My only console for seeing a fish speared in Margrethe is that at least that guy has used his tag and cant go 30 minutes to the west and spear another one this year…

I'm not sure it was speared…

As we know you can't control non-muskie guys from keeping trophy fish. It's AWESOME knowing that it will be restricted to this fish for the year.

Matt, at least now there is one less 50" that you can hook and lose in margrethe. 😀

"Chris Musselman" said:

As we know you can't control non-muskie guys from keeping trophy fish. It's AWESOME knowing that it will be restricted to this fish for the year.

especially since this isn't his first…

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"Mayhem" said:
If our new management direction is reintroduction of GLS fish with the hopes of natural reproduction and were gonna stock at a lower fish/acre what is the point of allowing the over exploitation of the big females or guys killing short fish on "accident" with the spear? It just doesn't make sense to me.

For anyone that this bothers on Hamlin or Margrethe please load Mark Tonello's email box- ** you do not have permission to see this link **

The general spearing topic can be addressed at the banquet.

I also talked to that guy when the DNR held public meetings around the state a couple years back about the regulation changes. He is definitely hard core, his darkhouse is about his permanent winter residence. He was not happy about the tag idea, of course.

I distinctly remember him saying in one breath that there were way too many muskies "crawling all over" Margrethe and that harvest should not be restricted. But then later when the DNR presented data that musky harvest was too high based on data the from tracking & tagging studies, he suddenly reversed course and said "we hardly ever even see a musky so there is no way we are taking that many". He didn't say a word back when I pointed out his contradiction

I have posted again and again in the past about sub legal fish being speared and shoved back down the hole. This was why I favored no size limit and one tag. Here is the scenario I fear. Newbie on the ice first season spearing. A 36 comes in wide and thick he sticks it, kills it . Pulls it up and its under 42. He gets scared and he quickly gets it off the ice with no tag keeping it or he just shoves it back down the hole. The next day a 40 comes in thick and wide he says this is a keeper and he sticks it, kills it , pulls it up and its not legal. H e repeats scenario one all over again. Now he has killed two good fish and still hasn't used his tag. I would rather see some smaller males speared then all these bigger ones that are almost legal. I mean the truth is many guys will settle for much smaller fish and not only that smaller ones are healthier to eat. I have always been concerned about sub legal fish being discarded or kept anyway. If we cant close the season on Muskies during the winter like we do with Bass then we must address this problem.

Now in another sense I am sure we are stocking fish faster then these morons are killing them. It still boils down to more education efforts at this point. As a club we should be doing seminars in towns and districts where we have Muskies. Ludington, Gaylord, Grand rapids, kalamazoo etc. Short speaking programs explaining why we should not be Taking these fish out of the resource. If many of these people knew just how hard it is to get them re established they would understand. I have a perfect example. My father inlaw never released a legal fish in his life until he met me. He see's no reason to kill a musky. He sees them as the top prize and a once in a lifetime fish so why kill it. I was able to convince him to release one. W e can convince many more if we work harder at educating them. The other angle that should be played to the hilt is the fact that a 42 inch Musky is not fit to eat. Mercury content on larger predators is a staple in the D.N.R. fish advisory book and wee need to get that information out in the public eye. Eat Walleye,smaller Pike , Pan fish and Perch , Tout and Salmon. Muskie are not put and take fish. Anyway those are my thoughts on sub legal fish speared. I would rather some guy put his tag on a 34 inch male then 40 inch Female. Mike

I think what he means is that if a 35"er is speared, it will have a higher chance of being a male than a female, since there are more males in a given body of water?
Given that, if there are 3 males to every female, I would have to say that the female is more important.

"Jim tenHaaf" said:
I think what he means is that if a 35"er is speared, it will have a higher chance of being a male than a female, since there are more males in a given body of water?
Given that, if there are 3 males to every female, I would have to say that the female is more important.

Huh?

I dont like any of them being harvested. It just seems to me that there has to be a way to stop the waste of undersized fish being killed and the guy is still out there spearing more. I agree Will ,they are all important however my point is valid. If a guy sticks a 35 and tags it he's done. If he sticks a 35 and its too short he doesn't use his tag and he takes another shot. That scenario is going to happen a lot more in spearing shacks then anyone can Imagine. I do agree with Scott, it would increase the likely hood that more fish would harvested on hook and line so taking the size limit off is not the answer . I sure would just like to see the season closed on December 15th and reopened the way they are now. I would give up my March open water fishing for them if that law could be pushed into effect. We protect bass in this way. Dont get me wrong you guys I hate all harvest of Muskies. I just cringe when I think of some of the locals around here and what they are going to do to the Muskies when they see them in White Lake in that 36 to 40 inch range. Biggest thing they have seen in years and they will drop the hammer on so many undersized fish its going to be horrible. There is no way to enforce the rule if they shove them back down the hole. None of them will call the D.N.R. and report these fish.

So… Where we've come back to is that because spearing is harvest without the potential to release undersized fish there shouldn't be spearing for muskellunge. Citing poor fishing on waters that allow spearing and dramatically reduced populations on waters where spearing has been opened. Despite substantial stocking, these waters have not achieved the fish/acre goal of the management plan. Conversely, waters with similar stocking numbers that have spearing bans in place have reached and/or exceeded the fish per acre goals.

Therefore stocking waters open to spearing should be reconsidered or spearing muskellunge should be eliminated.

Does that about sum it up?