Musky swimming like an alligator in Nokomis

[tom_w]

Hey all,

I got video of a musky in Nokomis in Minneapolis swimming with its head out of the water. I got right next to it.

I've seen this three different times now. I thought it was a beaver the first time.

Anyone seen this behavior before? It seems pretty bizarre to me.

Tom

[tom_w]

By the way, it was at least 36 inches long. It wasn't a small one.

[slipperybob]

I've seen that happened before with a N.Pike, but not as such a long stretch like that.

[Write-Outdoor]

I first saw this on Lake Waconia by a big pike when I was a little kid in Waconia Bay. I didn't see it again until a few years ago on Lake Calhoun by the main boat landing. A muskie did it around the boats in that area and the docks for a good five minutes. I've seen it a few times since on Calhoun and once on Nokomis like the video you have. It's very odd stuff!

A few "experts" I've asked about it over the years believe it's the muskie/pike searching above water for food. Ducklings are easy pickings this time of the year and maybe the fish get a better perspective on them by taking a peak above water....who knows!

[porterhouse]

I see Tigers do this very often. I never seen a pure strain do this.

Very cool to see on the water.

Brian

[Meat-Run]

When predators are doing this they are in a negative feeding behavior. It could be a couple things like warming up there body to process any food or to get more oxygen. I've seen this by muskies more than northerns but seen this about a dozen times on various lakes like Leech, eagle lake, Bemidji, alex, etc.

mr

[SkunkedAgain]

I biked by Nokomis early this morning. The carp, most about 25" long, were all bobbing on the surface under the bridge. As I watched, off to the left I saw a nice musky roll on the water.

...if only I were a musky fisherman

[tom_w]

Yeah, I pitched a nice sucker minnow out ahead of it and it didn't react. I would still think that a musky hunting ducks would stay below the surface. They have good vision. Then they could explode on them from below.

At any rate it is cool as [PoorWordUsage]. I also have video from farther out where it looks more like a beaver.

I am glad someone else has witnessed this.

[RK]

Hiya -

Lord knows why they do it... Goofy things. I've been told by a couple biologists that they will use gravity to help them swallow something, but who knows. I've seen several of them doing it, and even had one come up next to the boat and swim in a circle with its head all the way out of the water...which was very weird. It's sort of the same thing as when the porpoise - who knows what they're up to, but when you see them like that they almost never bite. I think of all the porpoising fish I've casted to in my life (which is a big number) I've had exactly one hit.

Probably the best explanation is just that it feels good for some reason, and makes them happy...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[updecreek]

I have seen this on this lake before.On one other lake to. Some say that it may have ate a big fish and this help digest the fish? or get it down?

[ClarkA]

Gill Fleas (parasites)!!

[Duffman]

I've seen it a few times on the city lakes and it's always been the tiger muskies. The first time I saw it was on Bush Lake, thought it was a sick muskie, we snuck up on it in the canoe and I reached over and tried to grab an 8lb ish 'ski behind the head. Yea right, that thing was full of vigor, it grinned and soaked me as it splashed away.

Why do they do it? Only the fish knows why and they ain't talkin.

[Cooter]

I've seen it enough that I don't get excited....fun to see but usually just a tease.

[Nick Kuhn]

If it were due to gill fleas or low oxygen the fish would really flare it's gills out (a lesson learned from my bass in the aquarium. Didn't realize the bubbler got unplugged until I had to figure out why he was sitting with the water from the filter pouring into an open mouth with flared gills).

[tom_w]

One time under the Cedar Ave bridge I saw a kid on shore hook a muskie which then snapped his line. So the musky still had a spinnerbait in its mouth. A few minutes later I saw a porpoising musky. Perhaps it was the same one trying to get a hook out of its mouth.

I am sure many musky in Nokomis end up with snapped lines and hooks in their mouths.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Ive seen this quite a few time, too. The first time I thought it was a muskrat or turtle when I realized it was a ski I cast to it and actually caught it. In fact I caught two fish Ive seen swimming like this, both were tigers.

[whitewolf6647]

I've seen this on 3 differant occasions on the same lake in the roughly same location, midlake hump, and each sighting was seperated by over a year and each fish was a differant size. Pretty cool to see, I watched one for do ths for about 10 minutes he'd come up swim around then go down and surface again a few seconds later and he continued this for, like I said, about 10 minutes and this was an upper 40's fish.

[tom_w]

Man, I got to figure out how to draw a strike out of them. I see them almost every time I go now.

[Fishin Dan]

I have seen this on Calhoun 3-4 times this year. Actually saw one of the fish about 5 minutes after it was on the surface and caught it on a spinner bait

[JIGGIN']

I have also seen the same exact behavior out of a tiger muskie on Nokomis as well. The fish was so into whatever it was doing on top of the water at the time that it actually ran directly into my canoe as I was floating in the water! The muskie was not harmed, but I felt it strange that the fish would not dive down seeing me and the canoe. Looked funny and weird all at the same time.

[b1gf1sh1]

Quote:

fun to see but usually just a tease.

hmmmm...mabe your onto something. i've seen it at white bear a bunch of times and it was the same fish i always assumed, was like four years in a row and always just off manatou.. it looked to be a real muskie but i never got close enough. maybe they're just saying ''in yer face chumpo's'' lol. but i've heard the digesting thing before too. also looking for ducks. and the one about evolving to walk on land one too. but i think he was just teasing me.

[DHanson]

I've seen it happen a lot. I saw it happen 3 different times by 3 different fish in 3 different spots in the same day. All on Mille Lacs, I've seen it happen maybe 10 times total.

[Griggs]

Thats the craziest thing I've seen, thats very weird. I'm very surprised that so many people have seen, I've never heard of such a thing!

[cribbageboy]

I have seen Tiger's do it on Cedar Lake in Scott County. They seem very disinterested in eating anything. They seem to be almost dazed or something. Just grasping at straws here, but the lakes you guys are mentioning get pretty heavy boat traffic. Same with Cedar Lake. Could the noise of the boats be bothering them???? Like I said, just a thought.

[updecreek]

Nokomis is a electric motor only lake. so boat motor noise.

I say lack of oxygen or they just gone done eatting a fish. ceder is small not over 15 feet deep and nokomis is just plain dirty water. As like you said they just dont seem intrested in eatting. Plus there is a ton of small sunfish crappie in both lakes.