I Wonder...

[cybermuskie]

Ya know I got to wondering today...How many lures does a musky see in a day in the state of MN? My thought came to me when in the rain I was taking my pregnant wife for a drive. We stopped by a muskie lake in the Longville area, and there were 10 rigs at the access. I would hate to see the numbers if it wasn't raining that hard. (of course I would have been there too) But my point is that musky fishing has grown to be so popular in the last 10 years. I use to live in Bemidji, and one of the lakes I fished you use to be able to go at 6 a.m. and be one of the first there. Now if you show up at that time you are like the 20th there. You almost need to take a number to fish a area. It's a wonder anyone can catch a fish with them seeing everything in our tackle box by 10 a.m. Don't get me wrong...I love fishin for ski's also, but it's like bow hunting, use to be you could hunt where ya wanted, now it's a fight to get a tree. Last night I was pitchin a shoreline with 4 other boats and one guy trolling the edge of the weedline. I stopped and waved him by so he would stop staring at me, because he wanted to be where my boat was sitting.

One of my buddies said he heard the DNR was going to beef up musky stocking next month, anyone else heard more on this? It's really to bad they didn't think of this 10 years ago. But he also heard there is alot of people wanting to fight this, because they are worried about hurting the other fish in the lake. What the don't understand is some of the best walleye lakes have muskies in them. I know my point turned more into a rant, but I personally would like to stock more lakes, so there isn't so much pressure on these fish. And maybe the pressure isn't a big deal to the fish, but I like to relax when I fish and not have to dodge boats all day long. Maybe we as musky hunters can put some pressure on the DNR, and get some more lakes stocked.

Well thanks for letting me rant and put in my .02 cents.

Feel free to add or go a different direction.

[only-eyes]

I know with the growing numbers every year they should start stepping it up. I have a good hour drive to fish muskies, and thats to heavily pressured lakes. Look at the money muskie fishermen are dumping into the economy, that should be enough insentive for the DNR to start a little stronger stocking program.

[J Rookie K]

Fish em at night . I agree though, something should be done.

[fishing4fun]

I wish they would stock them in more southern lakes. I live in SW Minn and it's 3 hours for me to get onto any musky lake. Don't get me wrong I do the drive several times a year. I just wish they were a little bet closer.

[Random guy]

good point only-eyes! I remember when I started fishing muskies I would get strange looks from other fisherman while tossing baits that were as big as there fish. Now pay attention on your next trip to the lake of how many rigs you see with some sort of Muskie sticker or big landing net. There is huge numbers in gas, lodging, equipment etc. I may have a biased opinion but look at how well musky fisherman take care of there catches. CPR has shown how well sportsman can help to support a strong fishery. Although the pressure is on and it is a valid question what our resource department is planning to do in response. It would be interesting to see some type of report or study addressing this issue.

[J Rookie K]

How about a Musky Stamp? Id buy one.

[Random guy]

Why not, we shrug off $20+ baits, as long as a portion went to stocking etc. I wonder how many Musky fisherman Minnesota currentley has?

[Down to Earth]

The one problem you would run into with the stamp is the same problem you have with people fishing for them pre-opener. On many waters someone would just claim they are "fishing" for northerns.

Andy

[Musky Joe]

I think there should be a musky stamp. It will keep people that accidentally catch legal sized musky's from keeping them.

[Random guy]

Also with the installation of a stamp , there could be better tracking of the number of Musky fishermen/woman. It would be a very accurate way to track the numbers,demographics and raise awareness both legaly and resource consumption wise. The more info the better, a large number of decisions are made without the proper data.

[walleye_guy18]

I agree with you guys 100% I think a musky stamp would be a great way to help manage our current fisheries and hopefully make some new ones.

about the whole muskies seeing endless numbers of lures...I'm not even sure how worth it it is for me to go out musky fishing this week. just about every musky lake I fish got pounded by boats this weekend because of the metro tourny.(not complaining though, I will be in it next year )

walleye_guy18

[cybermuskie]

I like your ideas. But I don't know if they would go to a stamp, because of the following reasons,and correct me if I am off here. But for one thing musky will eat the same lures as a walleye, or northern, and they swim in the same waters, therefore anyone one "could" catch a ski. I think it would be hard for the CO's to police who had a stamp and who didn't. They would probably say that half the stamp money has to go for extra CO's. With a trout stamp the CO can go to fewer lakes, and check people. I hope you see what I am driving at here. I don't know maybe it would work, but it maybe hard to get the guy who does "dumb" into one once in awhile to go for it incase he catches one for the wall, and had to let it go because of a stamp. What do you think???

Maybe there could be a donation of 5 bucks when you buy a license that only goes towards muskie stocking. Just have the person behind the counter say "if you plan to fish muskies this year would you like to donate 5 bucks to improve muskie fishing?" Of course this would have to get set up through the DNR first. Just a thought.

I think it's great that people are trying to come up with ways to help the sport out....keep it up!

[jeffro]

I dissagree, just because you can catch a muskie on the same bait or in the same area as other fish is not a strong enough reason. You can catch a bass out of season unintentionally while fishing for crappies or northerns but it is still up to the integrity of the fisherman to return it to the water or face the consequences if caught with the fish in their possesion. There are always going to be a few poeple who break the rules but for the majority of us who follow the rules a muskie stamp is a great idea.

