I hear there are Muskys in Mayfield lake. From what I understand they move into the shallows in the spring to mate. Has anyone ever fished for these fresh water barracuda. Is it worth giving it a shot down at Mayfield Lake.
Any info would be appreciated.

I fished for musky when I was in grad school back in wisconsin. I caught a few, but nothing over 44" I hear the ones in mayfield lake have gotten quite sizeable. They are tiger muskies, which is really a musky/pike hybrid. They are sterile, but still try to spawn in early spring anyhow. In wisconsin they moved into the shallows right after ice out and became fairly agressive at times. Tigers are much less wary than regular muskies, but not as aggressive as northern pike.

The first week or two of stable weather after ice out could produce some really hot activity, even on the surface at times. I would imagine that around here the last part of Feb or early March would be good on a normal year, but given the lack of a winter this year, who knows when they will bite?

As for gear use heavy (ie salmon not bass) casting tackle and large bass lures. Tigers tend to prefer smaller stuff than full blooded muskies, but bigger stuff than bass. Don't forget the wire leaders (the buggers have sharp teeth). Make sure and have pliers for unhooking. too.

Let me know how the fishing is. I have been tempted to take a trip down to mayfield one of these years. But haven't been able to find the time. Maybe next year.

HUH, this mayfield lake sounds very interesting. I'm off work for a few more weeks, think I will give it a try this week.

I fished muskys in the UP of Michigan, My 2 favorite lure for olf toothy one is Red white daredevel and you cant go wrong with a large mepps spinner (almost any color) but I like the gold red buck tail's...watch for weedy grass lines with stumps near buy a river or large stream near buy dosnt hurt either....lots of casts are required, but watch the water with some good polorized glasses, they well chase several times before hitting, and some just attack at first site, so expect the unexpected....the wire leader is good advice it dont have to be too long....DJ

Yep, been there, seen 'em, never caught one. They ask that you keep only 51" or larger, so that the younger ones can prliferate. Yes, that is 4'+! They are huge, the guy that owns the Mayfield resort/campground can tell you where to go, the bucktails are the best lure. I haven't tried to catch one yet, but this summer I will take a trip or two.

Let us know how you do!

Wasn't the state record muskie taken from Mayfield a year or two ago?

Here's an article I found dated last year.

Thursday, February 28, 2002
By JON HAHN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

You could call him Leroy Brown, meanest fish in the whole damn town. Hangs out in Green Lake -- don't let your toy poodles go wading -- right in the middle of a polite Seattle neighborhood. Most folks rounding the lake or paddling around on it don't have an inkling that a natural killer is lurking there.

Some calls him Tiger Muskie. And inch for inch, pound for pound, he's the leanest, meanest eating machine this side of Amityville. Tigers are half-breeds, a hybrid cross of a true muskellunge and its cousin, northern pike. Tiger muskies can't reproduce -- maybe that's what makes 'em so mean -- but they're a great sport fish. Not bad eating, either.

Most are produced in fish hatcheries, but the muskie-pike cross occurs naturally. The national record tiger was caught in 1919 on the Michigan-Wisconsin border (Lac Vieux-Desert in Michigan) and measured 54 inches long, more than 26 inches around and weighed 51 pounds.
The toothy tiger I saw earlier this week was only about 15 inches long when he and 150 others were planted in Green Lake a little over one year ago. Now he's 32 inches and weighs a tad over 9 pounds, and we know he didn't grow that fast by slipping across Aurora Avenue North for one of those 12-egg omelets at Beth's Cafe.

When 255-acre Green Lake became clogged with common carp and undersize panfish, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife planted about 150 tigers in the lake in the fall of 2000 to see if they'd do there what they've done with great success at Mayfield Lake down in Lewis County. Tiger muskies have been planted there for several years to control carp, pike minnow (formerly called squawfish) and other undesirables. Since then, the state record for tiger muskies continues to grow as they get fat doing what they're s'posed to do, and the record now is 31 1/4 pounds, caught last fall by John V. Bays.

