Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Tiger Musky from 5 acre Lake

I stocked this fish back in the fall of 2007 as a 12 inch yearling. We also put in 11 others just like him. The 5 acre lake is deep, clear, and was full of 12 inch largemouth bass and small crappie.


The fish was caught on a terminator spinner bait this week.
There aren't many small largemouth bass hanging around these days, but for the first time the owner caught a 5 lb bass and just texted me a picture of a 16 inch crappie he is taking to get mounted for the wall. The muskie is going on the wall as well.

I thought some people might be interested in this sort of thing.

You are the Man!

Did he say how much the 16 inch crappie weighed?

Great pic, Nate! Pretty fish. Great management strategy for improving the bass.

P.S. You need to scrounge around for any information on the bass size structure, and condition, or angling catch rates, and then document this case history in Pond Boss magazine!! I'd be glad to help in any way I could with analysis, figures, writing, etc. I just think we need some documentation on these good management strategies. Of course, that's the scientist and teacher in me.

Were all your TM's male or female or just both?

It's just the eager student in me! I agree 100% with the esteemed Dr Willis that we need more research performed on TM/Esox as pond management tools. Been a lot of debate on the forum, but I don't think much of it to this point has been grounded in practical, hand's on experience. This is valuable stuff!

Nate you are the man!!@!

Yeah, I would put that sucker on the wall.

Well done Nate

The problem is it is not a pond that I own or have great access to. I know catch rates that used to be about 20 per hour for small bass have dropped off tremendously to about 8-10 per hour and that is with limited fishing pressure.

I will put anymore information that I get or collect on here as I get it.

Nate neat project. I agree with those above. What do you expect the situation to be in 3 more years?

We accomplished our goal of reducing the small LMB and Crappie, but now that the original goal has been met who knows what to expect from here? I guess we will find out what happens next.

If it were mine I would actually remove the tiger muskies once they got larger than 32 inches and just keep stocking small ones and removing the large ones.

Another unique and fun solution....I add my vote for an article!

What about any of our other Forum members? Did anyone else use a few tiger muskies, pure muskies, or one gender of northern pike to thin overabundant small largemouth bass? If so, are you one of those pondmeisters who keeps track of lengths, weights, and angling time to help monitor your pond? If so, we probably can make a case history from your pond experience.

Well I can tell you this from living in Wisconsin most of my life. If you have TM in your pond and they were both female and male. You won't have to much left in a few years. TM can get up to 50 plus inches long and eat EVERYTHING!! I once saw one in the shore trying to take down a close to 3 lbs LMB and it was only about 35 to 40 inches. So your right what you will end up with is TM and very large LMB and that's about it. Maybe a few big crappie?? N8LY you are right on when you say you need to remove them!!! And restock smaller ones or your going to have one BIG TM pond!! Which could be fun, you will know when your runnning out of food for them when they start eating the adults ducks!! And they will trust me I have seen it first hand!

Seems many see the need to remove TM when they reach 30" or so, as at that point they start eating quality size LMB. Chain pickerel would seem to be an alternative as they reach a maximum size of just a hair over 30", with most topping out around 24". They are much more tolerant of poor water conditions as well.

Hey CJ,

Your right on. We have chain pickerel down here and and your right they get about 24 inches or so, and would work great for keeping down your smaller bass/fish, but the question is once your smaller bass/fish are gone then you have 24 inch pickerel and your bass competing to eat the same food!! Then what? Better have a a whole lot of food!! I didn't quite get it before when I read a post on here about only having 1 predator fish in your pond but I am begining to understand now why that's a good rule to follow! Course in a 5 acre pond I suppose you could get by with 2 types of pedator fish if you know what you were doing!

With the CP it would be the same as with NP, you'd have to utilize single sex fish to prevent natural reproduction. My experience with CP in ponds with LMB is they rarely get out of control.

RC51,

You do know they are sterile right?

I really havent seen chain pickerel help out any population of fish yet in the lakes and ponds we manage and electrofish. Typically I consider them trash. Usually when we find them overpopulated so are the 12" largemouth bass.

I actually have been stocking literally thousands of tiger muskie, pure muskie, and northern pike for all sorts of people for different reasons, applications, and experiments. I have one 3 acre pond that I own but don't ever use that has 25 tiger muskie all about 3 lbs each this spring. I will be sampling it this fall.

I have noticed huge differences in growth rates among tiger muskies that we stock. some of them grow super big super quick and some of them stay small in the 20 inch range for a long time.

RC, tiger muskies are made in a hatchery and do not reproduce. pure muskies do not reproduce in Illinois either. Every muskie in Illinois is a stocked fish. In fact Justin and I help trap the broodstock muskies that make the babies for all the public muskie stockings in Illinois. Here is a video of the trapnetting process:



We take the fish to Jake Wolf State fish hatchery and they strip the eggs and milt and raise the babies all summer long. Many of those female muskie have invisible chips in them and have been caught every spring to make babies for many years.

Hey Cecil no I did not know that??? That makes it somewhat easier then hey?

I only have a little 1/2 acre ond, but I have a 30" Northern Pike in the pond and plan on adding a TM or two next spring shipped from MN to help keep my bass AND BG population under control.

IMO the pike and muskie REALLY excel when the temps drop and BG and LMB slow down more than the coldwater fish like perch and pike do. This gives them a big advantage over the winter months

n8ly do you get your TM from MN?

yep. I get them from the minnesota muskie farm which now operates under the name trophy game fish.