[cybermuskie]

Jeffro,

The points I was trying to mention were after the part about them biting on other baits. It was more that the CO's would have a hard time policing a stamp. And that half the stamp money would probably go elsewhere. If they would promise to use all the money for muskies great, but I would bet they wouldn't. IMO.

[Random guy]

All very good pionts. Although it still does boil down to one thing...sportsmanship. Yes there are always a few that throw ethics to the wind making many tasks difficult. Maybe these induviduals did not have the chance to learn proper ethics. This is when we turn to the new sportsman coming up through the ranks,it may be your child, your nieghbors kids, or the little boy fishing sunnies off the local dock by himself. If enough of us put a little effort and good teachings into these fresh minds we wouldn't probaly have to have a discussion over stamps and fish out of season. Don't get me wrong we have come a long ways from clubbing fish in the bottom of the boat, but there is always room for improvement.

I do have to agree with cybermuskie policing a stamp would be diffucult, and funding does seem to take a detour from its destination now and again. On the other hand data gathered from a stamp or survey like the waterfowl survey would be a very powerful way to simply say " Hey, look at this group of sportsmen/women we need to pay attention to this."

[jeffro]

I agree it would be hard to police but so are all of the other regulations they have. I fish Leech and I have already heard stories of anglers keeping 18-26" Walleyes. The stamp would help promote releasing fish for those not intending to catch muskies. I had a guy a couple years ago bring a muskie he caught over to my boat and ask if he could keep it. I measured it and it was only 39" so I told him to release it and he plopped it in the water and drove away. I don't know how long he had it out of the water but it didn't look good. I guess my point is ignorance kills alot of Muskies and a stamp would sure help with awareness. The DNR could also track Muskie stamps sold each year and hopefully use that data to direct stocking and enforcement. I have no doubt the money would not all go toward muskies but there would be so many other benefits that is would be worth while none the less.

[Random guy]

I hear ya clucking

[muskybuck]

A stamp would be a great help for the Muskie. I am sure it would save quite a few accidently caught fish from death. I would go so far as to require one for each fish kept. The true muskie fishers would never use it except for a mount. Make it $25 so you have to be somewhat serious about it.

[cybermuskie]

Did anyone read the idea about the donation idea? Just wondering if it was a stupid idea Then you really wouldn't upset anyone, but there would be extra money for muskies. Just a thought.

[Doonbuggy]

Sorry, and no disrespect to one's opinions, but a muskie stamp seems like a poor idea. It will not save muskies during cpr and it would be difficult to enforce. I do not see how it would be educational as well.

Pressure on these fish is probably at an all-time high and I am a relative newbie to fishing muskies myself.

What would be next, a crappie stamp? If you buy the stamp you can keep 10 crappies, but if you don't buy the stamp you could only keep five?

Seems like a few people on this post want to keep the fish exclusionary and in a way almost price others out from fishing for them. I don't think that's right or necessary.

The best deal ever is a mere $18 fishing license to fish for a year. Bump it to $20 or $25 and have the additional revenue go to multi-species stocking which would benefit all anglers.

DB

[jeffro]

Maybe it would be better to have more lakes catch and release only? Or have a larger minimum size? Or maybe Muskie fishing is in a cycle that right now is saturated with fisherman and as the catch rates per fisherman go down some fisherman will quit Muskie fishing? What I know right now is it is forcasted to be a great weekend and I am going to go out and enjoy myself.

[lots of luck]

Like any other publicly sponsored government program, I would first suggest running it more efficiently.

I would like to see more CO's, let's manage what we have and who is out there at the current time.

More people getting involved in Muskie organizations, probably the most cost effective way. Donated labor, with just the over head of the fish, would have to be cheaper than paying more full time salaries.

Either way I think we will see more muskie lakes in the future, I was part of the Blaine Musky show's record attendance of 1700 people on the Saturday portion of the show. There is just a little demand out there for water.

Am I way off?

[mntraveler]

Personally, I think a muskie stamp is a fine idea. Not that I want to spend more on licenses than I already do. Or is $500/yr not too much for sporting licenses? Anyway, I guess I don't see how a muskie stamp would be different from a trout stamp. Granted there is going to be a few folks out there that might not get to keep their wall hanger but they can still get a graphite mount (which in my humble opinion they should be doing anyway). And I guess I don't really agree with the arguement of outpricing the general public. If you are willing to pay $10 to $50 per lure you sure should be able to pay an additional $10 for a stamp. Now, the argument of raising the fishing license fee may hold water but I still think the regulations need to be dealt with in keeping muskies. Also, how does policing the public have anything to do with instituting a stamp? It's not like someone can't go out and shoot all the deer they want all year long, does that mean the rest of us will disregard the season? That seems to me about the same as saying people will kill muskies even if there's a stamp. Sorry for the long post but I needed to vent.

[Muskie-searcher]

I agree there are benefits to a muskie stamp, and it is an idea that should be looked into. I think even more importantly though the regulations should be looked at. I feel there should be at least a 50 inch minimum and each fish that is harvested should have to be tagged and recorded with the DNR(similar to deer, turkeys, sturgeon etc.) I also feel the harvested limit should be one fish per year, two at the most. This alone will keep a lot more of the adult fish in the system to naturally spawn and greatly reduce the need for stocking. I personally think every muskie that is not the world record needs to be put back, especially with the improvements in replicas.