Stocking The Mighty Great Lakes Muskie | Great Lakes Now

Correction:
0:23 While Ontario and Quebec have stocked muskellunge in the past, currently they do not (03/21/2024).
The Michigan DNR is aiming to raise and release 40,000 Great Lakes muskellunge each year.
Muskellunge are at the top of the Great Lakes food chain. As apex predators, they play a critical role in keeping the lakes balanced and healthy. Muskies are known for being highly cannibalistic which makes raising tens of thousands of them in small hatchery tanks a huge challenge for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
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[@khalidbowe7600]

Thank you for showing us the behind the scenes

[@privatepilot4064]

The Mighty Muskie! The fresh water Barracuda!

[@stanleegora469]

Can the DNR please control the lamprey population , poor musky in video had 3 of them on it , thats a death musky , poor fish 😢

[@gummo3873]

I just pulled a lamprey off of a Musky I caught last week (and killed it) and killed another one I saw attached to a rock where I was fishing in Lake St. Clair. 1 out of every 4 or 5 fish I see caught have atleast one on them. Big problem for sure.

[@lbarcelow_fishing]

Those were not invasive sea lampreys, those were native lampreys

[@stanleegora469]

@@lbarcelow_fishing sorry those are not the native ones , native 1s are smaller

[@lbarcelow_fishing]

@@stanleegora469 they were like 6” long wdym

[@tjdevans8542]

Sea lampreys are 2’ long and they are still a problem in at least Lake Huron. They would kill a Muskie.

[@garyslomczynski6579]

Need to stock in all major Northern rivers these fish eat like hell and whould put a dent in the Asian carp!!

[@kyles5960]

Amazing, great work everyone

[@jeweleratlarge]

Great work...thank you

[@joeyeldrecht27]

Love lake Huron for there huge muskies salute

[@eriktout5084]

Absolutely beautiful fish .

[@miked8227]

I was walleye fishing on the Saint Clare river last fall and snagged two fingerling musky within 10 mins apart. Both appeared to be fine and swam away just fine.

[@HataKreataz]

Great video, what a fantastic job to have as well. Thank you to all involved!

[@kainowak]

Awesome video, great work. Cheers from ontario!

[@RWildekrav66]

Stock these Muskie in the lakefront of Chicago south to Indiana and north to Racine Wisconsin.

[@collinvall5094]

They wouldn’t survive

[@ralphw7950]

@@collinvall5094Why do you say that?

[@Dark30Outdoors]

I would love to see them stocked in Lake Erie!

[@nickelguy88-rt1nx]

That would be fantastic!

[@philcarlson5313]

They are there already and produce naturally. They thrive there alot of the st clair fish go into Erie

[@nickelguy88-rt1nx]

@@philcarlson5313 it's a fragile fishery here on the western basin. Buffalo Harbor has a strong population though. Pretty much all of their spawning habitat in the western basin has been destroyed.

[@jeil5676]

Isnt erie right next to st. clair? That should be good enough unless theres some sort of obstacle to migration. I thought that was the whole point of them releasing inland. so they could naturally spread throughout the lakes.

[@Dark30Outdoors]

@@philcarlson5313 they were also already in Green Bay, but the stocking made it a gold mine of a fishery!

[@bigpikeonly4033]

Great work! I wish we have musky in Europe..

[@Caleb.M_Fishing]

No musky in Europe?! Gotta come to Canada!

[@TheNewMediaoftheDawn]

You have huge pike, the size of Muskie anyway, bigger than us!

[@bigpikeonly4033]

@@TheNewMediaoftheDawn Thanks! Just had my first musky few weeks ago in USA. It’s hard to describe how happy I am!

[@rparnaby3843]

Well the how bout the dnrs tell all the water front owners have to have 50% of the shoreline left natural and fine them if they dont.

[@ryanboldt7751]

awesome!

[@danhealyeverythingoutdoors7105]

Great video !

[@ryanbuckley3314]

They're so fast, with their dorsal so far back. Esox are perfect masters of their environment. Amazing fish.

