Northwest Fishing Reports

Sorry guys I don't Muskie fish, but I know there is not a lot of them swimming around in this state. Well take one more out of the gene pool from Newman Lake. Last night I was fishing for crappie when another boat came by to show off there "stringer" (a peice of winch rope) with a fully grown muskie. I have read your guys banter on sizes but this one was in the 40-45" range.

Hey jmay, you sure you don't want to hunt for these 'skies? You got the heart.
It is unfortunate, none of us likes to see that, but
all we can do is take advantage of EVERY opportunity to educate.

"While it is Muskies Inc.'s policy to encourage the careful release
of healthy Muskies that are not personal trophies to the angler,
it is NOT our policy to intimidate or pressure any angler
or group of anglers into releasing Muskies. "

That's a quote from the International Board of M.I.
The 'ol "lead by example, not by a club".

Otherwise, we splinter. And become controversial. Think PETA.

I can't wait to join the NW Chapter of Muskies Inc.
It will bring "group" power in carrying the message.
AND ...in changing regulations that protect the muskellunge.

KUP I'm by NO means a PETA guy. Fishing is what I do to keep my sanity when it's not hunting season. And I am all for keeping a couple of fish for the BBQ or fryer but it just makes me sick when people who have no respect for mother nature show off their "sucess" with a frayed winch rope. I would have been happy to see of you muskie guys pull one out of the water since it would mean something to you.

Dude.. no way I would think you were PETA! LMAO.
And yeah, you have no idea how hard it is for me to keep a civil tongue when I see that stuff.
It is gut wrenching.
But I have to.

"Stay on the curb" as my brother says.

Change is coming.

jmay -- Don't do it! Don't take the drug! It's highly addictive, and first-time users get hooked! The first time you catch one, you'll never fish for anything else! The urge to buy boats, rods, reels, and lures is irresistable! You'll go broke, your wife will divorce you, and the judge will make you raise the kids and give her custody of the boat if you made the mistake of taking her musky fishing with you and got her hooked, too! The only safe approach is to stand on the dock and watch us musky addicts squander our lives in fruitless pursuit of this mythical creature.

I agree with Muskie Inc.'s official approach to harvest. If it's legal, we have no right to tell other people what to do. However, it remains a fact that killing muskies is detrimental to the fishery, and it makes no sense to kill muskies to eat. There are many fish species that are far more plentiful and better eating, too. Not to mention easier to catch. So, people who want fish for eating should fish for those species instead of muskies. Heck, I like to eat fish, and I spend a fair amount of my fishing time pursuing panfish, bass, and walleye for the dinner plate. (Note, however, we should release the big bass and big walleyes so they can keep breeding more little ones for our coolers.)

But muskies are a different situation. Because there's so few of them, and it takes so long to grow them, any harvest at all is detrimental to the fishery. Thus, a no-harvest rule is justified, and it doesn't give muskie anglers special treatment because it will apply equally to everyone. If precedent is needed, we can point to bull trout -- also a large, rare, prized gamefish.

P.S., thanks for the kind words, jmay. I appreciate it. What ins. co. do you work for? My boat ins. is with Progressive.

Note, the bull trout regulation in the Lewis River watershed (where Merwin Lake is located) is a no-fishing rule, not a catch-and-release rule. Not sure whether the prohibition is statewide; I assume it is. They're a protected species under the Endangered Species Act.

I heard they dont even taste that great anyway. Is this true? I know Im probally asking the wrong group of people LOL I understand though with only so many out there and being as they cant reproduce we do have to very careful with C&R and keep only a few. But with the rules how they are its kind of hard to enforce something that isnt technicaly against the rules, no matter how bad it is to bring one home for the BBQ. There are a whole lot of other species in WA state that are GREAT table fair, so hopefully the man wasnt going to eat it, He was going to stuff it and donate it so everyone can enjoy it

Don, I'm not going to say what company I'm with... as we are big in the NW and have likely delt with some users of this website. People hate you when you tell them there boat is not worth what they think it is#-o

I will say this Progressive has 1) the best rates 2) the most liberal boat policy 3) the quickest claim service. They rule the boat insurance world period, everyone else is picking up their left overs.

I can't afford another hobby, I shoot 4 rounds of trap every wednesday, fish 4 days a week in the summer and burn all my vacation time hunting Mulies and Mallards in the fall. I had to build a 24x40 shop to store the boat and gear (that wasn't a ez sell) I'm in the dog house enough with the old lady already. My only saving grace is that my son likes to tag along on my hunting and fishing trips, and always asked mom when he can go again. I just tell her I am a slave to my childerns every wants and needs and pull the boat down the driveway!

I've had pike out of the midwest lakes and they would be same family. OK tasting, but not the be all end all. I think some people just don't know better nor realize "they ain't making em anymore."

Its sounds like this whole "keeping muskie" deal really upsets everyone. Iv never caught one so I kind of understand where your coming from but still missing the big picture. Iv tried so I guess Im a muskie fisher in the making. But I saw in the forum section where you can prepose a new reg. to the WDFW, how does adding the muskie to the punchcard sound. This way it allows each fisherman to keep one muskie a year. I know they enforce the catch record card pretty well. And if you were only allowed to keep one a year instead of one a day I think the muskie fishery would only improve. I mean we have to take surtain mesures on a species that cant reprodue. Right? This way everybody will be happy, the mushie angler who believes in C&R and the muskie angler who LOVES the taste of these fish. Even if it starts out with 3 fish per year or 5 that is still a start.

