Green Bay - Muskie fishing: Is the big one big enough?
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:34 pm
Green Bay - Muskie fishing: Is the big one big enough?
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/app ... 90746/1233
12/09/07 By Jim Lee Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers 715-845-0605 jlee77@earthlink.net
The surprisingly rapid resurgence of Great Lakes spotted muskie in the waters of Green Bay and the lower Fox River has spawned muskie fishing fever along with muskie fishing fears.
Aspects of both will be discussed at a special public meeting set for 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 29, at the Green Bay Yacht Club, located at the mouth of the Fox River adjacent to the public boat ramp.
Jeff Tilkens, a Green Bay resident and part-owner of Roberts Outdoors Inc. (manufacturer of Joe Bucher Lures), arranged for the session, which will consider the future of muskie fishing on the bay and steps necessary to preserve and enhance those possibilities.
"This is absolutely developing into a world-class muskie fishery attracting muskie anglers from all over," said Pete Maina, a former Hayward-area muskie fishing guide who hosts televised fishing shows and will be a featured speaker at the forum.
The large size of the bay, coupled with an extensive forage base, has enabled muskie to reach impressive size faster than their inland counterparts.
"This area compares to Georgian Bay in Canada" for its ability to produce huge fish, Maina said.
A muskie caught by an angler in the bay or river must be at least 50 inches long before it may be kept. Numerous fish exceeding that minimum have been taken in the past year, leading Maina and other veteran muskie fishermen to call for a boost in the size limit to 54 inches.
"Lots of 50-inch fish are being killed," Maina said. "A handful of people are causing a lot of damage. A 50-inch muskie from Green Bay is only 10 (or) 11 years old."
No one knows the number of 50-plus-inch muskies in the bay, the number of those fish caught or the number kept. Rumors of a single angler keeping several legal fish in a year has sparked indignation among many in the muskie-angling fraternity and is feeding the groundswell to raise the minimum size.
"I'm open to a 54-inch minimum," said David Rowe, Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist at Green Bay and the person responsible for managing the spotted muskie fishery, "but I just want more biological information before making any decision."
Rowe said it is unknown how long Green Bay muskies will live and the reasonable length to which they will grow. The fishery was initiated with stocking in 1989, and any remnants from that effort are 18 years old. Muskie have been known to survive 25 years under optimal conditions. However, the oldest muskie the DNR has examined is a 12-year-old, 50½-inch fish.
As a publicly funded state agency, Rowe said, the DNR must ask whether its role should be developing a recreational fishery where an angler can make the decision to keep or release a 50-inch muskie — the fish of a lifetime for many — or restrict the harvest further to encourage a higher trophy standard.
Dr. Tom Betka, a Green Bay physician and muskie angler with an undergraduate degree in aquatic biology, believes a moratorium should be placed on muskie harvest until the potential impact of viral hemmorhagic septicemia is known.
The foreign-based disease, which can be fatal to a wide variety of fish species, has been found in Lake Michigan and the Lake Winnebago system. Muskie populations in Michigan's Lake St. Clair and New York's St. Lawrence River have been affected by VHS.
"If VHS hits southern Green Bay and the Fox River during the spring when muskies spawn, it's going to kill a lot of fish," Betka contends. "If we eliminate harvest, it's going to allow more muskies to survive the virus."
The survivors, he said, are likely to be fish whose genetic makeup allows them to withstand the disease. Those fish will be critical to the future of the muskie fishery.
Rowe said information is needed on the value of older muskies to natural spawning success and the possibility aging may increase susceptibility to diseases like VHS.
Betka said he supports a 54-inch minimum limit, would like to see funds designated for research into the bay's muskie population and increased education of muskie anglers on the need for catch-and-release fishing. He will make a presentation at the Dec. 29 session.
Anglers in 26 counties voted on a resolution at the 2007 spring fish and game hearings calling for a 54-inch muskie size limit on the Green Bay fishery. Though supported in 25 of those counties, the measure failed to win endorsement from the Great Lakes Committee of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress.
The issue is not on the 2008 spring hearing ballot, and no muskie size limit changes on the bay fishery are planned for the upcoming season.
Maina is hoping the meeting will raise public awareness and "rally the troops" in support of immediate action.
A typical 50-inch bay muskie weighs about 34 to 38 pounds. "A 54-inch muskie would most likely weigh 45 (to) 50 pounds," Maina said. The state record muskie — which has become a source of controversy — is listed by the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward as a 69-pound, 11-ounce fish.
As for muskie fishing aspirations, "I absolutely believe the waters of Green Bay can produce muskie of record-book potential," Maina said.
