A friend of mine fishes santee cooper...his pictures are redicules as to the size and quantity of cats he catches. (Oh and sorry to hijack)
Yes, but you're liable to be lynched for doing so. A lot of WI has a 40" limit and there's quite a few lakes with a 50" limit. I honestly don't personally know anyone who's killed a musky in the last 10 years.....probably a lot longer.
My fault on the hijack... There is a bowfishing thread we should use. Anyway, I would love to go Musky fishing and Tennessee has some good ones. I need to do some research.
In MI, you are allowed 1 per day over 42" on most inland lakes. That is the most common regulation. Like Dan said, you could keep them if you feel compelled. They are not known as a good eating fish, and take approximately 5 years to reach legal size. Thats a long time for a freshwater fish. To me, it makes no sense at this point to allow them to be killed. Especially speared (ice "fishing") which is when most muskies are kept (when the big mature females are most vulnerable). Its rare for a male to grow to legal size so you are basically killing females. Poor management, and the reason why the muskie fishing isn't as good as it could be in MI. Can you tell I don't care for our current muskie regs?
My next question for Dan was going to be if males grew to legal size. I understand not wanting to keep the big females.
If what I hear is true... then lots get 'released' by the bass and crappie guys... but don't live for long. We did see a musky eat a muskrat in front of the boat. That was amusing. Oh, and it's perfectly acceptable to hijack Vito's threads.
Vito can anyone spear them in MI? Or is MI like Wi where only the Natives can spear them. I have no interest in spearing one just wondering. I've never kept a muskie, since I dont target them. Would I yes. Since I could get it mounted for free. Never tasted one but wouldn't mind trying it once.
Which is absolutely moronic. Bass are harder on the crappie populations than any other fish. Do these same people carry a loaded .44 with a 30 round mag in the boat and shoot the musky too? It could be just like the old days.....except the 30 round mag.
You can spear muskies on most inland lakes. The big issues with spearing are 1) you are only killing big mature females, 2) many sub legal muskies get speared and then you can't release them alive, and 3) you can kill one per day. Most muskies are speared for sport and not because they are good eating fish. I understand those wanting to mount one. 1 per day is an absurd bag limit. It should be a seasonal limit at best. MI is finally trying to restore muskies to their natural state. Before dams and over harvest, every body of water connected to the Great Lakes in MI had Great Lakes (spotted) muskies. Those days are long gone. MI had been planting a northern strain of muskies (barred and clear), and even tried tiger muskies are one point because of their growth rate. Problem is most lakes in the state can't support natural reproduction. Muskies are notoriously bad spawners and a very small percentage lives to maturity. The state has relied on stocking efforts over the last 20 years to bring the fishery back, but the northern strain have not been able to spawn successfully. Many lakes don't receive plants anymore and spearers have cleaned most of those lakes out. Which brings me back to my point...the state is finally stocking Great Lake Muskies for the first time, ever. They hope this fish will be more successful at spawning since these are their native waters. They are using eggs collected from Lake St. Clair, which has always had a strong population of native muskies. And thankfully, it doesn't allow spearing and has a shortened season. The only downside is less lakes will have muskies in the future, but hopefully the ones that do, will be self-sustaining.
Yeah, I don't know how many are just being blow-hards. But I've seen enough gar with snapped off beaks by the hook and line guys to know that they can be rude to non-target fish. On the upside, we see plenty of bass, cats and musky, even when the H&L guys swear they're all fished out. On the downside, after the bass and catfish tourneys we see lots of dead and dying fish that didn't handle the catch and release process too well. I've been tempted to scoop up the ones still twitching and fillet them out.. but I don't want to have a game fish on a boat with no rods and reels.
Musky are much more rare. But, big Pike are also rare and extremely fun to target. Musky are definitely more prized though. I should also add that if you had 10 fish together in a small pond, 9 musky and 1 pike, you are more likely to catch the pike than one of the 9 musky.
Agree that muskie are more of a prized fish because they are a "rare" catch. Dan's scenario is spot on. Pike feed more often and are "dumber" for lack of a better term. Pike are also more of an opportunist. If a fleeing or wounded bait passes their face they will often eat it out of reaction. Muskie do what they want, when they want.
