Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Fly Fishing & Other Fish Species Muskies

Just curious - does anyone on the Forum have muskies in their pond?

The Hermans grow tiger muskies, I believe. Can't imagine small bodies of water can support too large or too many.

I stocked 6 in a clients .78 acre pond. He had a problem with way too many 8" goldfish.

That was 4 years ago. He still has a goldfish problem, and at least one is still in the pond - it was seen recently. But, the pond is a community pond, and it is open to the public so it is hard to manage.

I wonder if the other 5 were caught and kept.

They very well could have been, either by humans, bass in the pond or cormorants. Bass or Cormorants the first few months/winter they were stocked. After that, they would be too big to eat.

What size were the Muskies?

They were stocked in the Fall at 12"-14". There were a few 2# LMB in the pond, but only a few, the rest were 8"-10". I was told that if there was plenty of food, a 17 month old Muskie could be 35" or so. 16" the first year, double that the 2nd year.

I see some pond/lake management companies offering tiger muskies but not purebreds.

Holy moly. I had no idea they grew that fast.

The spring of the 3rd year in the pond they caught one that was 38". There is LOTS of forage in the pond for them. That was the last time any were caught that we know of. 5 were stocked in a 7/8 acre pond.

Ive thought about stocking a few to see if they'd thin out the smaller bass. Worried they'd take out bluegill and cut line when caught fishing for bluegill.

In my experience with northern pike (NP) as a very similar smaller version of a musky (MSK) (TM = tiger musky) and a larger version of a chain pickerel, expect the musky when smaller than 40" long expect them to often target and eat more bass compared to BG. This is due to a more food amount benefit per each successful attack and importantly a shorter handling time of consuming the larger volume prey item. Handling time to swallow a prey fish has been found to be a very important behavior feature for predatory fish consuming prey items. Consumption of prey species all depends on the number and sizes of the BG and LMB that are edible by the musky / NP. Remember a NP, MSK, TM are a wait idle for attack of a vulnerable size forage item. They wait patiently often near structure before exploding outward at high speeds to ambush and hopefully capture their target.

In a pond where sunfish are much more abundant than the bass expect these NP / MSK to encounter and eat more numbers of sunfishes compared to LMB. However this may not equate to more pounds of sunfish consumed compared to pounds of LMB consumed per year. Note the amount and type of forage eaten per year could change when the ratio of Sunfish to Bass ratio changes. When small slender bodied bass are more common expect the toothy NP - MSK to be eating significant numbers of juvenile and small adult bass depending on the size of the NP-MSK.

A couple PBoss mag articles have been about how MSK / TM / NP could help reduce numbers of smaller sizes of LMB in ponds. I looked up Bob's most recent NP - MSK - TM article and put the reference to it in this thread - see info below.

IMO a similar predatory pressure could also occur upon LMB when one to a few flathead catfish (FHC) would be added to a pond. Large flathead Catfish are known to eat 2 lb (15"-16") bass. As the FHC, MSK, TM, NP grow larger, expect each to consume more numbers of larger sized prey items.

When I had one 30"+ NP in a 0.7ac pond that had a good balance of BG/LMB,,, the numbers of young LMB gradually declined while numbers of large BG remained at good density. Last time the NP was seen it was very close to 40" long.

Pond Boss Mag Mar-Apr 2025. ESOX DID WHAT? Lusk dwells into the behavior and usefulness of northern pike, musky and tiger musky for helping control LMB in ponds.

Pond Boss Mag. Sep-Oct 2004. NORTHERN PIKE IN POND MANAGEMENT by Dr. Dave Willis. Feeding habits and pros & cons are explained for northern pike use in ponds.

Swimming in a pond with NP and MSK is a bit nerve wracking. Those teeth!

I used to go to the Thousand Islands every summer, and there is an abundance of both in the river. Your fishing tactics there are very different: steel leaders, heavy line, strong pole. Even then there is a good shot you will loose the fish as they can fight like no other fish in fresh water. I fought a 36” NP as a kid in a canoe for more than 30 minutes, and my canoe got dragged all over the place by the time I finally got to whollop the thing with a little bat. You don’t pull those into a canoe without making sure it is either dead or very unconscious or you are liable to lose important bits of yourself.
The NP get much larger than that, and have witnessed monsters cruising the small passageways into swamps. Yet, these are smaller cousins of the Muskie.

My uncle’s MSK catch from long ago was huge. He had it mounted. You could literally stuff your arm down its gullet. If I remember correctly it was just shy of the NYS record fish. In order to bring them into the boat for a good clubbing, he would pick them up by the eyeballs which of course would cause them to go still. Too dangerous of a fish to be nice to them in a small boat.