I'm not opposed to a catch and release only restriction for our tiger muskie fisheries. But I think I would rather see a minimum length resriction of 48" instead. You get all the life span benefits of catch and release but it would allow someone to remove the current "snagged" record on the books. And how often do we see 48" + fish boated? They are fairly educated by the time they reach this size. Don W: please feel free to write a 17 paragraph reply now, har-har!=d>

Can republicans & democrats be friends, but still disagree with each other?
Of course!! I don't know if I can say the same about catch & release guys & fillet and release guys.
(Fortunately I don’t have any liberal friends, just family members. –LOL)

This comment will probable tip a few people over, but oh well.
Don’t get me wrong I practice catch and release, in fact I don’t think I have kept a fish for about 10 years….. Except for a beer battered bass feast a few times, and that 21 inch brookie that I kept out of Dragoon Creek still haunts me in my sleep. (Young & dumb, what can I say…) I will say it upsets me when I see people with a stringer of fish that you know darn good and well go home and get shoved in the freezer (most of the time not cleaned properly) and end up getting freezer burn and thrown away next time the freezer gets cleaned out.
Here’s the deal as I see it, bare in mind I am far from a biologist and could be way off base… tell me if I am. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with keeping a fish here and there as long as you eat it.
I have never eaten a muskie, but I have had plenty of pike that my buddy pulls out of the Flathead River. They are great eating, as long as you get the “Y” bone out properly.
I certainly would like to see them go back, and the majority of big fish only get kept to show the Mrs. when you get home and for photo opp's. If a guy really wants to hang a fish on the wall take measurements and turn ‘em loose. “Stuffed” fish aren’t real anyway.
I don’t know if I made a point here or if I am just rambling…. But there it is.

Raising the size limit is Plan B if we can't get the Commission to adopt C & R. The punchcard idea, combined with a 48" minimum size, is a good idea -- you get to keep one trophy fish a year. Nevertheless, this approach is vastly inferior to C & R. Why? Because if those trophy fish are harvested, there'll soon be no trophy fish in our waters. Given enough fishing pressure, the minimum size people are allowed to keep will become the maximum size that exists in our lakes.

Why would anyone eat a muskie? They're full of Y bones, making them hard to fillet, and aren't one of the better tasting fish. If you want meat catch trout, kokanees, walleyes, bass, perch, etc. There are millions of them in our waters, but only 5,000 or so muskies. We have at least 16,000 anglers targeting muskies and that number likely will grow as this fishery becomes better known. It takes 4-5 years to grow a muskie to a size worth catching. Do the math. Ever hear of "Tragedy of the Commons"? That's what the C & R rule is designed to avoid.

I think we'll all enjoy better muskie fishing in the years ahead if we forget about being Republicans or Democrats when we need to act together as fishermen to take care of our fishing interests.

Regarding the allegedly snagged state record (yes, I've heard that story too), my assumption is if C & R is adopted, there will be no state record based on kept fish. It will be erased from the books. There is precedent for this; given the slot limit for sturgeon, there is no sturgeon record.

Don Wittenberger wrote:.

I think we'll all enjoy better muskie fishing in the years ahead if we forget about being Republicans or Democrats when we need to act together as fishermen to take care of our fishing interests.

The point I was trying to make about the Rep. & Dem.’s was that we can have different views (i.e. catch & release & fillet & release) and still get a long.
I wasn’t trying to turn this in to a political arena. You make very valid points. I personally favor the catch & release.
o:)

Although I personally favor the C & R approach, I'm a pragmatist and will accept compromise if necessary to get the Commission to adopt a rule that does a better job of keeping trophy muskies in our lakes than the present 1-fish-a-day, 36"-minimum size limit.

So... if I got this right, the musky people want muskys released, the bass people want bass released, the trout people want trout released and the walleye people want walleye released...

Why change the rules to benefit a special interest group? Now if that special interest group is working on enhancing or increasing the fishery I can see the reason to change the rules.

My personal rule is everybody should make their own mind up for themselves. And...I'm not really a pot stirrer.

Muskie are quite difficult to catch and are not nearly as abundant as many other species in the state of Washington. Not only that, but a musky will require many years to reach trophy proportions. And, a truly large musky is a "trophy" to just about everyone whether you be a novice or a pro. For these reasons I personally think it makes sense to release musky and I would favor a very large minimum length to protect nearly all fish an angler could reasonably expect to catch.

I'm not necessarily against someone else harvesting a musky but I must admit it would bother me to see someone take a very large fish home. It just doesn't make sense to kill a somewhat rare and very old fish when you could harvest something like perch or crappie, both of which can be found in abudance throughout the state.

Jed V.
Bikini Bait Co.

zen leecher aka Bill W wrote:So... if I got this right, the musky people want muskys released, the bass people want bass released, the trout people want trout released and the walleye people want walleye released...

Why change the rules to benefit a special interest group? Now if that special interest group is working on enhancing or increasing the fishery I can see the reason to change the rules.

My personal rule is everybody should make their own mind up for themselves. And...I'm not really a pot stirrer.

Well before your time this is exactly how it was handled. Fishing and hunting. Over the years rules were made and laws were adopted to protect and enhance the games we like to play and because of these rules these games have improved greatly.
You state the CPR ideas like we're all only in favor of our favorite fish. Wrong, most warmwater anglers are in favor of CPR period. We're not divided, we just fish for different fish.
Can you imagine how well the salmon runs would get if CPR was practiced??? After all, most people fish for them during their spawning runs and they are caught prior to spawing. Look around yourself at the populations of bass, walleye and muskie and the quality of the fishing is a testiment to how well CPR works.
Just my 2 cts.

Uh...Deadeye... I'm 59 and have fished here for a few years. What I said about the various groups wanting to protect their own sacred fish is true. Walleye fishermen call trout "slimers". Bass fishermen release bass and bonk walleyes. Trout fishermen want lakes free of other species. Then there's the "bucket brigade" who "stock" lakes when no one's looking.