[@btaylor9788]

Budd lake in Michigan right in the center of the state

[@paint1220]

Very Cool!

[@fishermandancrook]

Lets see some Lake Simcoe muskie. I was part of the reintroduction almost 20 years ago.

[@TheNewMediaoftheDawn]

How are they doing? I fish lakers there…

[@fishermandancrook]

@@TheNewMediaoftheDawn I have no idea, I am curious myself.

[@haveallbeentaken]

There's a video of one of the universities stocking some in Cooks Bay maybe 10 or 15 years ago. Haven't heard of any being caught.

[@TheNewMediaoftheDawn]

The pike probably ate them all, lol

[@trevoror8668]

Start putting LOTS more energy into the environment they need to sporn with enough shallow weedy bay's for the fingerling to grow on that would provide them with the small things they require to eat and thrive

[@FjHenderson]

There's a sleeper lake system in Southern Michigan that supports the Musky and are thriving.

[@philcarlson5313]

Belleville?

[@beaurex4756]

Fresh water barracuda.

[@2199SPUDMAN]

Basically..yeah. Beautiful fish.

[@vicbanks9079]

Great work...couple of the netted females were yooge! lol. Nice work, very good vdo.. Any other species you're monitoring? Like Lake sturgeon? Thx.

[@cliffcampbell4267]

Interesting

[@t9056]

worth every penny in my book...i wish here in wv they would put as much effort into musky as trout...2 weeks ago i saw a close to 50in 2 days in a row(i almost ran him over at night the nexrt morn i messed up the figure 8 ) ive been going back everyday lol but im starting to think theyre spawning now

[@TheNewMediaoftheDawn]

Didn’t know they were stocked like that, except to reintroduce to a lake.

[@user-qb6il1vf1y]

Can't put some padding in the livewell or some kind of tub ?

[@chucklutter7399]

Very informative and enjoyable video. My hat is off to all the people who work so hard to maintain viable populations of all the game fish. I hope the ignorant mindset of introducing this incredible apex predator into lakes and streams where they previously didn't exist is behind us. TIGHT LINES

[@HighVelocityRips]

What were the 2 stocked inland lakes again?

[@aidanberlin2139]

There’s been a few inland lakes they’ve stocked. You can look online at the dnr stocking reports I don’t beleive they’ve done any inland lakes in a while. I know the attempts in my area at foote pond and cooke pond were a pretty big failure.

[@brooktrout1477]

@@aidanberlin2139sure they were failures, wink wink

[@aidanberlin2139]

@@brooktrout1477 I’ve been fishing Foote pond pretty consistently the last two seasons throwing only big baits. Bucktails, 8 inch cranks, glide baits, etc.. all I’ve caught is a lot of pike and one 29 inch walleye. I haven’t heard of anyone catching any musky in this area besides Lake Huron since they released tiger musky around the late 90s I believe in van etton, Foote pond, and some other inland lakes. From what I know none of the stocking attempts were successful in creating a healthy reproducing population of musky. If I am wrong please correct me.

[@brooktrout1477]

@@aidanberlin2139 I’m not familiar with your area or the stocking programs by you but in the UP of Michigan I don’t have much faith in the dnr , the wink wink part was for , people won’t tell the truth about spots , I’ve known old timers that went to their grave not giving up their brooktrout spots

[@stevepav8604]

What is the name of the 2 inland lakes ? Asking for a friend

[@craigholland2274]

Leech lake strain and cass lake strain I think

[@butter7734]

I had no idea they needed to stock them.

[@sdriza]

i didnt know they stocked Musky in the great lakes?

[@csemrau]

Not all States/Great Lakes. NY does nothing for musky in Lake Erie/Buffalo Harbor unfortunately.

[@anthonysignorini8015]

Then video lied?? They said ALL states,do

[@csemrau]

Yes they are incorrect.

[@kevinwaalker]

@@anthonysignorini8015 Ontario does not stock muskie. They should.

