Water temp 72 – 76.
Weeds/water: Great looking cabbage on Otsego, maybe too much giving the fish lots of places to hide. Water on Otsego stained depending on wind direction/strength. Nice mixed weeds on Big Bear on the breaks with clear water 15' + visibility.
We had three boats on Big Bear for at least six hours and couldn't find a muskie with the exception of an unknown lost fish early in the day. Unfortunately it looks like the DNR survey was right and that survival of the GLS was not good at all.
Major bummer on big bear……so what are the lessons we can learn from the failure there?
3 thoughts I Have…
1.) Baby muskies need hiding spots that Big Bear lacks for large portions of the year
2.) Pit tagging such small fish may impact survival
3.) We need a way to get our GLS fish bigger at stocking time
Just thinking aloud….what else am I missing?
I was really hoping for the best on Big Bear, and looking forward to fishing it. ah well…
I know the first year on Big Bear was the first year of the GLS, and they were really little, but have any of that class showed up in the netting on Thorn? Either way, they have been a little small out there, but I'd agree that delaying the PIT tag until they have been captured once in a net, or shocking survey would easily make a significant increase in survival rate of the little guys. Time to hold the fish going into brood stock till spring???
"Mayhem" said:
Not sure on the ages of the netted fish in thorn but in 2014 there were several gls around 30" caught. I personally measured a 32.5" gls fish in summer of 2014 out there. These were almost certainly 3 year old fish stocked in 2011.
Highly likely those were one of the over-winter fish that was stocked spring of 2012.
"Will Schultz" said:
Here's the info on what was captured this spring at Throanpple:37.3" stocked Spring of 2012
34" stocked fall of 2012
32.4" stocked fall of 2012
20.3" stocked fall of 2014
Thanks, I like the growth rate of those fish! If I were a wintertime angler I'd say a few of those have spawned a few times already [smilie=drinking.gif]
not to get into a brood stock management conversation here, but what are the normal returns/numbers of fish captured during these surveys and netting projects, and how are the returns of GLS comparing to the NMUS over the years???
The numbers aren't too far off a normal survey. One of those fish was actually caught upstream using a boomshocker. I was able to talk Dexter into sending a crew up there. During the Thornapple tournament at least three of the fish caught were GLMUS. Here's a photo from a couple weeks ago of the largest I've had in the boat @ 40".
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"Mayhem" said:
Major bummer on big bear……so what are the lessons we can learn from the failure there?3 thoughts I Have…
1.) Baby muskies need hiding spots that Big Bear lacks for large portions of the year
2.) Pit tagging such small fish may impact survival
3.) We need a way to get our GLS fish bigger at stocking timeJust thinking aloud….what else am I missing?
4.) The distance from the hatchery to the stocking site has been rumored/wondered about for survival. But Big Bear isn't crazy far, and the stocking trucks have a long history of successful plants after a long trip, so I don't know abou this one.
5.) The stocking truck driver delivered to the wrong lake. Hard to imagine, especially in this day and age. But can't help but wonder with Big Bear!…?
"Will Schultz" said:
[quote="Scott Williams"]Has there not been a single confirmed fish from Big Bear?
No, not a single fish.
I knew I remember seeing something somewhere…
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Check out the angler photo center on page 5…
"Mayhem" said:
[quote="Will Schultz"][quote="Scott Williams"]Has there not been a single confirmed fish from Big Bear?
No, not a single fish.
I knew I remember seeing something somewhere…
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"><link_text text="[Permission to view this media is denied] … 4910_7.pdf">[Permission to view this media is denied]
Check out the angler photo center on page 5…
Haha, I Like that. I like the picture lower down the page of the crooked river fish too [smilie=brows.gif]
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