I made a call to a lake resident last night, the water temp on Wednesday evening was 85 degrees.Thornapple is much too hot to safely catch and release a muskie at this time. They can literally fight themselves to death and/or seem to swim away OK but in reality they become turtle food. Because Thornapple is a broodstock lake, meaning those females provide eggs for the rest of Michigan, it is important that we take all precautions to minimize release mortality. In a few weeks the water temps should be out of the 80's but right now is a good time to go bass, walleye or salmon fishing.

We, as muskie anglers, have so much time, money, blood, sweat and tears invested in this muskie program that we owe it to each other to do what's best for the fishery.