over 4 feet
• Trophy Weight: over 40 lbs
• Mature females tend to be bigger than males, but mature and grow at a slower rate.

Muskies are a non-schooling predatory fish, who are generally tend to stay out of eyesight of each other.

They usually lurk near drop-offs from rock or sand bars in the middle of lakes, along weed beds or other vegetation, and in shady waters close to shores that are fringed with overhanging trees. They prefer larger lakes with deep and shallow basins and large beds of aquatic plants.

They have a typical ambush predator design, elongated body, flat head, and caudal fins placed far back on the body.

The stealthy muskie hunts by waiting motionless. When a fish swims by (any fish, including other muskies) they strike, impaling the prey on their large canine teeth, rotating it, and swallowing it headfirst. Strangely, the size of the fish a muskie eats appears to be related to the ultimate size it can attain. As the fish grows larger, the size of its prey naturally varies more. Even if plenty of small fish are available, a muskie may not be able to grow large without large fish to eat. Muskrats, ducks, shrews, mice, and frogs also appear in the stomachs of muskies from time to time.

A Varied Diet:

Muskellunges are known to have a varied diet. They will eat other muskies and any fish they see, as well as ducklings, smaller muskrats, shrews, mice, and frogs, and the largest Muskies are known to eat whole adult ducks. There is one report of a Wisconsin man in 1999 who was dangling his feet in the water (not fishing), when a medium sized muskie lunged and attempted to swallow his toe! He ended up pulling the muskie out of the water and extracting it from his foot. The foot required 66 stitches and he was eventually allowed to keep the fish, despite the non-legal size and non-legal method of fishing.

It is not recommended to use your toes as bait.

Other Facts about Muskellunges

Muskies and Pikes (or “Northerns) look very similar. The foolproof way to tell a muskie from a northern is to count the pores on the underside of the jaw: A muskie has six or more. A northern has five or fewer.

The tiger muskellunge (E. masquinongy x lucius or E. lucius x masquinongy) is a hybrid of the muskie and northern pike. Male hybrids are almost invariably sterile although females are sometimes fertile. Some hybrids are artificially produced and planted for anglers to catch. Tiger muskies tend to be smaller than non-hybrid muskies but grow faster. The body is often quite silvery and largely or entirely without spots but with indistinct longitudinal bands.

Though interbreeding with other pike species can complicate the classification of some individuals, zoologists usually recognize from zero to three subspecies of muskellunge.

• The Great Lakes (spotted) muskellunge (Esox masquinongy masquinongy) is the most common variety in the Great Lakes basin and surrounding area. The spots on the body form oblique rows.
• The Chautauqua muskellunge (E. m. ohioensis) is known from the Ohio River system, Chautauqua Lake, Lake Ontario, and the St Lawrence River.
• The clear or barred muskellunge (E. m. immaculatus) is most common in the inland lakes of Wisconsin, Minnesota, northwestern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba.

Catching the Muskie:

If you want to catch a muskie, you’ll need a heavy bait-casting rod, substantial level-wind reel, 20-35 pound test line, a variety of artificial lures or live bait, and a lot of patience. Allow at least 20 minutes in each location before moving on-the large fish usually aren’t very active.

It takes the average angler 20-80 hours to catch a legal musky!

Muskies are generally not food fish. As predator fish, if the food fish in their region have small amounts of toxic substances in their systems, they will gather in much greater quantities in the muskellunges who feed on them. Before eating a muskellunge, pay attention to the fishing advisories of the lake or the state that you are fishing in.

Threats to the Muskie:

The health and success of the muskellunge relies heavily on the health and availability of aquatic plants in their environment. Minnesota anglers are beginning to notice that some of their favorite “weed beds” seem to be disappearing, thus reducing the spawning sites and hunting grounds of the muskies they like to catch. Measures are being proposed, including greatly reducing the number of docks allowed on a lake shore, thus reducing the human footprint on the lakes.

The Muskie and the Northern Pike are both considered sport and trophy fish in Minnesota, and are thusly valuable to the sport fishing community and the tourism economy, but over-fishing does hurt the population of this solitary fish.

So fish carefully, and practice catch-and-release fishing with this fish in order to preserve its continued abundance in all the great lakes.

