There are a lot of reports Going around so Ill add what I have heard. Spawning Muskies in Crockery creek and Muskies at the Dam in Grand Rapids on the Grand River. I have seen and whitnessed Muskies in the Thornapple river all the way down to the covered bridge where it dumps into the Grand. It makes sense that they would go over the falls and move down. This could explain the low numbers in Thornapple lake. They leave and go down stream. I think the muskies we are seeing are the result of fish escaping from the Thornapple river into the Grand and ending up in springlake , Mona lake and Muskegon lake. I have also got wind of several caught in White lake and Pentwater Lake. The one I saw from Mona was a northern strain( Barred) . Probably from Macatawa or Thornapple. It could have come from the 75 thousand fry that got stocked in 96. Who knows? Michelle and I watched two spotteds spawning in another smaller lake connected to Lake Michigan in 2005 while blue gill fishing. I have fished Mona lake pretty hard in the past and caught nothing but Catfish and small Pike. There should be some real big pike in there. Lots of forage until last year when a couple million Shad died off. That was a real stink. I used to live 5 minutes from the boat launch. I think Muskegon lake or White lake would be a better choice for an outing in my opinion. Mike and Michelle
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"hemichemi" said:
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Of all the fish tagged in the tracking study only one even ventured down into the river and didn't go far at all. It appears to be a movement they make when they are juveniles and not adults.
My guess is that small ones get washed down river right after stocking. My reasoning is this, they let the dams out every fall and drop the levels of all of the lakes. This happens right around the time they are stocked. Locals I have talked to have caught small muskies in the 15 to 20 inch range all the way down to the Cascade bridge. Below the Dam. Its my guess that Muskies have been slipping through the dams on Thornapple for many many years. Slowly populating every lake all the way to the Grand river and beyond. With no public boat launches on the lower lakes it is hard to judge how many Muskies are in them as very few locals target them. There is very little news from those lakes. I tried fishing from the shore on several of them and launched the boat in above middleville and fished the river up from the dam. Locals I talked to there say there is a monster below the Middleville dam that eats ducks. A campgound owner showed me a picture of a camper that killed a 47 incher upstream from the 110th street bridge. Those have to have come from Thornapple because they cant move upstream from any of the dams. I agree with Will ,I think juveniles get lost and go down over or thru the dams and then cant get back up to Thornapple. One other point Ill make is spring flooding on the Thornapple river. The gates are wide open and I am sure that fish are lost then. After reading the stories about Kinkaid and Shelbyville dams and lost fish and also Gabes reports of the river below Sanford beinbg stacked with Muskies every spring I have to believe that this is happening . I wonder how many we lost from Hamlin this spring when that lake over flowed the banks? Mike
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