Muskies are bringing back two great trout fisheries
It has always amazed me to hear anglers say "muskies are eating all the Trout in the lake" or "we don't like those muskies, they will eat all our game fish." Nothing can be further from the truth. I'm not going to tell you muskies won't eat trout or other game fish, it's simply not true. However, NMDGF has sampled stomach contents of every Muskie that died during netting surveys. One year, out of about 200 specimen stomach samples only one fish was found to have a Trout in it's belly! (surveys can be found at NMDGF Research page) Surveys have also shown that immediately after stocking trout, NMDGF finds more tigers with trout in their stomachs then normal. Even then the numbers of tigers targeting trout are low. During a recent survey at Quemado lake during these conditions NMDGF found the netted tigers and sampled diet favored suckers over trout 2 to1. The fact is these fish rather feed on slower moving, thinner profiled cylindrical, schooling bottom feeding fish.
Another thing to remember, (when it comes to Bluewater Lake) is that we don't have a trout hatchery in that area anymore. Therefor the lake doesn't get stocked with near as many trout as it did in years past. Another important factor that has hampered the ability to sustain the trophy trout fishery Bluewater used to be, is the water levels. The lake holds less than half of the surface acres of water it did back in the mid 80's, choking out much of the trouts previous habitat/range.
Then the goldfish came along and the trout completely lost all habitat and room for growth. This trash-fish was competing with the trout for the same food base and habitat. In 1996 the average size of the trout in Bluewater was below 12"! 2003 was the beginning of a new era for Bluewater and Quemado. The muskies were stocked to try and gain control of the trash fish populations in hopes of obtaining the trophy fisheries these lakes once were.
During the Spring of 2009 some nice trout were
being caught but come October New Mexico anglers out muskie fishing
started catching trout in the 3-6 pound range! During the 2010 season many muskie anglers caught big trout at Quemado lake, a 2010 fall survey by NMDGF confirmed the lakes healthy balance of predator and prey; over 60 trout were surveyed and the average weight was 2.6 pounds! Outside of the obvious
dwindled goldfish and white sucker populations, these trout are proof
that the muskies are doing there job and are revitalizing a lake that
was in much disarray only six years ago!-Matt Pelletier
Here are a few pictures of the Trout caught in October of 2009 at Bluewater!!
A few pictures of Trout being caught out of Quemado during August of 2010!!
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A summary of interaction between Tiger Muskies and other NM Game Fish.
A short summary of the interaction between Muskellunge and other game fish. What do Muskies really eat.pdf
A short summary of the benefits and impact of stocking muskellunge in our fisheries. Why Stock Muskies.pdf
How to tell the difference between a male and a Female Muskie.
Unlike many coolwater, freshwater species it is possible to visually determine the sex of mature muskellunge. In adult female muskie the urogenital region resembles the shape of a pear, while in adult male muskellunge the shape of the region resembles a keyhole (Figure 2) (Lebeau and Pageau 1989). Sexually dimorphic growth occurs with muskellunge, as females reach larger ultimate sizes than males. Another interesting fact about the muskellunge is that there is evidence that muskie have a different sex-determining system than northern pike. While northern pike appear to use an XY system similar to ours (with males being XY and females being XX), research by Dabrowski et al. (2000) uncovered evidence of a WZ system (with males being ZZ and females being WZ) in muskellunge. Simply stated, in northern pike, males determine the sex of offspring, while in muskie, females determine the sex of offspring.
Figure 1: Picture of female (left) and male (right) muskellunge urogenital region (Lebeau and Pageau 1989, for additional information visit the Trent University web site).
Targeting Muskies on the Fly, ask about fly fishing radio with Bill Butts
http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers/robert_tomes/robert_tomes.cfm
Targeting Pike on the Fly,ask about fly fishing radio with Barry Reynolds
http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers/barry/barry.cfm