Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations trout stocking

Two past articles in Pond Boss magazine have discussed use of musky, what they eat and in controlling overabundant fish.

Mar-Apr 2011. ESOX DID WHAT? MIXING PIKE FAMILY MEMBERS AND PONDS. Willis & Lusk. Combine forces to provide basic information of using pike, musky and chain pickeral in pond management. Suggest using musky at 3 per acre to start. Some suggest to stock more early and harvest some as you see improvements in reason for stocking them. Evaluate after they become established at 30+". They note that 30" pike/musky are able to eat 9-12 inch bass. Sometimes the need is to stock more or harvest some based on results. Musky at 20 lbs will eat the largest bass.

Nov-Dec 2012. MUSKY IN SMALL WATERS? West summarizes results and impacts upon other fish from musky stocking in 41 fairly large MN lakes none smaller than 100ac. High density of musky was 2.2 mature fish/acre. Author notes that soft rayed over spiny rayed prey fish are sometimes preferred. White sucker declined after musky were stocked in one study. Another study found walleye and musky did not directly compete a lot for the same foods.