I am planning a venture for tiger musky on the fly. Anyone know of any lakes??? I know their out their.

Thanks

mayfield lake was the first to get planted with tiger muskies, green lake has them now too. there are a couple others but i cant remember which ones they are...check the WDFW website, im sure all the planted lakes are listed on there somewhere.

Curlew lake and lake Tapps also hold muskies.

I've caught Muskie at Evergreen Reservoir.

Evergreen keeps popping on the local radar screen up as a place to go. On a related note - a cousin of the Muskie - the Northern Pike - has shown up for a few fishermen at Potholes Reservoir this year!

JK

Interesting. Northern Pike are much more "user friendly". They don't take hours and hours to catch one. Wonder where it came from?

probably illegally. They rotenoned a lake not long ago that had a bunch of northern pike in them. We definitely don't want them here.

You can also try Merwin Reservoir. It has a pretty nice tiger musky population. Mayfield is a good bet. If you need specifics on where to try, let me know. We have done a bunch of surveys in that lake.

Growing up in Wisconsin the Northern Pike was a frequent flyer on the lakes I fished. I can imagine that they would really take hold if given half a chance. Like the walleye did in the Columbia. Lots of fun and very easy to catch (unlike Tiger Muskies). But I do understand the concern - they reproduce like crazy and are quite hardy.

Stacie wass crocker lake the one that had northern pike in it? just wondering

I'm not sure what the name of the lake was. I just know it was up north. They seemed to do pretty good there. Oops!

oh my gosh, it was, I thought it was just a fairie tail, why dont they plant some to thin out some perch lakes?

we have to be careful which species are introduced. We really don't want northern pike here, in fact, a lot of people don't even want the tiger muskies.

Options for too many perch would be to either add bass or rotenone the lake - which isn't going to happen on the west side of the state.

I am a big supporter of warmwater fish. They are here so we have to manage them, but we have to be careful what we bring into the state now with all the ESA fish.

Stacie thanks for the info pack on the tiger muskies. if they have a perch problem why not plant macks? they eat everything. I have pulled 12 in trout out of macks, perch should not be a prolbem for them.

The lake in californa that was rotenone was davis lake and the said thing is that it has been done twice in the last 20 years.

Their is a man living in that area that is from back east somewhere. he grow up fishing for pike and misses it so mush that he keeps planting the local lakes. They ,the fish and game , know who he is but have not been able to catch the a hole in the act so twice the state has spent millions poisoning and draining davis lake and frenchmans lake.

The first time they poisoned the lake It worked very well and the pike were destroyedd and the lake replanted. Davis is considered a trophy rainbow lake for both trollers and flyfisherman.

the second time they went to posion the lake(16 years later) the everio-nuts had a cow and the state was forced to use a less potent poison. well it did not work very well and they are still trying to get the lake pike free.

The problem with pike is that the eat every thing. they eat a lot and the breed like hell. I am not set with the numbers but a trout lays about 10,000 eggs as were a pkie layes about 100,000 eggs and has a better survial rate. They will out breed and out eat trout and salmon all day long. great fish but not for around here.

I agre with Mayfield. We camp there every summer at Ike Kinswa State Park. We troll along the weed beds with wedding rings and catch trout and perch, then out a no where a muskie will come and grab the perch or trout. I have seen some taken out of that lake that were HUGE!! I have heard though that the muskie are sterilized before they are planted so the numbers don't get out of control.

Paul

Hmmm, is it legal to use live perch for muskie bait? That could be very effective.

I am not sure if it is or not. It was kind acool though cause we weren't even targeting muskie. We would hook up with a perch and BAM!! Here comes a muskie out of no where and it takes off with the perch.


Paul

You cannot use or possess live fish for game fish bait.

We used to rotenone Mineral Lake until it became difficult to get permission to do so. Mineral Lake is what we call a nursey lake. We stock juvies in the late summer, early fall and use the lake to raise the fish.

People keep dumping bass in there which we don't want for obvioius reasons. It's this type of situation that usually requires a lake to be rehab'd.

Stacie-

Are there other lakes that will be stocked with Musky in the near future?

PAul

well mike, as i see it, catch a perch, drag him around awhile, if no takes, real him in let him go, and keep going like this all day. add a trailer hook....so your not actually using live bait to catch fish..there are ways around it.. i rmember when i caught some small blackmouth, they would get drug thru the water for awhile before gettin noticed..

My Conscience would be knawing at me all day. I think an issue with these muskies would be the catch and release angle. I'm sure using bait (live or dead) would cause more mortality. Although I'm sure that muskie are much hardier than salmon or trout. At least the pike I caught as a boy sure were tough.