What does Nate think about your idea? Doesn't he have musky in some of his water? What was his stocking sizes & density, growth rates, and fish ages so far? Nate may have as much experience with this topic as all of us combined. For optimum success with musky IMO you would likely need to annually add trout as premium forage during the cool water season in IL since musky are considered an active cool, cold water fish. Ideally this type of fishery especially if the top predator is somewhat crowded requires a separate forage pond where larger fish are regularly transferred primarily as forage items. If you do extensive homework you may find that in smaller waters musky would not feed well in mid-summer when water is warm. This will slow the growth rates of musky during when they are not feeding frequently. Remember that when fish are not eating daily they are not growing - Bob's Law.
IMO you would see and raise MORE numbers of larger angler exciting sport fish if you used HSB instead of musky. Have you caught some of Nate's largest HSB yet? Some are 15+ lbs and that equates to a 38"+ musky. A HSB out fights a musky. Keep in mind most think it is important to have higher CPUE of larger fish than long hours spent for getting the occasional bonus fish such as a musky.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 07/22/17 11:38 AM.
