I'm fairly certain I've had my first Wissota tiger musky encounter.
Kevin Krumenauer and I spent the afternoon together yesterday on Wissota with VERY little to show for our efforts. On our way into grab a bite to eat at the end of the day, Kevin nabbed this fish, a low-30" example of what I think is a tiger musky.
It was almost iridiscent green in color with pronounced stripes, a few spots, and rounded tail fins. It came clear out of the water after being hooked, and allowed us to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. After reviving her in our Beckman net, she swam away for the next lucky angler to enjoy. I was very happy to have the extending handle on my Beckman...it gave me the extra reach I needed to get this fish into the boat before she threw the all white JSR7 that Kevin used to coax her to bite.
What do you guys think....tiger or just very pretty pure strain?
Sure looks purdy.Nice pic,not of you 2K's but the fish sure looks good! Looks to be a nice lil tiger.Congrats gents. Hope you all had a good weekend.Wish I could have gotten out there.
Beautiful fish! It's a tiger. In addition to the beautiful marks, you can see that the fins are rounded at the ends. Muskies are pointed.
For bigpike and any others that are interested...
The Leech Lake fish will have fin clips or mangled looking fins that regenerated. The 2005 stocking has a left pectoral clip (front/left) and the 2007s have a right pectoral clip (front/right). The 2005 fish should be in that 30" range.
We should be stocking these fish again sometime late Oct/early Nov.
I've attached a pic of a LL strain fish that is 33.5" long to give you all an idea of what they might look like.
Wow the leach lake strain is spotted?? Pretty cool. Are they known to cross bread with musky already in this body of water or any other they are stocked in??? Thanks for the info....
-------------------- "Goverment is not the answer to peoples problems. Goverment is the problem" Ronald Reagan
2Ks - No problem! Glad to have the opportunity to share something about these fish.
BigPike, yes the spots are very pronounced. as the fish get bigger, the body markings change a bit. You get away from the silvers w/ black dots. Environment plays a role in the coloration/markings too. I've attached a pic of a full grown LL fish for comparison between the markings vs. length/age of these fish.
regarding spawning: no one knows for sure about interbreeding between the two strains. Some think that it is occurring on Mille Lacs where both strains have been present for some time but no one is able to prove it.
Typically, LL strain fish spawn deeper than the Chippewa fish. One of the things we hope to learn in about 10 years is whether these LL fish are able to reproduce naturally because they are able to spawn in areas not utilized by Pike on Lake Wissota.
So if you're ready to start stocking fish again does that mean the "Adopt-A-Musky" program is/or will be back? I took part in that then told all my friends about it and they thought it was an awesome idea, but by the time they looked into Muskys Inc had stopped doing it. I thought it was a very creative idea!
I would like to see that program started up again but currently its dormant. VHS in 2006 put a halt to a lot of our fundraising due to uncertainty about the future (can't raise money if you don't know what the situation is) and the DNR did a 180 on us leaving the club on their own to buy the fish.
Originally the agreement was that DNR supplies fish and we supply PIT tags/readers to aid in data acquisition. Now that we're buying the fish, it's been very expensive for us so we can use all the support we can get.
Funny thing, the way the DNR originally wrote it up, they wanted "eggs or fry" from the MN DNR to be raised at Tommy Thompson hatchery. It's still in print that way. Well there is no way to test eggs for VHS without killing a lot of adult fish (completely unacceptable) so that leaves us with fry which now the DNR says they don't want although it's in the original plan. Fry can be tested for VHS. I don't understand and we can't get a straight answer on it but we keep trying.
Another sad circumstance behind this program is that the guy who helped start it up, Fred Johnson, passed away.
We have the PIT tag list so if one is recovered in the future we will notify the adopters which includes you.
I will be sure to post details if I can get someone in the club to take this on again.
In the meantime, if anyone is interested in financially supporting the project, please contact me. Whether you get a PIT tag number or not, it is adoption. I think fingerling cost this year will be in the $12-$14 range.
Both our chapter and Chippewa Rod & Gun are involved in financially supporting this along with the help of the Hugh Becker foundation in MN, other chapters/clubs and not in the least from people like yourself. The more partners we have, the better.
Like Jason says, we have a backyard gem here. I am hopeful that the gem quality for Muskies takes a serious step up in the next 10 years.
Wissota tiger musky (?)
Looks to be a nice lil tiger.Congrats gents. 
Hope you all had a good weekend.Wish I could have gotten out there. 
