Muskies in the oddest places.

[Wiskers]

Well folks, once again Mr. Muskie shows up in the oddest places. On 05-21-03 a very nice Muskie was landed in Crookston MN out of the Red Lake River just below the dam. I am not kidding you........ A young fella pulled in a 42 1/2 incher. I was also skeptical until I seen the pics. It was released to be saught after once again thanks to an honest young man.

Go to www.wiskersguidingservice.com and click on my KROX link to see the pics and read the story.

Rusty

[Lunker]

could be somebody doing private(illegal) stocking. I've fished some lakes that have great pops of fish stocked illegally.

[Steve Foss]

Great pic. The Red Lake River starts at Lower Red Lake and ends up in the Red River at East Grand Forks, and the Red ends in Lake Winnipeg.

Are there musky in Lake Winnipeg or the Red Lakes? How about the Ottertail or any other tribs?

Otherwise, how did it get in there? I grew up in Grand Forks and fished the Red and Red Lake for darn near 30 years and never heard of a musky coming out of that system.

------------------
"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]

[Wiskers]

Well, from what I have learned so far that there are Muskies in Upper Red and I guess it is possible to get this far but I can't imaguine that there are very many being there has never been one documented being caught any where around here in these rivers. This young fella should feel pretty darn lucky. As far as stocking, well I can't hardly think that some one would take the time to stock these rivers as they have not had much publicity for fishing hot spots up until the last five years. But one never knows. All I know is that I would like the chance to hook onto that fella every now and then.

See ya on the water.

Rusty

[fiskyknut]

Muskies are native to the Red river basin. I got a small one icefishing this past march near Drayton. I've only seen 2 others over the years, one at the old "fox farm" area near GFKS, and the other at Drayton.

Fisky

[Scoot]

fisky's right- muskies are locals on the Red. Not a lot of them, but there are definitely some around. I've seen one and heard of a few others from a reliable source. Ed Carlson's caught a couple or a few of them. Last year or the year before a 'lunge cut him off a couple of times in the same spot a few days apart (if I remember the story correctly).
Scoot

[Wiskers]

Well that is good to know, I had not heard of any caught in the areas from all the old timeres here. Now that might explaine what we have been catching in the dam area that we have not been able to get to the boat over the past 3 years. I my self and two others with me in the past 3 years have hooked onto somthing in the white water and we chased it with the boat for 45+ min before the line was cut every time.

We are useing some real heavy duty stuff due to all the snags and still could not get them to the boat. I use 50# Tuff line on all my cat rigs with 20-25# mono leaders. sigh... I guess that is just another goal to reach for, In search of. Muskie.

Thanks fellas.

Rusty

[RK]

Hiya Rusty,
Yeah, muskies are good at showing up where they aren't supposed to

The DNR lists lakes as being managed for muskies, but that isn't necessarily the same thing as a list of lakes or rivers that have them present. I can think of a good dozen lakes where muskies are present that aren't on the 'muskie lake' list.

Someplace in my wreck of an office I have a photo of a MN Fisheries crew with a VERY large muskie caught in a fyke net on the Red north of Grand Forks a few years back. It was a barred fish, so likely an Ontario native strain rather than a spotted Missippi/Leech Lake strain fish. There are probably remnant, low density populations here and there through that whole system. Cool thing is since water quality is improving (Clean Water Act of 1972 has done more for fishing than most anglers even begin to realize) some of these populations will likely expand.

Very cool to stumble into a fish like that...

Cheers,
RK