Sanford got large decoy suckers in today for spearing. I am trying to buy a good portion of them to hopefully use next spring and fall. This is my winter project to see if I can keep them alive in my basement. I'm using an 80gallon tank with 500 gallon filter for flow and a 200 gallon aerator for oxygen. I should be able to keep about 2 dozen with this set up and if it works I'll expand to a 200 gallon tank and perhaps offer you guys suckers for fishing in central and northern Michigan. It will all be worth it if I can save some sanford lake muskies. Many muskies are illegally speared out of there each winter to the point if you can catch 1 musky a year casting your doing good. Is there anything we can do to get bodies of water closed to spearing or a shorter period of time they can be speared, like sturgeon?
Best of luck keeping the suckers alive until spring. Usually after about a week they start to deteriorate in health, and after 2-3 weeks appear extremely emaciated. To keep them thru summer you'll likely need a chiller to have any chance, and find something forage wise that they'll eat and thrive.
As for anything to be done…. many steps have been taken over the years, and compared to 5 years ago regulations are far more favorable. Can always write letters to the DNR fisheries biologist, and talk/recruit new MMA members.
"Joel A" said:
Sanford got large decoy suckers in today for spearing. I am trying to buy a good portion of them to hopefully use next spring and fall. This is my winter project to see if I can keep them alive in my basement. I'm using an 80gallon tank with 500 gallon filter for flow and a 200 gallon aerator for oxygen. I should be able to keep about 2 dozen with this set up and if it works I'll expand to a 200 gallon tank and perhaps offer you guys suckers for fishing in central and northern Michigan.
Is your basement heated? To keep them for any length of time (more than a few days) you'll need to keep that water below 50 degrees. Seems like way too much effort and expense for livebait that doesn't work very well in spring and would be a miracle if it made it until fall.
"Joel A" said:
It will all be worth it if I can save some sanford lake muskies. Many muskies are illegally speared out of there each winter to the point if you can catch 1 musky a year casting your doing good. Is there anything we can do to get bodies of water closed to spearing or a shorter period of time they can be speared, like sturgeon?
Do that many fish really get speared? I think the expanse of good water and that so many go over the dam has a lot more to do with the number of fish caught angling in Sanford.
It's so hard to know for sure how many get speared. There are a few Sanford lake residents including some that are retired that are avid spearers, and have been doing it for many years. This means they know where to set up their cozy shack, they can walk out their front door to it every day, and some of them literally do just that. These are not the guys putting pictures up in <url url="[Permission to view this media is denied]
">** you do not have permission to see this link ** or facebook. Needless to say, heard some serious grumbling through the grapevine when 1 fish/year came around.
And of course there are others that don't live on the lake that spear it as well. The saving grace is the ice is not as good on impoundments, so that buys the fish some reprieve
368
22
1 Guest(s)