Musky head hunters????

[smeese]

So I spent a couple of my days off on French....still no ski...no fish seen either. But the real bummer is, I was talking to this guy that lives on the lake and he says a couple of his neighbors are hardcore walleye guys and every time they catch a Musky they kill them because they firmly believe they should have never been stocked and that their walleye fishing has been ruined ever since. One guy even cuts their heads off and lets them dry out on the side of his shed. This was ther most disturbing thing I ever heard. (as far as fishing is concerned) Has anyone ever heard of this happening?

The guy offered to show me the shed but I was so appalled at the time I just wanted to fish to get my mind off of it.

[porterhouse]

Yes, I heard of this on French before. About 5 years ago I caught a muskie by a dock on French. A older man on the dock tells me he kills every muskie he catches because the muskies are eating all the walleye. I told the guy maybe you and your buddies should release a few of those walleyes.

Smeese- Was this guy on the south end of the lake?

Brian

[crix]

Its too bad there are people out there that need to be like this. We only have so many lakes with muskies in comparison to walleye what 80% of minnesota lakes have them

Honestly I would have had him show me called the dnr and waited until the dnr got there. If he is killing them all there is a good chance he is taking fish that are under 40" or is french a 48" lake? I cant remember I dont need to they all swim away after pics

[AWH]

Honestly I would have had him show me called the dnr and waited until the dnr got there.

Exactly what I was thinking. That's definitely someone that needs to be paid a visit by the DNR. It's hard to measure a fish with only a head. But you can certainly tell if it's well under legal size!

Aaron

[AaronM]

Originally Posted By: crix

Honestly I would have had him show me called the dnr and waited until the dnr got there.

Exactly what I was thinking. That's definitely someone that needs to be paid a visit by the DNR. It's hard to measure a fish with only a head. But you can certainly tell if it's well under legal size!

Aaron

So what exactly could the DNR peg these guys with? It seems to me that if the fish are of a legal size, there's not really much anyone can do about it.

[b1gf1sh1]

about the best arguement for a muskie stamp i've heard yet?

1 per year. per stamp.

[hanson]

Maybe a wanton waste citation. The guy would have to somehow admit to the DNR he did kill them and throw them away but if he's proud enough to admit he is killing them for the good of the fishery to other anglers, he just may flap his mouth too much in front of the DNR as well. Really hard to say. DNR may also just set up an investigation and monitor the guy as they will probably have to catch him in the act.

[crix]

about the best arguement for a muskie stamp i've heard yet?

1 per year. per stamp.

Yup I am all for a stamp

[crix]

Or the dnr in plain clothes fishing having a chat with him as they troll by he says too much and bust him

Dnr can be sneaky I think for something such as this

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Thats sick.

Me and a buddy chatted with an older gentlemen while ice fishing on Bald Eagle and he said pretty much the same thing, muskies are to blame for small panfish and low walleye pop. and he slits them all hole to hole. We didnt say much to him after that but judging by what we saw of his ice fishing skill he has probably never caught a muskie...

[smeese]

Yeah.....I totally grew up in the area and know quite a few people on the lake. My nephew fishes the lake regularly too so I am gonna investigate this further as I have a general direction of the home or homes. Maybe these people don't catch a ton of them but how thick can the population really be anyways on a small lake to sustain these measures. Between that and the access I might as well head north.

[JRedig]

A stamp would not solve this problem, people like this could care less.

Definitely report it, if the DNR hears it enough, they'll do something.

[castmaster]

A stamp would certainly do something about issues like this. As the law stands now someone can LEGALLY catch and kill one musky a day during the open season, provided they also "use" that fish that same day, as you are allowed one fish per day, one fish in possession.

A stamp/tag program changing it to one fish PER SEASON would make anyone who does things like this a poacher and much easier to deal with.

[JRedig]

It will not stop them from poaching. Same as shoot, shovel and shut up but with fishing. They'll just quietly go about wasting the resource.

The guy who hangs them on his shed will just get rid of the remains or leave them in the lake, no way to prove anything.

[mroyten]

Saw about a 35-40 in Northern's head near the garbage at the Forest Lake launch today. Probably by this same type of angler.

[b1gf1sh1]

true. jred it would be tough as alaska to catch these screwballs but as it stands now everything done is legal. so nothing can be done. with a stamp at least theres a chance? besides, maybe the cash raised through the stamp could help offset this waste with more muskies stocked.

it's pretty stupid how these fools decide it's the muskie doing harm to their favorite fish populations when it's got very little to do with it. lol, lakes without muskie see a decline in good sized pannies, and have low populations of walleye even with stocking. it's the catch and keep attitude of some that are to blame. some it's a culture thing. keep and eat. and the over limit (poor word useager's). IMO... there needs to be a complete overhaul of bag limits. meaning lower. but to not affect the tourist industry a non-resident TEMPORARY license, 3 and 7 day resident also, should have a relative higher limit.

side step on over-harvest... on the croix i used to be able to hit massive schools of white bass in the 1 to 2 pound range on accident. it was almost annoying sometimes but a lot of fun on a slow day. now i'm lucky to even ''find'' a small school and the ones caught are like small crappies. over-harvest is to blame not muskie, and that river is chock fullo muskie(and walleye BTW). the limit was lowered for white bass, it used to be 50, i just hope it wasn't too late, as the gizzard shad have over-run that river from lack of predation. the sheepshead took their place on the foodchain population and the white bass need to retake it.... again. (croix's also fullo pannies of above average to trophy in size.) no, muskie aint to blame for less fish.