When tigers get that big -- they reach maturity in about four or five years -- they will take out the fattest and easiest victims, especially carp, according to Bruce Bolding, fish biologist in the state's Inland Fish Research Program.
"We go out on Green Lake at night, about once a month, to catch tigers and pump their stomachs to see what, and how much they're eating," Bolding said. And just before I watched him and Chad Jackson, the local inland fish biologist, pump "Leroy Brown's" stomach, Bolding noted: "With walleye (pike) and certainly tiger muskies, you want to keep your fingers out of their mouths!"
That's why muskie fishermen use wire leaders: the business end of a tiger muskie looks as if it could open a locked Toyota.

Ain't no telling just how many carp and pike minnow and undersize panfish are clogging Green Lake, but that tiger lost a lotta sushi when they irrigated his stomach with pressurized water from a garden sprayer with a small tube attached. "We can tell by certain readily identifiable bones what kind of prey they've eaten," Bolding said as he labeled and sealed a specimen jar with some of the tiger's stomach contents.

Catching tigers and their cousins, the regular muskellunge, is usually a long, patient and physical process of casting large artificial lures or flashy bucktail spinners and hoping to lure them from the underwater weeds where they lie in wait for passing meals.
Bolding loves to fish, but he doesn't have time to catch tigers one at a time. And for research here, as well as at other lakes, the state biologists use specially built, 16-foot, aluminum, flat-bottom boats with electrical-shocking outriggers. The dangled anodes, linked to an onboard generator, zap about 3 amperes of juice into a 6- to 10-foot sphere ahead of the slow-moving boat. Done after dark, when the tiger muskies are more prone to move out of their weed-bed lairs, the shocking is specifically gauged so as not to injure the fish.
"They're only stunned momentarily," Bolding noted, "That's why we need people with long-handled nets on the bow, to get them into the boat as fast as possible. Most people think they just float to the surface, but they pretty much remain wherever they were in the water column, and they're not always easy to see, especially in lakes like this where turbidity and algae hampers visibility."
Jackson and UW fisheries graduate student Bridget Smith manned the long-handled nets on the bow while Bolding guided the boat. After some initial difficulty with the onboard generator, we putted slowly away from the lake's aquatic center dock and glided beneath an almost-full moon, about 50 feet parallel to the shore. Less than 10 minutes out, Jackson yelled: "We got one!" and brought up a net that barely contained the first of 11 tiger muskies pulled in that night. After measuring and weighing -- 32 inches long, 9.28 pounds -- the fish was dipped in a bucket of anesthetic solution to dull its senses, then Bolding very cautiously inserted the stomach tube. Only some of the fish caught had readily identifiable stomach contents, indicating the tigers were perhaps not eating as voraciously as usual because of the 40-degree water temperature. The shocked fish are kept onboard in a live tank until they've revived; then they're carefully returned to the lake. Bolding and Jackson also set trap nets and a 150-foot variable-mesh gillnet as part of the research effort, but tiger muskies seem very good at avoiding nets, Bolding said. "We plan to restock Green Lake with more tiger muskies this year, to supplement whatever number may have died, been eaten by other fish, or maybe even taken by fishermen," he said. There have been occasional reports of tiger muskies taken on line there, but perhaps you'd better wait till this summer, when there might be some legal 36-inchers.

OOPS!! Ok, Carl, you have jogged my memory. Not very easy, either! The record as of last summer on Mayfield Lake was 51" They want you to set them free, or CNR, but you can keep anything over I think 36". I have seen them, they look like a stinkin' log floating by.

One post said they can't breed, another said to release the big ones so thay can breed. Does anyone know whiich is right?

Tiger muskies are a sterile hybrid between a muskie and a pike. Kinda like a mule is a hybrid between a horse and a donkey.

Tigers try to breed but are not fertile. I've seen them exhibit what appear to be mating behaviors like nest building and maintaining a territory.

Sounds like cats would work for bait. Actually I have heard 1.0 red and yellow bunny leaches work on these guys. I am going after them with a fly rod. Has anyone evr caught them on this type of rig? if so what weight rod can you get away with? Are they yummie to eat?

There's a beautiful picture of a hybrid muskie on last year's Photo Gallery at washingtonlakes.com. Also, check the Mayfield lake reports and archives for more muskie info.