[@markcomisky7106]

What about tiger muskys are they stocked

[@herbb8547]

Tiger Muskies do occasionally occur naturally when an early spawning female Muskie and a late spawning male Northern Pike spawn together. It doesn't happen a lot and so natural Tiger Muskies are usually rare. The Tiger Muskies that result are thought to be sterile. Stocking is usually the only way a lake will have a significant population of Tiger Muskies.

[@philcarlson5313]

@@herbb8547I got a tiger in clair last November

[@jamesschroeder969]

Don't you return them to where you caught them?

[@roycereetzjr2272]

I've always heard they stocked Tiger Musky in the past becuse they were easier to raise. They will eat pellets. Were spotted Musky need live minnows

[@ralphw7950]

Tiger muskies are sterile. They use them to test the affect on the ecosystem in the lake they are being introduced

[@aaronvogt335]

DEC wouldn't allow the removal of said habitat if they were actually involved with Conservation.

[@buckbenelli8]

These DNR people have great jobs and are doing something they love. Never caught a Muskie in st Claire, but my buddy did. They are apex predators and are awesome fish. Unfortunately the Asian carp will decimate our Great Lakes, it’s probably inevitable. Fund the DNR for future generations, enough of the small government BS.

[@philcarlson5313]

Muskies will eat them carp right up! They love soft rayed fish. Hopefully we just get bigger Muskies. But I hope everyone does their part to stop it!

[@axiomaticidioms3857]

If the DNR was funded more in Michigan that would be fine... But I don't know about them trying to bring tons of people here to places literally by water... That's where the government should mind their own business.

[@joemurphy6736]

i’d be very interested to see a video about tahquamenon musky

[@bklewis6412]

Muskies don't wear stockings. I might be wrong.

[@billybob8228]

I've heard that some hatchery raised species of fish are sterile. Is there any truth or concern to that regarding musky?

[@jeweleratlarge]

They did express concern about the spotted and northern interbreeding, so maybe not? I don't know.

[@johnbarth684]

New York use to stock the great lakes. I don't think they do anymore. The DEC hardly does anything that they use to other than spending money.

[@ronkwiatkowski340]

According to the NY DEC website, the Upper Niagara River and St. Lawrence River, part of the Great Lakes System, musky populations are two of only a few self- sustaining populations in North America. More information is at ....dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/freshwater-fishing/fisheries-management-research/muskellunge-management#:~:text=About%2025%2C000%20fingerlings%20are%20annually,Champlain%20tributary%2C%20are%20also%20stocked.

[@chesterfieldthe3rd929]

So mean shocking the water.

[@Svennoow123]

Why not create more spawning grounds so they can reproduce more naturally?

[@jokervienna6433]

It is so sad that this is even necessary. With good spawning habitats, the fish do it all by themselves.

[@LuisMiguelGarciaTorres]

they look a lot like barracuda

[@jlunde4364]

6 feet 😂

[@abelarrhurs4511]

They only stock the ones they can catch

[@valleyproductions1]

Too bad we have hook regulations in our part of lake Michigan

[@RasoDazzle5150]

Love stalking fish. Canada needs todo better in this department. Also stalk steelhead our runs are fkn horrible

[@danmawer9134]

6ft huh?😂

[@jeweleratlarge]

minimum legal size in MI. is 50 inches, 54 in WI. They do get big.

[@danmawer9134]

@@jeweleratlarge yes but they don't get 72inches long.

[@jeweleratlarge]

@@danmawer9134 google " world record muskie "

[@jdebell7068]

People ruin everything

[@michaelkolbe5963]

They don't force companies out of business that are promoting forward facing sonar there won't be any. left .Many of the fish are dying off because they're not doing enough to clean up the water systems . Sure aren't afraid to tell you all what they do or charge big dollars for a fishing license though .

[@JJE2010MO]

Never caught a female??

[@kevinwaalker]

Out of 1500 captured they never caught the same female twice.

[@JJE2010MO]

seems a little sketchy @@kevinwaalker

[@biffjoesen2529]

Cannibalism is a reason not to stock.

[@slickdaddy8408]

Lol every fish species will do that when confined.

[@tbenson5966]

Lame

[@evilroman1sobieski756]

Not a beautiful as European Northern pike