LOW muskie

[Scoot]

Here's a pic of a fish I caught on LOW last weekend. If you look closely at the anal fin, you'll see eggs dripping off of it.

Here's what the boat looked like after I released her.

Obviously, this fish didn't drop her eggs and I'm sure wouldn't/won't spawn this year, given that the water temps ranged from 62 to over 70. I wondered if the late Spring and goofy weather would explain this and that maybe many or most fish didn't spawn up there this year. I asked Doug Johnson about this and he hadn't seen an unspawned female this year. Any thoughts on why this fish hadn't spawned?

FYI- I did a full write up on our trip in the LOW forum, if anyone's interested.

[50inchpig]

nice fish, we were catching crappies last week with eggs still in them and wondering the same thing.

[SmellEsox]

From what I know about muskie spawning, fish may or may not expel all of their eggs. I know Leech Lake strain muskies have been known to spawn early and then again a bit later. But that should all be done by now. I think it is possible, though, that she did spawn, but did not spew all her eggs. Very nice, healthy looking fish!

[10,000 Casts]

Awesome fish Scoot!!!! She looks like she was too busy eating to have time to spawn!

[dcraven]

"Smell" said it right. She could have partially spawned or not spawned at all. As biologists point out, "From the onset of egg production, muskellunge produce two sizes of eggs - larger and smaller. They then spawn twice - usually coming in early and then a bit later. A behavior/trait developed through natural selection to ensure the continuance of the species..." This fish, just like crappies, bluegills or bass may absorb the eggs if conditions do not promote spawning behavior - usually, most probably caused by odd tempature variations within the normal progression and sequence of the spring season.

DC

[RuKiddingMe]

Whoa - that's a piggie Scoot!!!

[Shoot2Kill]

Wow, beautiful fish!

[scsavre]

Scoot,

I've gotten a few in our area like that, or the area you have listed.

I've never thought too much into it. Always figured it was the lack of spawning habbitat and they were obsorbin the eggs. In most cases it was the first few weeks of the season.

Nice fish, I hope to get a few likm that when I'm up in the angle in 2 weeks

[Tim_Anderson]

Have seen this with most fish species this season in a number of lakes. Pike, bass, crappie, carp, buffalo, etc. that never spawned. My thinking is that they have a window where the crucial conditions/variables must come together (water temp, photoperiod, etc) for them to spawn, or they don't. In these cases, the fish will eventually reabsorb their eggs. Too bad.

There was some huge pike caught up here in the Brainerd area well after the opener that had huge guts full of eggs. Unfortunately, they were harvested.

Lately, I've been bowfishing carp and buffalo - which are usually spawning in early to mid june. Here it is now, into July, and I haven't seen them spawning yet anywhere yet.

Doesn't surprise me at all with the musky. Nice fish!

[mrklean]

nice fish scoot

[CommonSense Guy]

This one took a [PoorWordUsage] on me. Also from the woods

[harvey lee]

Nice fish Scoot. That's a brute.

[Scoot]

Thanks Tom- we put in a lot of time and effort for that one fish.

Commonsense Guy, I've had muskie doodie all over me and my boat many times over, but I've never had eggs dumped on me before that fish. I think she liked me...