Welcome to Week CLXXXV of ‘Fishing Parkland Shorelines’. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I’ll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don’t have access to a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
Few fish illicit any more awe among fisherfolk, at least fisherfolk in North America than the mighty muskellunge.
If you happen to fish and have not heard of the fish, well a quick definition comes from Wikipedia. “The muskellunge (Esox masquinongy), … often abbreviated ‘muskie’ or ‘musky’, is a species of large, relatively uncommon freshwater fish native to North America. The muskellunge is the largest member of the pike family, Esocidae. The common name comes from the Ojibwa word maashkinoozhe, meaning “ugly pike”, by way of French masque allongé (modified from the Ojibwa word by folk etymology), “elongated face.” The French common name is masquinongé or maskinongé.”
What makes fisherfolk seek out the fish is simple; they get huge. Muskellunge are typically 28–48 inches long and weigh 5–36 pounds though some have reached up to six-feet and almost 70-pounds.”
In terms of the musky Canada has a place in the record books.
“The largest Canadian Muskellunge, pulled out of Georgian Bay in 1988, weighed 29.5 kg. At the time, it was the fourth largest Muskellunge ever caught in the world. Since then the second and third record Muskellunge catches have been deemed hoaxes, meaning the Canadian fish now ranks as the second largest ever caught,” details the Government of Canada’s Fisheries and Oceans Canada website at www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Saskatchewan anglers will have to travel if their quarry is the musky though.
“Muskellunge are found in oligotrophic and mesotrophic lakes and large rivers from northern Michigan, northern Wisconsin, and northern Minnesota through the Great Lakes region, north into Canada, throughout most of the St Lawrence River drainage, and northward throughout the upper Mississippi valley, although the species also extends as far south as Chattanooga in the Tennessee River valley. Also, a small population is found in the Broad River in South Carolina. Several North Georgia reservoirs also have healthy stocked populations of muskie. They are also found in the Red River drainage of the Hudson Bay basin. Muskie were introduced to western Saint John River in the late 1960s and have now spread to many connecting waterways in northern Maine,” details Wikipedia.
“They prefer clear waters where they lurk along weed edges, rock outcrops, or other structures to rest. A fish forms two distinct home ranges in summer: a shallow range and a deeper one. The shallow range is generally much smaller than the deeper range due to shallow water heating up. A muskie continually patrols the ranges in search of available food in the appropriate conditions of water temperature.”
That said there was actually a sign at Lake of the Prairies listing species in the lake and the musky was included. I quite imagine a big pike was at some point falsely identified as its bigger cousin, but it does give my son and I something to speculate over on a slow day fishing the nearby border water.”
The same page relates that adult muskellunge are “apex predators where they occur naturally.”
The idea of a critter at the top of the food chain in its environment has always been something which has drawn us to seek them out.
In the case of musky, in general only humans pose a threat to an adult, but younger musky are consumed by other muskies, they like their cousins the pike, are not fussy eaters.
It is not unusual to read musky lore where they go after swimming mice, baby ducks, snakes, muskrats, and just about anything else that gets in their way when they are hungry, and on the hunt.
As predators which grow large, a musky needs room to hunt, and since they will cannibalize their own, reproduction rates are low.
The musky, while getting to huge under the right conditions, is a slow growing fish too, so anything that populations can be impacted rather easily, including if anglers over fish. On average Muskie will grow 6 inches per year until they reach 24 inches or 4 years old and then their growth rate slows down to around 2 inches per year depending on the food supply. In a healthy lake a Muskie should reach 40 inches at the age of 12 years. Once they reach 40 inches they may only grow 1 inch per year.The average age is of a Muskellunge is about 10 years, although they can live for more than 20.
Because the fish are under pressure; habitat loss and fishing, there are efforts to better understand the musky to better help it flourish. On August 14-15 2014, the Muskie world came together at Carleton University for a series of very informative presentations and discussions. The theme of the symposium was “Muskellunge Science and Management; Progress Through Partnership”.
From the event information; “Over the years there have been several gatherings to share new science and management experiences with muskellunge. These have included a symposium on coolwater fishes held in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1978 (Kendall 1978), the International Muskellunge Symposium held in LaCrosse, Wisconsin in 1984 (AFS 1986), the “Managing Muskies in the 90s” workshop held in Kemptville, Ontario in 1995 (Kerr and Olver 1995), and, more recently, the E. J. Crossman muskellunge symposium held in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2005 (Diana and Margenau 2007).
“This symposium has been organized with the goal of assembling anglers, researchers and managers to share new information and management approaches which have been developed over the past decade. Recognizing the long term cooperative approach to muskellunge management, the theme of this event is “progress through partnerships”.”
While the link is a long one (http://www.muskiesnb.ca/Research/Muskellunge%20Symposium%20Agenda%20and%20Abstracts.pdf ) I have to include it here for those wanting to delve into this fascinating fish in greater detail.
There are of course many sites on the ‘Net dedicated to just about everything, including the musky. One such site is www.musky.ca, a site dedicated to the species in Ontario, and www.muskiesnb.ca for the species in New Brunswick.
The site, like many related to musky are great to visit just for the ‘Wow!’ factor of the photos of really monster musky. A few looks at the grins of fisherman with these really big fish and you fully understand why people spend a lot of time and effort searching them out.
Maybe one day a trip east to see if I can hook into one of these giants. Yes definitely something to think about.
