Musky: good or bad 4 walleye lakes

[Stratosman]

I love to fish for all species of fish including walleye, but there has been a couple times that I have been talking about musky fishing to walleye guys and they start in on how muskies ruin a walleye lake cause they eat all the small walleyes, meanwhile I'm biting my lip thinking to myself, then why do the top walleye lakes in the state also boast big muskie numbers? I bring this point up to them and they scoff at it asking me how much better those lakes could they be if there weren't muskies in there? Get real. Now I beleive this is as pure as ignorance can get, however, as long as there are muskies and walleyes swimming the same waters, this sentiment won't change with some of the die hard eye guys.

Any other musky guys ever get into conversations about on this topic, or what are your opinions on it?

[RuKiddingMe]

Get into this same conversation with my own Dad frequently. He says by introducing the Musky into non-native water they are throwing off a cycle. I try to explain to him how they do extensive research and such before the introduction. I also constantly remind him of a study I read that stated a walleye makes up .01% or .1% or something close to that, of the Muskies Diet.

MN only has so many lakes with Muskies, and I don't think they will be introducing anymore any time soon with all the "Walleye Guys" and groups Like "No More Muskies" opposing the stocking.

It's really to bad, with all the lakes and the forage base on these lakes, MN could be an even better Muskie Fishery...

It's all about education, and getting the proper information out to fisherman...

RU

[Dynasty]

I have also heard muskies dont eat walleye very much.

The waters that are known to grow big pike and musky in the state, many times have a good population of tullibee/whitefish.

[Guest]

This has been a topic of .... for a while. I'm an avid musky fisherman. I can't believe that musky don't eat walleye's. The question is to what extent? If a lake has tullibee/whitefish or suckers in it, I doubt walleye's are a prime target. But what about lakes without this forage base?

[The Grebe]

I'm not a Muskie fisherman by any stretch, but one would think that if Muskies had a negative effect on the Waldos, Mille Lacs and Leech would'nt have a Walleye in them, nor would Minnetonka.

There seems to be a hell of alot more water wolves then Muskies and they don't seem to throw off the balance? I'm sure that a pike is just as efficent at eating Walleyes as a Muskie!

Everything eats everything, larger fish of the same species, cannibalize smaller fish
of the same species...they don't care if they are related, or place of origin, if the smaller fish gets close, "You goin down!"

Fish are opportunists...bottom feeders and supposedly non-predators eat eggs, fry, and even juveniles....ever catch a Carp on a minnow? I have many times. You open up a predators stomach and you might find a little Muskie in a Crappie, a Walleye in a Walleye, a Bullhead in a pike and so it goes.

I believe that things like milfoil, Gobys, Ruffs, Zebra Mussel, various kinds of newly imported Carp and other kinds of aquatic fauna and flora, are more of a threat to a fishery then any population Muskies would ever be!

[Bushwacker]

Like mentioned above, my personal list of top walleye waters in the state are as follows:
1-Lake of the Woods
2-Winnie
3-Mille Lacs
4-Leech
5-Cass

Do you know what these lakes all have in common? ------------

The little pike eat way more walleye fry that any muskie does. That why so many lakes have the signs to take pike 24" and under.

[Stratosman]

The thing that gets to me most is (and it has happened on a couple of occasions) when they ask if I killed the muskie before throwing it back. I just smile and say "no, why would I do that?" If we killed every fish that ate walleye fry and fingerling, we would have to kill every fish in the lake, including walleye. I was reading an article a while back about a huge muskie caught I believe in the St. Lawrence River or somewhere, the particulars escape me, but the guy kept it to mount and the taxidermist pulled something like 10 lbs of bullheads out of its stomach, so the next time one of these "sportsman" complains about catching bullheads while walleye fishing, tell them it's because there's probably not enough muskies in there to keep them in check.

[MJCatfish]

Stratosman,

I like the too many bullheads while fishing for walleyes bit. Definitely will use it with my buddies.

MJ

[Kab Dreamin]

I'm a hardcore walleye guy but I say bring on the muskies. I would love to see them introduced into Kabetogama and Namakan. They are in Rainy and the walleye fishing there just keeps on getting better. I'm no biologist but I have a feeling they help keep the roughfish populations in check by thinning out some of the bigger ciscoes, suckers, perch, etc. that are too big for walleyes to prey on. Aside from that, it would be cool to tie into one of those big dogs every now and then when we are chasing eye's.

[Mightymuskie]

I agree with grebe, besides it would be good for the muskies to eat a few of the walleye to help keep the population in check. Catching lots of little 8-10" walleye gets old. Thin the population a bit and there would a healthier population and a better size average. Have you ever fished a farm pond where no bass are kept? what happens? They become stunted, due to over population. The food chain can only hold so much biomass at each level, which depends on the fertility of the body of water.

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May your replica be large and your stories even Larger!

[MT Net]

Just a note.
Northerns spawn much earlier than muskies. Thus much of the muskie fry are food for the northerns. That is why any lake will have a higher northern population than muskie.

[gundy89]

It's one big ecosystem, and Im sure that the populations cycle. I am sure that muskies will eat the eyes, but not even close to as many as the fisherman do!!! Especially the bigger fish. What kills me is the pictures of the 5-7lb walleyes that are killed. I doubt they're putting it on the wall and why would you eat something that big. If people would put a few more back the masses would have to find something else to complain about. Just my thoughts.

[Trailblazin]

Introducing muskies will not the fishery! I not only here the walleye guys say this, but the bass guys really complain. There mind of thinking is because the muskie is a large predator, it will eat everything in its way......The best fisheries boost all fishes from small mouth to bass, muksie, walleye, etc..

Oh, and by the way, the Muskies main diet on Tonka is Carp and crappies. Think about that....

[The Grebe]

They might eat alot of Carp and Crappie and I'm sure you are right, but they won't pass up a bass either.

We were doing a landscaping job, putting in a retaining wall for a client on Lake Minnetonka and there was this Bass under the dock we would see him everyday...one day, just prior to wrapping up the job, a sinester shape about 4 feet long, comes slowly cruising the shallows...it looked like he slipped in behind the bass, a big boil of water and senor bass was history!

Seen it happen again earlier this summer, at a spot we were fishing from shore, up at Mille Lacs....we were watching this smallie, a pretty nice one to, protecting a bed in the rocks and gravel, about 3 feet from shore. We had seen Muskies tailing and cruising, every once in awhile. All of a sudden there was a big boil and like before, senore bass was no more!

[EBass]

Muskies are eating machines. On Lake Rebecca going for bass my buddy just hooked into a 2.5 (like 16-17") bass then from no where comes a 40+ ski chomping on it. It let go after 10 seconds but that bass had some bleeding teeth marks.

[upnorth]

This topic has floated around the Vermilion forum a couple of times. The Walleye folks get POed about the Muskies eating Walleyes, and the Musky guys get all defensive and start throwing studys around.

Fact is Muskies eat Walleyes, but so do Pike. But I don't really agree that putting in a super predator like a Musky won't have an effect on the Walleye fishery. When you get a fish that grows to sizes like a Musky they gotta eat and eat a lot. It may not be that they are eating a whole lot of Walleyes, but long Walleye guys figure that the Walleyes get chased out their normal hang outs. That and I'm sure that is gonna be some competition for food.

That said I have been thinking on taking up Musky fishing in addition to everything else I fish for. One more addiction to feed