"In fact, I think the Wisconsin record muskie has already been caught and released here ... but then I believe the Wisconsin record is a mid-50-pound fish."
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/app ... 90746/1233
12/09/07 By Jim Lee Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers 715-845-0605 jlee77@earthlink.net
The surprisingly rapid resurgence of Great Lakes spotted muskie in the waters of Green Bay and the lower Fox River has spawned muskie fishing fever along with muskie fishing fears.
Aspects of both will be discussed at a special public meeting set for 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 29, at the Green Bay Yacht Club, located at the mouth of the Fox River adjacent to the public boat ramp.
Jeff Tilkens, a Green Bay resident and part-owner of Roberts Outdoors Inc. (manufacturer of Joe Bucher Lures), arranged for the session, which will consider the future of muskie fishing on the bay and steps necessary to preserve and enhance those possibilities.
"This is absolutely developing into a world-class muskie fishery attracting muskie anglers from all over," said Pete Maina, a former Hayward-area muskie fishing guide who hosts televised fishing shows and will be a featured speaker at the forum.
The large size of the bay, coupled with an extensive forage base, has enabled muskie to reach impressive size faster than their inland counterparts.
"This area compares to Georgian Bay in Canada" for its ability to produce huge fish, Maina said.
A muskie caught by an angler in the bay or river must be at least 50 inches long before it may be kept. Numerous fish exceeding that minimum have been taken in the past year, leading Maina and other veteran muskie fishermen to call for a boost in the size limit to 54 inches.
"Lots of 50-inch fish are being killed," Maina said. "A handful of people are causing a lot of damage. A 50-inch muskie from Green Bay is only 10 (or) 11 years old."
No one knows the number of 50-plus-inch muskies in the bay, the number of those fish caught or the number kept. Rumors of a single angler keeping several legal fish in a year has sparked indignation among many in the muskie-angling fraternity and is feeding the groundswell to raise the minimum size.
"I'm open to a 54-inch minimum," said David Rowe, Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist at Green Bay and the person responsible for managing the spotted muskie fishery, "but I just want more biological information before making any decision."
Rowe said it is unknown how long Green Bay muskies will live and the reasonable length to which they will grow. The fishery was initiated with stocking in 1989, and any remnants from that effort are 18 years old. Muskie have been known to survive 25 years under optimal conditions. However, the oldest muskie the DNR has examined is a 12-year-old, 50½-inch fish.
As a publicly funded state agency, Rowe said, the DNR must ask whether its role should be developing a recreational fishery where an angler can make the decision to keep or release a 50-inch muskie — the fish of a lifetime for many — or restrict the harvest further to encourage a higher trophy standard.
Dr. Tom Betka, a Green Bay physician and muskie angler with an undergraduate degree in aquatic biology, believes a moratorium should be placed on muskie harvest until the potential impact of viral hemmorhagic septicemia is known.
The foreign-based disease, which can be fatal to a wide variety of fish species, has been found in Lake Michigan and the Lake Winnebago system. Muskie populations in Michigan's Lake St. Clair and New York's St. Lawrence River have been affected by VHS.
"If VHS hits southern Green Bay and the Fox River during the spring when muskies spawn, it's going to kill a lot of fish," Betka contends. "If we eliminate harvest, it's going to allow more muskies to survive the virus."
The survivors, he said, are likely to be fish whose genetic makeup allows them to withstand the disease. Those fish will be critical to the future of the muskie fishery.
Rowe said information is needed on the value of older muskies to natural spawning success and the possibility aging may increase susceptibility to diseases like VHS.
Betka said he supports a 54-inch minimum limit, would like to see funds designated for research into the bay's muskie population and increased education of muskie anglers on the need for catch-and-release fishing. He will make a presentation at the Dec. 29 session.
Anglers in 26 counties voted on a resolution at the 2007 spring fish and game hearings calling for a 54-inch muskie size limit on the Green Bay fishery. Though supported in 25 of those counties, the measure failed to win endorsement from the Great Lakes Committee of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress.
The issue is not on the 2008 spring hearing ballot, and no muskie size limit changes on the bay fishery are planned for the upcoming season.
Maina is hoping the meeting will raise public awareness and "rally the troops" in support of immediate action.
A typical 50-inch bay muskie weighs about 34 to 38 pounds. "A 54-inch muskie would most likely weigh 45 (to) 50 pounds," Maina said. The state record muskie — which has become a source of controversy — is listed by the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward as a 69-pound, 11-ounce fish.
As for muskie fishing aspirations, "I absolutely believe the waters of Green Bay can produce muskie of record-book potential," Maina said.
"In fact, I think the Wisconsin record muskie has already been caught and released here ... but then I believe the Wisconsin record is a mid-50-pound fish."