“Aaaahh,” screamed granddaughter Courtney Spizzirri as a muskie launched itself out of the water alongside the boat. She was practicing her ‘figure eight’ with a lure, a common maneuver among muskie anglers to catch fish that follow a lure to the boat.
The next day another muskie rocketed from the water while grandson, Michael’s fiancée, Robyn Simonic, was practicing her figure eight. What fun, we all experienced an incredible adrenalin rush from both episodes.
Years ago, old-timers sat around the cracker barrel in Northwood’s general stores spinning lore about muskies biting toes and fingers of careless tourists who dangled their limbs in the water.
Muskies aren’t man-eaters, scratch that lore. But they are the top predator in their waters, feeding on baby muskrats, ducklings and any fish they can swallow.
However, another lore prevails that calls them “the fish of 10,000 casts”. We disproved that stigma at Dairyland Reservoir near Ladysmith, Wisconsin, last month, catching, seeing or being greatly surprised by several fish.
Managing the resources of an aquatic predator like muskie is a challenge for northern state’s fisheries departments. Short growing seasons of the Northwoods subject all fish to survival problems that our mid-south species don’t experience.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) has special seasons to protect bass, muskie, lake sturgeon and walleye from being harvested during their vulnerable spawning season to improve the odds of natural restocking.
In the 1970s, anglers pursued muskie vigorously, keeping and mounting significant numbers of fish. Catch-and-keep rates were so high that stocking became necessary, not only to lakes that already supported muskie but to other lakes with suitable habitat.
Unfortunately, stocking muskie is an expensive process because the post-stocking survival rate depends greatly on the fish’s size when stocked. For muskie the optimum size is 12-inches long. Also, the muskie fry depend on live forage, creating logistical and expense problems for hatcheries.
Several states, including Missouri, tried stocking hybrid or tiger muskie, a cross between a female northern pike and a male muskie. According to Tim Simonson, Staff Specialist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, anglers perceived tiger muskies as more aggressive and easier to catch, but hybrids had difficulties acclimating to natural prey after being stocked.
“The post-stocking survival rate of tiger muskie is much lower than a true muskie so we discontinued stocking tigers in the mid-1990s,” said Simonson. Other states were quick to follow, opting for a return to the true muskie.
In the last two decades, mid-south fisheries departments have stocked muskie in select waters, creating a cult-like cadre of muskie anglers on lakes like Missouri’s Pomme de Terre.
“We wanted a sport fish with a dedicated following that was capable of eating adult shad and young rough fish,” said Kevin Richards, retired Fisheries Unit Chief, Missouri Department of Conservation.
The Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame (FWFHF) lists two world records. One is for the natural muskie at 69-pounds, 11-ounces caught from Wisconsin’s Chippewa Flowage in 1949 and the other is for the hybrid or tiger muskie at 51-pounds, 3-ounces caught from Lake Vieux Desert, Wis., in 1919.
Muskie anglers are an odd bunch, measuring their success by how many fish they see in a day, (they call it an ‘encounter’) instead of how many they catch. Muskies are known for following a lure to the boat, then turning away at the last moment to leave a hapless angler trembling like a leaf.
Professional muskie angler, Jim Saric, believes the old saying that ‘muskies are a fish of ten thousand casts’ is a myth. “I know anglers who catch 40 or 50 muskies a year and only spend two or three weeks fishing,” he said.
After fishing Dairyland Reservoir, my family would concur. Even though we didn’t catch a legal 40-inch fish, we caught several undersize and lost count of our adrenaline popping ‘encounters’.
Propeller or chugger style surface lures were most productive; of those Creek Chub’s silver colored KnuckleHead produced the most fish. Prop lures from 5 to 10-inches long produced action for both muskie and smallmouth.
But Dairyland isn’t all about muskie, it has a good population of football-shaped smallmouth, eating size catfish, and walleye – albeit a little small, plus good numbers of lake sturgeon. And guess what, sturgeon breach in the summer just like our paddlefish.
Smallmouth are plentiful, we often saw them chasing minnows on the surface similar to how our white bass run shad. When that happens they are vulnerable to small muskie surface lures and bass-sized poppers like Berkley’s Frenzy Popper or Rebel’s Pop-R.
Being enamored with muskie, we didn’t fish for walleye but they hold near the channel drops during the summer. Successful anglers use jigs tipped with soft plastics, minnows or nightcrawlers presented vertically.
Even though we didn’t catch a keeper-sized muskie, the experience was delightful. Family remarks about the trip were, “So – we’re going to do this again next year – aren’t we?
Very likely. Did I mention we saw a bear?
Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. —