[setterguy]

A resort owner (on a muskie lake no less) once told me after one too many cocktails that he tells all his spearing customers to spear every muskie they see and bury it in the snow.

Needless to say I won't be staying at that resort ever again.

I'm hoping that this kind of thinking is with the older generation, and we can try to educate and inform the younger fisherman/women.

[PC's]

I dont beleave this is happening. Ever year theres stories off people filleting muskies on the docks of french, muskies thrown on the roadside, people just injuring them before the realease but honestly i think its hogwash. Theres maybe one or to old timers that are set in there ways that harvest em but not as many as years ago. The same old stories circulate up on the Big Fork, Millcs, French, Miltona, Bemidji, Etc. Not sure why, just a bunch of stories. I will say this though, I think people have ever right to do whats in the law, but the day i see these mercy killings outright i will eat my words but untill then im thinking positive. To be honest with ya muskie fishing is on an upswing right now but the prssure on Mn's resources will be its down fall. I dont mean just for muskies but every aspect of the game. The sport fishing industry is growing despite hard economic times, & with limited muskie lakes it wont be long.

[AaronM]

I dont beleave this is happening. Ever year theres stories off people filleting muskies on the docks of french, muskies thrown on the roadside, people just injuring them before the realease but honestly i think its hogwash. Theres maybe one or to old timers that are set in there ways that harvest em but not as many as years ago. The same old stories circulate up on the Big Fork, Millcs, French, Miltona, Bemidji, Etc. Not sure why, just a bunch of stories. I will say this though, I think people have ever right to do whats in the law, but the day i see these mercy killings outright i will eat my words but untill then im thinking positive. To be honest with ya muskie fishing is on an upswing right now but the prssure on Mn's resources will be its down fall. I dont mean just for muskies but every aspect of the game. The sport fishing industry is growing despite hard economic times, & with limited muskie lakes it wont be long.

I'm sure this happens more often then you think. How can you say you're thinking positive, but go on to say that Minnesota fishing is going downhill? Fishing now is better than it was fifteen or twenty years ago and it's due to A) Better education on C&R, Slot limits and C) Smaller harvest limits. I'm a firm believer that the Minnesota DNR are overall smart enough to not let things get out of control. My $0.02? If there is somebody doing something like this, educate them. If they don't want to listen, get your cell phone out...TIP.

[merkman]

My $0.02? If there is somebody doing something like this, educate them. If they don't want to listen, get your cell phone out...TIP.

Amen

[mrklean]

thats pretty sick, report them asap, keep after the dnr and make them away this is happening

[Shawn Kellett]

It happens, but I don't think it happens too much. Most muskie guys only catch 10 +/- per year and they're targeting them. Get their info and turn them in. Even if the CO can't give them a ticket the donkey in question will know that he's being watched. This is one of the reasons why the muskie community has pushed for the 48" min. That should cut down on this behavior quite a bit (I hope).

If you hear of resort owners that promote "spear and release", post them all over the internet! We'll be sure to let him know our stance with our $$$. Hopefully then places like that will have to go condo

As far as the fishing getting better in this state I don't think so. I personally believe it peaked probably 4-5 years ago. The massive influx of people both in-state and out have done it's damage. That's not to say things are terrible, just not what it was 5-15 years ago when there were 1/4 the anglers and a bunch of stupid fish.

[john skarie]

Hey Shawn;

Are you saying you think the population is going down, or that it is just harder to catch fish?

Just curious. I think the fishing was definately much "easier" 5-10 years ago. Not sure about fish numbers, at least on my normal haunts they seem to be holding pretty steady.

JS

[PC's]

What i said about fishing going down hill is just a FACT. We needed a constitutional amendment to protect are lakes, The size of the panfish in the metro has shruken by like 3 inches in the past 20 years. It almost impossible to catch 20lb pike in mn now other then a few select areas, ducks are almost exticnt [Note from admin: Please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.]

[john skarie]

There may be individual lakes where fisheries have declined, but for the most part fishing now is as good as I can ever remember for pretty much every species in MN. Not just my opinions, but supported by DNR findings.

Fisheries always cycle, ups and downs are normal.

Big pike are still rare, but not as rare as they were 15 years ago.

JS