sufacing muskies

[stephendawg]

Hey all!
I was on Lake Webster here in Indiana last Fri and experienced an phenomenon I'd never seen before. At 5pm over 20-25' water (stained) and a gentle breeze musky began to roll on the surface like carp over popcorn. Of course I was excited at the prospect of catching a dozen or so and I was the only boater on that piece of water. After 30 min of throwing everything on my bucket at every depth and speed another 4 anglers showed up and began participating in this exercise in frustration. Don't misunderstand. It was cool to see 50+ fish in an hour's time but WOW! was it frustrating. So, 5 fisherman in an hour and no hits or follows.. I'm guessing they were just after an oxygen buzz. Any thouights?

more determined than ever in Indiana,
Stephen Dawg

[Scoot]

Sup Dawg? Where in IN are you finding muskie? I lived in Muncie for a couple of years while getting my M.A.
I experienced a similar thing last summer one evening. We saw about 20 bigguns surfacing all over the place- very cool. We also had the same fortune as you with catching- none. I'm no muskie expert so I have no idea what the heck they were doing. I suggested they wanted to see the greatest fisherman on the lake (me), but my fishing buddies shot down that idea VERY quickly. They decided the fish had never seen such an ugly fella so they wanted a closer look at me.
Scoot

[hooksetter]

I was casting for bass on Fish Lake (near Prior Lake, MN) and saw some equally strange musky behavior. This one came to the surface - with head cimpletely out of the water - and plowed through the water for about 10 feet before it went back under. It was very surreal - Lochness monster like!

[Guest]

Scoot --

Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio have all established some fair muskie fisheries over the past decade or so. Obviously the fish are exotics, but the program seems to have worked.f

Kincaid, in far southern Illinois is a prime muskie water. In Illinois and Indiana you can go south to catch muskies.

[stephendawg]

Well Musky Brethren,
We are proud here in IN to have probably the most up and coming musky fisheries in the midwest. As of this year we have nearly 20 lakes in the Warsaw area that have been aggressivly stocked with leech lake strain. They stopped the hybrid stocking program a while back because the Leech Lake strain was thriving in our natural deep lakes of this region. Naturally occuring hickory shad populations are the primary forage base with plenty of suckers and yellow perch to go along with that. This spring a new state record was posted on Lake Tippecanoe. A beautiful 52" 44#er as I recall. Rumor has it that the record has been broken several times but people are not certifying them because of their catch and release practices. Cool huh? So, if you want to come to IN sometime (although I'm not sure why anyone from the northwoods would want to come south) bring your tackle and boats. You just might be suprised that there is more than corn in Indiana!

longing for loons.....Stephen Dawg

------------------

[Guest]

I don't know if there is anyway to prove this but here is what I was told about this strange phenomenon.

Say all these muskies feed at a similar time which was sparked by something like a cold front coming through. They have all eaten and are now in the process of trying to get this meal all the way in there stomachs for digestion. They come to the surface to try and take air mixed with some water into there mouths to help move the baitfish they just ate. This would be similar to us drinking some milk after eating a bunch of mashed potatoes. If you think about it this would seem to explain why we don't catch these fish. They don't want anything to do with eating, just finishing what they already are working on.

By all means I have no idea if this is true I just thought I would throw it out there. I also feel your frustration but am learning to just enjoy the show they put on.

[Wildlineman]

About 15 +/- years ago on Deer Lake in Wisconsin my Grandfather and I experienced the same thing. It was a warm sunny day with no clouds in the sky. I don't recall what the weather was the next day or previous day. We seen at least 2 dozen Muskie roll on top in shallow and deep water and viewed about 10 lying on the bottom in 8 feet and less of water. It was the craziest thing I have witnessed fishing Muskie. We threw everything we had at them even bumping fish with lures (using large bass type spinner so as not to snag the fish). We had a lot of lazy follows and no strikes. I have not experienced this "phenomonon" (if you call it that) since. It will always be a cherished memory for me as I was spending my time with my Grandfather.

[Long Gray Line]

Saw the same thing on Moore's Bay on Chippewa Flowage a couple of summers ago. We were fishing at dusk and saw a couple of wakes in dead calm water, thought it was an otter or beaver or muskrat. We eased over to where we saw the wakes and saw a couple of pretty good sized esox swimming along with the top of their heads out of the water just cruisin' along. Same story on throwing baits, it was almost like they were stoned.

[andy j]

A couple of years ago my dad and I were fishing muskies at mille lacs and we came up to a bay and saw a lot of wakes in the shallow water. At first we thought they were carp. but when we got in there they were all muskies there must of been at least a dozen+ muskies in this small bay. We didn't even get a follow. We saw 2 fish that were 30 lb plus that swam right under our boat. Then like someone rang the dinner bell. All the muskies literly at the same time, simultaniously, took off out of the bay to deep water. I have seen muskies sunning themselves in shallow water but never like this. it was so weird to see all these muskies wakes heading in the same direction at the same time with out being spooked by anything. AJ

[Fisher Dave]

I have never seen the number of muskies all rolling at one time that you gys have witnessed .. but its very common to see muskies *skimming* the surface over deep water. I was lead to believe it was part of a digestive cycle ... it worked for me at the time considering I have no other explanation and the guy was convincing .. weather its true .. I dont really know, but at the same time I have caught fish in the direct area that the fish were surfacing.

I know that muskies do lay in very shallow water, generally basking in sunlight to speed up their digestive system. Its very possible that is what they are doing in the deep .. I got the shallow water info out of a encyclopedia of fishes. I'm prone to believe this because of the waters I grew up fishing I witnessed muskies laying in shallows regularly for hours .. motionless not wanting anything. Eventually they would glide back out to the deep.

[Guest]

Hey Hooksetter, Maybe it was the Lochness Monster because there are no Muskies in Fish Lake