Genetically altered muskies?

[APCfishing]

I was thinking if they can alter a salmon's genes to grow twice as fast, why not an esox?

Think of the possibilities.....50'ers in 5 years instead of 10!

[Nick Kuhn]

I was thinking if they can alter a salmon's genes to grow twice as fast, why not an esox?

Think of the possibilities.....50'ers in 5 years instead of 10!

In order to do something like that with current technology there would already need to be a species of esox that grows to 50" in 5 years. Other species of fish are too diverged to simply splice in those genes and still expect the fish to survive.

More likely though breeding will result in better fisheries. If enough brood stock is netted in the spring, biologists do select the larger fish to take eggs/milt from. But this process is slow, and at best in our lifetimes we could probably only hope to see fish that are about an inch longer.

[Sorgy]

how about a tiger cross with LL strain muskies and European pike???? Big long fat nasty muskie

Steve

[Shawn Kellett]

I've spoken with a person in our DNR that was kicking around the idea of creating only female muskies. There's been some research done out there and it could technically be possible I guess. Aside from twisting genes around that's probably your best bet to get bigger fish. Now if you could make them sterile (wouldn't produce eggs) NOW you're talking big fish potential!

[mainbutter]

Shawn, sterilization is an interesting concept.

I've heard second-hand that a few taxidermists report that the biggest muskies they've mounted have had blackened ovaries that looked terrible and had to be sterile.

It makes me wonder.. were they actually sterile muskies, or had they just hit a point in their long life (which they'd have to be to get huge) where their ovaries shut down?

[APCfishing]

I've spoken with a person in our DNR that was kicking around the idea of creating only female muskies. There's been some research done out there and it could technically be possible I guess. Aside from twisting genes around that's probably your best bet to get bigger fish. Now if you could make them sterile (wouldn't produce eggs) NOW you're talking big fish potential!

Sounds like Jurassic Park

[HugoBox]

So what you're saying is that we need to target the frigid females? Makes sense, a few of my buddies did that in marriage and those gals got big too!

[Shoot2Kill]

So what you're saying is that we need to target the frigid females? Makes sense, a few of my buddies did that in marriage and those gals got big too!

Ha!

[rugbymn]

So what you're saying is that we need to target the frigid females? Makes sense, a few of my buddies did that in marriage and those gals got big too!

Haha. Just one more example of the natural world giving insight into the human world.

[10,000 Casts]

only females? Good god, they'd kill each other..

[fishuhalik]

I've spoken with a person in our DNR that was kicking around the idea of creating only female muskies. There's been some research done out there and it could technically be possible I guess. Aside from twisting genes around that's probably your best bet to get bigger fish. Now if you could make them sterile (wouldn't produce eggs) NOW you're talking big fish potential!

thats exactly what they do with commercial rainbows to make em big and fat,theyre called triploids. remember what happened when that hatchery next to lake diefferbacker broke loose and let em into the lake? the world records been broken a couple of times in just the last few years