Alyssa Bentley works for a Website Advertising company. This article is written for Fishermans Pool.com – a great resource for finding a Chartered Fishing Boat where you want to fish.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alyssa_Bentley
http://EzineArticles.com/?Catching-Muskies—All-About-Muskellunges&id=1056167

Powered By WP Footer

muskies

Muskie Fishing Tips – Jigging Fall Muskies

Muskie Fishing Tips – Jigging Fall MusBy Jack Phillips

Most anglers think big when hunting lunker muskie, but if you want to catch more muskie think smaller baits and tackle. I caught my biggest muskellunge while fishing walleye with a plastic worm in September. More often than can be considered coincidental people catch a lunge while fishing other species. Most anglers look to heavy tackle, large baits and trolling as the way to catch muskies. Personally I become bored or just tired of trolling all the time.

Now one of my most successful tactics used especially in the fall is used for fishing large walleye and at the same time muskellunge. I use medium size tackle and large walleye baits especially jigs. Fishing weed lines, drop offs and shoals as you would for walleyes will also attract as many lunge as walleyes. The first time I realised this I did have some success for large walleyes and had just caught and released a nice 7 pounder that was followed to the boat by a large muskie.

The only change I made was to make sure I was using wire leads and good stong swivels. Using 6 inch plastics worked just fine and the result was a fun great day of fishing. In all the two of us caught and released 9 walleyes from 5 to 8 pounds plus 5 muskie all in the 15 to 20 pound range. Although not the lunker; that most anglers look for. But it proved to me that these preditors can be caught on lighter tackle and smaller baits.

Conventional thinking tells us that in the fall; the remaining muskellunge, are large, therefore bigger is better. However, my experience is that smaller baits are often the perfect morsel for that elusive luncker.

Equipment And Presentation

When I say smaller baits I am referring to large or oversized walleyes jigs. As mentioned this approach evolved on a body of water with a large population of large walleye. Now using the idea that big baits means big fish or walleye. I began tossing 5 to 6 inch plastic shad-bodied jigs along weed lines. I landed a number of big walleye, but to my surprise, the muskie were also going for the same bait. The big plastic jigs became an important part of my muskie fishing arsenal. All large plastics work just fine.

Colour seems less important than creating a real flash. Two-toned baits, mainly dark and light combinations, create more flash when drawn through the water. Adding some metal flake also ads that extra flash. Just experiment and you will find a combination that will work for you and get that strike you want.

I generally use ball-head or stand-up-head jigs with medium gauge wire hooks. It’s surprising how well a single hook can handle even a large fish. Often you will hook the fish in the gristly flesh in the corner of the mouth. Jigs also make landing and releasing muskie easier; there are then no large treble hooks flopping around to damage the fish or you. Deeply hooked fish can be released by clipping off the hook with pliers.

Single strand wire leaders seem to work best especially along weed beds. I use a hay-wire-twist to attach the wire to the jig head at one end and a small swivel at the other. Watch for kinks in the wire, but these leaders are more weedless than the standard models because of the snaps and swivels.

I prefer a medium action 6-foot spinning rod and a reel spooled with 12 to 14 pound test monofilament. A medium-heavy bait-casting outfit also does the trick, in both cases make sure the drag is working properly.

Even if you prefer the conventional approach, keep a lighter outfit close at hand for when muskie follow, but don’t hit, or they strike short. Using lighter tackle and a jig is also a good approach when there are two of you fishing muskie. One angler throws conventioinal baits, and the other throwing jigs. Then you are always ready to react to follows and misses.

Vary the speed of your retrieve when jigging up muskie. I have had luck in late fall, by using violent rip-jigging motion. It’s tiring, but effective. Experiment and you will find something that works for you.

When battling a muskellunge on light tackle, be careful not to fight it to exhaustion, thereby increasing the chance of delayed death if you plan on catch and release. Ideally, you should release a fish by simply grasping the single hook with a pair of needle nosed pliers, while it’s in the water at the side of the boat. Cut off the hook if the fish is hooked deeply. Muskie fisheries are a fragile resource, so do your best to release that muskie no worse for wear. Now next season that muskie will be ready to fight another day and make that day a great day for another angler.

Jack Phillips has been an avid Canadian angler for over 50 years. Fishing Canada provides solid advice for walleye, bass, pike, muskie, a variety of trout, arctic char bass and more. Idea’s on when and where to go on your next trip to Canada. Ice fishing tips. Delicious fish recipes also!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jack_Phillips
http://EzineArticles.com/?Muskie-Fishing-Tips—Jigging-Fall-Muskies&id=293075

Powered By WP Footer