Musky migrations

[heat checker]

Somewhat new to fishing these awesome fish, I have a few questions. Does a musky return to the same area of a lake each year? I had a big one follow, and was wondering if that same fish might be in same area the next yearat same time (assuming same water temp and conditions)? Do they "migrate" at all outside of spawning? Or do they continuously roam in feeding and resting stages?

[s2h]

Good question. Always wondered the same thing.

[propster]

Good article in MH this month about tracking tagged fish in Kinkaid down in Illinois. One of the biggest females they tagged spent several days at a time in a very specific area, and a lot of the year in a larger but generally same part of the lake. But other times it was all over the lake and not surprisingly many of the tagged fish spent 50% of their time over open water. And an article a few years ago described an individual who tagged his own fish and he claimed he re-caught several of them in almost the same exact spot almost to the day a year later.

[JRedig]

I think it's dependent on the lake and it's size/forage/cycle.

There are some great tracking studies from Eagle Lake in Ontario, huge water, very interesting info. Not sure where to find them on the net though...

[b1gf1sh1]

IMO, and experience yes they hang in the same areas. but i fish rivers so in lakes i don't have much of an oppinion. over the years i've experienced it but most recently i know three fish in three different areas on two different rivers that i've caught in successive years. it could be more but these three fish have specific identifying marks. one actually has a messed up bill, almost like it was broken at one time. two years in a row on that one and two years on another croix muskie. and a mississippi sweety has said hi four years in a row a total of seven times. prettiest steel blue hue i've ever seen, and i mean bright, but the poor girl has a big gash behind her nether region. i call her ''old faithfull''.

[BrianLucky13]

I fish a small lake a lot. After catching the same fish year after year I would have to say they stay in the same "general" area during that same year. But year after year they do move, but not much. I caught the same 46 incher 2 times this year and that dang thing didnt move more the 20 yards. I even caught it on the same lure twice. The year before last summer I caught it twice and it was about 300 yards away from the spot I caught it on last summer.

I think the fish in lakes with not much structure they stick around. But lakes like Vermilion and Mille Lacs they can move around a lot more cuz there is way more food.

Theres one fish on a lake that I fish that is known as the "Tourist Fish." That thing has been in the same spot for about 3-4 years. I've watched it grow from around 49 inches to about 53 inches. I dont think anybodys caught that thing. If you wanna see it all you have to do is throw topwater in a certain spot and sure enough it will be right behind it!!

[heat checker]

Thanks for the confusion here guys, NAH, just "pullin your chain". I'm takin a geuss that the big ones are more entitled to their choice of territory and would lay claim to the choice structure? Which, I gueuss would also include doing a little roaming whenever they darn well please. Thanks for the info guys.

[Nick Kuhn]

In general tagged fish have shown home regions, spending most of the time roaming deep water, moving into adjacent shallow water to feed then returning to the adjacent deeper water. Once caught they would leave that area in favor of another.