Big Muskie on Mille Lacs

[RK]

Sketchy details at this point, but the DNR is confirming a harvest report from the Fond Du Lac Band of a 54.8 lb muskie from Mille Lacs on Wednesday. Would have been a state record if that size and caught in season.

RK

[cbrooks]

Hopefully some pics out there

[PropsterII]

I swear the publisher must be a descendant, he sure is an apologist for the ways and means, and doesn't even like people lamenting that it occurs.

[Musky Buck]

Did I catch that correctly "harvest report" ? Thought the nets were so large fish wouldn't be tangled or whatever ?

[fishcast]

they were given legal rights to harvest in that manner. they have quotas that are strictly monitored. Unfortunately, bycatch in nets is frequent and most often fatal. Certain mesh size in the gill nets tends to select for certain sizes of fish, but even fish to large for the mesh size can easily get teeth fouled in the net, and esox often gator roll in nets making the predicament even worse for themselves. unfortunate situation, but i am not too surprised to hear it... Oh, and there are pics floating around online too

[pikechaser]

Just learned that a new state record Muskie was killed in the gillnets on Mille Lacs. source:

"It was reported to me by a Mille Lacs Resort owner that a 54.8# Musky was taken by gill net today on the east side of Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota. It was supposedly 56" long. That is all the information I have at this time. If true, it likely would be a Minnesota state record if it had been taken by hook and line. Update: I talked to again to the source and this information comes directly from the Aitkin Fisheries office."

After reading some of the comments on this post, I wanted to confirm this myself, so I called the Aitkin DNR fisheries office and talked to Eric Jensen. He confirmed the report and told me it was taken in a gillnet by a Fond du Lac Band member.

Be sure to visit the PERM booth at George’s Minnesota Muskie Expo.

[Musky_Madness]

If you look in the Mille lacs forum, you can even find a pic of the guy holding it

[mrklean]

Its in the thread in the mille lacs form

[Musky Buck]

Not upset, not happy either, just thought the nets didn't allow for large fish to be tangled or whatever.

[This Guy]

Does any one know if it was weighed on a certified scale?

[TomWehler]

Sad thing for the fish to die like that...must a got twangled all up like that en such eh?

Sucks...but man o man thnk of all the muskie fish tacos!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm!

Bet a bigger one awaits your offering .... so...GO GET HER!

KABLAM!!

Keep on rocken!

Tommy

[Vermilion_figure_8]

Hard to hear this. We all know fish like that are swimming around in a few lakes across the state, just hurts to hear of a fish reaching its potential to wind up stuck in a net.

[NEUT6899]

Quota's are strictly monitored??? BULL

[cbrooks]

Well, the good news out of this is the potential for growing state record fish is there in ML.

[mrklean]

Well, the good news out of this is the potential for growing state record fish is there in ML.

I think we always knew there was great potential in ML for a record

[Jameson]

I'm not out there to see it, but it sure seems like normally nearly no muskies get harvested these days. Not saying that's is good or bad, just the way it looks. So, scientifically, in theory, whatever, would it make it more likely to have a state record if there was some harvest? Ya know, knocking numbers down so that the rest can live better. So, maybe the netting has some benefit? Or maybe the harvest from the nets is so small it doesn't matter and Mille Lacs is just a record producing kind of lake?

[Nick Kuhn]

Unlikely, muskies are present in a very low density in Mille Lacs. Any predator would benefit size-wise from a boom in forage species: however catching well-fed fish that are present in low-numbers borders on mathematically impossible.

[john skarie]

Muskies die every year in every lake either from delayed mortality or people keeping them. More than you think.

biologically speaking more harvest does not lead to bigger fish with low density fish.

If you want bigger fish you let them grow and weed themselves out. That's how the special pike regs work.

JS

[SmellEsox]

Amazing fish for sure. Not likely a state record fish once she spawns. I helped net on Mille Lacs in the late 90's and in fact measured the first 50" muskie ever measured by DNR on the lake. Females were amazingly heavy for their length at ice out. 45" females weighed over 30 pounds. They were grotesquely full of eggs. I'm sure this 56 inch fish had several pounds of eggs in her. To be a state record it would probably have to swallow a 5 pound sucker or walleye (which is possible).

Gill nets used by the tribe are not a size that would typically entangle big fish, even 40" muskies. We occasionally catch large pike in the 3/4" mesh of our experimental gill nets. What typically happens is the large predator goes after a perch or other small fish that is caught in the net, and it gets caught by the teeth. It is a rare occurrence, but it happens.

[Jameson]

...however catching well-fed fish that are present in low-numbers borders on mathematically impossible.

I think you meant to word this differently, but it's funny how it is written.

[Musky Buck]

No doubt they die each year, I know of 1 cabin owner on a 2,000 acre lake and he claims to have buried dozens of them over the years. And there was no reason for this older gentleman to not be truthful. Said you never know when 1 will be on his shore, just not in winter

[Nick Kuhn]

"...however catching well-fed fish that are present in low-numbers borders on mathematically impossible."

I think you meant to word this differently, but it's funny how it is written.

It is an odd warning. When they did a creel survey/netting survey on my lake, a full 84% of all walleye sampled were over 20 inches long (due to a very high growth rate and poor recruitment). Over 20,000 angling hours were put in, and the creel clerk did not have a single report of a legal size (15"+) walleye being caught for the entire season.

Simply put well fed fish can key in on exactly what they want to eat. This is the same reason why you can draw a reservoir down to 10% of it's original size, and the fishing gets tougher. Sure, the fish are a lot easier to find, but that means the predator fish you are targeting have almost no trouble finding food.

[Chnginthhofl]

[img:left]

[Chnginthhofl]

the guy in the picture was not the one who caught this fish. he just had his pic with it.

[BEEFEATER]

Looks like some lower class Native Americans exercising the rights we gave em! Its to bad they couldent be a bit quicker with there pike, muskie relaeases but then again maybe they would give more of an effort if there wasent certain guides trying to take there given rights from them. can't blame em for being bitter. as for the giant they captured and kept, Thats pretty sad. No excuse for that... I hope with this nice weather they have a great netting season. Hope they make a real haul. Sure hope a couple of individuals arent responsible for taking away the rights of hundreds of Native Americans. expecially when those individuals are charging people to for guide trips on a public water and making sum serious money off of it