NMDGF Tiger Muskie Management Summary Spring 2010


We conducted our annual spring survey of Quemado Lake on April 19 and 20. We caught and examined 69 fish, more than average for our spring survey. The average size of the fish we caught was 29”. The largest fish was 43” and weighed 18 pounds. Overall condition of the fish was good with a relative weight of 107 (and “average” fish scores 100). All size classes were observed, including fish that were stocked as fry in 2009. Our current estimate of population size is slightly over 1100 fish greater than 18”.

We conducted our spring survey of Bluewater Lake May 3. As in past years, this survey focuses on the response of the sucker and goldfish populations to predation by tiger muskie. We caught no goldfish and our mean abundance index for white suckers was 45 fish/hr (compared to 210 fish/hr in 2009 and 980 fish/hr before the introduction of tiger muskie). We captured 6 tiger muskie during this survey. Average length was 34” and average weight was 12 pounds. All of the fish were between 29 and 37 inches. We continue to have concern regarding recruitment of smaller fish into the population.

We are on line to received 250,000 tiger muskie eggs from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission in early May. We will had fair success hatching these eggs out at Rock Lake Trout Rearing station, but did experience appreciable mortality of the fry. We are currently raising about 20,000 fry in a growout pond using fatheads purchased by NMMI. We are also picking up about 80,000 feed trained tiger muskie fingerlings from Pennsylvania this week. About half of those fish will be immediately stocked into Bluewater, the rest will be reared until this fall at Rock Lake.

We have implemented limited harvest of tiger muskie later this year. The current bag limit is 1 fish over 40” long. The area Conservation Officers have not notified me of any harvest and we do not yet have an official state record fish on file. If you have comments or questions regarding tiger muskie management in New Mexico, feel free to contact me (richard.hansen@state.nm.us).

2009 Quemado Lake NMDGF Tiger Muskie Management Summary

  We conducted our annual spring survey of Quemado Lake on April 14-16.  We caught and examined 45 fish, about average for our spring survey.  The average size of the fish we caught was 28”.   The largest fish was 42” and weighed a little more than 20 pounds.  The population remains healthy and our current population estimate is about 1000 fish greater than 24 inches.  We will be conducting our spring survey of Bluewater Lake May 5.  Our spring Bluewater survey usually focuses on the response of the sucker and goldfish populations to predation by tiger muskie, but we usually catch a few Tiger Muskies.  

     We are on line to receive 250,000 tiger muskie eggs from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission in mid to late May.  We will hatch these eggs out at Rock Lake Trout Rearing station and stock the majority out as fry.  This year Rock Lake personnel will also attempt to raise some fish to fall fingerlings (9-14”) for stocking in September or October.

    We are still working on implementing limited harvest of tiger muskie later this year or early in 2010.  We are planning on having a bag limit of one fish greater than 40”.  We feel this harvest is necessary to maintain healthy tiger muskie populations and to achieve our primary goal for this introduction—rough fish control.  If you have comments or questions regarding our regulation development and management rational feel free to contact me (richard.hansen@state.nm.us).

FALL SURVEY

We conducted our fall survey of tiger muskie at Quemado Lake October 13-15. We collected fish using a combination of electrofishing and gill nets. We handled 67 individual fish during this survey. Mean length of tiger muskie was 32 inches and mean weight was 9.5 pounds. The largest fish we surveyed was 43 inches long and weighed 22 pounds. Overall the population looks healthy, but we are experiencing a surplus of tiger muskie 36 inches and longer. We have concerns that we will be unable to maintain a healthy tiger muskie population without initiating a limited take of larger fish. Therefore, we are proposing a one fish over 40 inch bag limit at Quemado and Bluewater Lakes beginning with the 2010 license year. This regulation should assist us in meeting our primary management goal with tiger muskie--rough fish control-- by promoting continued growth in large fish through reduction in competition.

    We conducted our annual electrofishing survey of Bluewater Lake on May 5, 2009.  The primary purpose of this survey is to evaluate the impact of tiger muskies on the white sucker and goldfish populations in Bluewater.  We caught no goldfish during this survey.  White suckers appear to have leveled out at a much lower level than before the introduction of tiger muskies.  White sucker numbers were similar to those noted during our spring 2008 survey.  Electrofishing is not our primary means of assessing the tiger muskie population, for that we use our fall gill netting surveys.  However, we did catch 9 tiger muskies during this survey.  Six of them were greater than 30 inches long.  Condition indices were higher for tiger muskies at Bluewater than in previous spring surveys.  We did not do a diet analysis during this survey.  Overall the population appears to be healthy, but we are somewhat concerned about the sustainability of a large population of big fish (though it indicates angling for large fish should continue to improve in the near future).

Quemado & Bluewater Lake---Spring 2010.doc breakdown.exl

Bluewater Lake---September 2008.doc

Bluewater lake---May 2008.doc

Bluewater Lake September 2007 .doc& Length Frequency analysis.doc

Bluewater Lake 2002-2006.doc