The Muskie - From egg to adult

Anglers know the muskellunge by any number of colorful descriptions, including the fish of a thousand casts. Not so commonly known is the precarious route that this fish must take before it winds up at the end of the line.
The muskellunge story begins at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources' Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery near Morehead. "Kentucky Afield" cameras follow the process from spawning in the laboratory setting to releasing into lakes and streams. This segment features Hatchery Manager Rod Middleton along with Sarah Terry, the angler who caught Kentucky's state record muskellunge.

[@paulinepear]

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME “COHO” SALMON EXPERIMENTS IN LAKE MICHIGAN The “Coho”, not being a native of the Lake Michigan water, has experienced difficulty in surviving. The female, when going up the Lake Michigan feeder streams, has been losing her roe on the rocky stream bottoms, and when she has gotten far enough up stream into the small pools and inlets, has had great difficulty getting back into the main stream over the sand bars to return to Lake Michigan tributaries, which caused an odor problem. The Michigan sportsman decided to crossbreed the “Coho” with the native “Walleye” for two reasons: 1. The Walleye knew Lake Michigan tributaries and 2. The Walleye was not prone to lose the roe while going up stream. Hence the name “COWAL”. This experiment back-fired because the fighting “COHO” mixed with the rather sluggish Walleye has lost most of the fight the “COHO” was noted for. In a further experiment, they crossed the “COWAL” with the greatest fresh water fighter in North America: the “MUSKIE” in an effort to make this double crossbreed the top American game fish. They named this hybrid the “COWALSKI” and now they are trying to teach the dumb son of a bitch to swim. This is a good natured joke/story which is sometimes told in some of the family bars in Hamtramck. “Na Zdowie” to all the fine folks who feel so passionately about this marvelous wonder of nature, muskellunge (Esox masquinongy).

[@TuffEsox]

Amazing video! I've been fortunate to fish Cave Run every April in the PMTT and all I can say is that it is one of the most breathtaking fisheries I have had the honor to fish. Thank you for your continued efforts!

[@flt528]

haha they gave the male muskie "hand relief!"

[@Fishhunter2014]

Did I just hear that guy say: "it needs to get some air going through its' lungs?"

[@pmrpro49]

That's southern for "gills"

[@anthonystewart2849]

Isn’t that bad for the fish? I thought it was side to side not front to back?

[@MrChancebandit]

If you dont understand how hard it is too catch a big muskie ...the day you do you will never forget it.

[@repairdrive]

GREAT video. This was way more complicated than what I was expecting.

[@tnbass2833]

Neat to see all the work that goes into a hatchery.

[@kidcoulson]

One of the best videos Ive seen.-kid coulson, michigan muskie alliance member.

[@s.ak.1459]

it's good what you are doing, here is my view, I live on the border of Canada and USA, in Cornwall Ontario Canada, you should see the musky here. they are huge, guaranteed to catch a 42 to 56 inch come and experience the St Lawrence River, B-)

[@mrkackerwacker]

Dude, my island is Scotia Is. (off of Grenadier) and usually we don't have muskies (usually up in Gananoque) but our friend caught a 24 pounder a few weeks back. Are the muskies migrating??!!

[@IRieAsAVirus37]

S.A K. I really wanna fish the saint Lawrence and Masena river,I'm in Upstate New York.

[@golforfishing]

Makes you appreciate the cost of a fishing license

[@mehlke06]

I need one of those fancy fish locators that shock the fish.

[@s.ak.1459]

when musky populate an area they're offspring spread and search for territory, for they are very territorial, a healthy river system can stock many tributaries, great lakes for example.

[@mfddb3084]

Well then I finally made my 10,000th cast about 5 weeks ago in PA it was my first and it was about 40 inches

[@rydertilidyer1136]

12-13 weeks to get to 9 inches that's fairly quick isn't it? Trust me I'm not complaining I love it!

[@kevingodin]

Great job USA.Respect Musky ,is very very GOOD.Great idea n great job :)

[@rydertilidyer1136]

kevingodin Thank you!! It's so nice to here someone saying something good about America for once instead of bashing it. You da man!

[@markthomas3730]

They used to be called " The Fish of 10,000 Casts "

[@jaroschreuder1996]

Bring some to the netherlands! :D

[@rydertilidyer1136]

Musky' are so freakin gorgeous I would love to catch one

[@rydertilidyer1136]

I wish they did this with all kinds of fish! Would make fishermans park and others like mcneely a lot more fun than just catching 3" bluegill all day ha

[@uncleheffe309]

I suggest putting one of those 3" bluegills on a hook and sending it.

[@craigrock8444]

At first I was kind of shocked those huge fish were euthanized just to get those eggs but then to see how many little fish it creates to stock, it's quite amazing. Guess I never realized that before about the process

[@hannahbriggs2991]

5:50 anesthetized, milked and returned

[@tomschauman4960]

That is truly amazing!!

[@brokenpebble7492]

Why do you cast with one hand? In the beginning

[@charlesbranch4120]

At 3:25+, the comment "Getting some air flowing through the lungs..." floored me! I wrote my research paper for Fishery Management class at the University of Montana on the muskellunge (B.S. Wildlife Biology Aquatic Option 1978). Since that time, I mainly worked on stream and lake habitat assessment, plus a stint on a life history study of southern Idaho's Snake River population of white sturgeon.

[@tuckrex2038]

“Look, some person used a different, yet similar term to the word ‘gills.’ Since I have nothing better to do, and I’m a pretty sad person, I’ll act smart and brag about the only productive thing I’ve done in my life!”

[@isaackirbyfishing]

@@tuckrex2038 imagine replying to a six year old comment.

[@IRieAsAVirus37]

Dream job!!! Those are pure muskie right,not tigers?

[@IRieAsAVirus37]

@@Tyler-zw4kq right totally all the waterways near me they're what's left over for the state of New York and they just dumped thousands of Tiger Muskies into one of the lakes and they make it up in the main river system otherwise the closest pure muskies are Saint Lawrence River and I know they have the ones that are kind of spotted not to say there's not something muskies in the closest river system which is like half a mile but I've never ever heard of one being caught near me ever

[@asianboy9821]

Best fish in the world besides lake trout!

[@Michael-du1yg]

Fish have gills, not lungs 3:18

[@liamthomas3666]

7:45 how do you count that?😅

[@brokenpebble7492]

3:25 why are you pulling the fishing back and forth, ITS A MUSKY

[@mickemike2148]

Sissy nets!

[@mickemike2148]

@@Tyler-zw4kq I was commenting on the teeny weeny net that was used when they fished with electricity at start of this clip.

[@TomBrooklyn]

Vastly more fish are stocked than get caught. What happens to the rest of them?

[@mongolloyd5236]

More than likely get eaten by larger fish including other muskie, as well as travelling naturally and distributing the population along the river and other bodies of water

[@jamie666stevens]

lol more like 1000 casts

[@noahfrank93]

Jesus loves you

[@geekgamer1869]

its a pike

[@geekgamer1869]

Jake P i live in the uk they are called pike here

[@jakep7018]

Pike have spots look up the difference, I'm in mn there's Pike and musky. Pike have spots musky don't

[@jakep7018]

They look similar so I see we're your coming from but musky are 10x harder to catch then a pike

[@travisc5369]

Well in the U.K. A Muskellunge is called a Pike whereas here in America a musky is called a musky naturally and a Northern pike is a pike but funny a Canadian calls a walleye a pickerel (pike) and a pike is a jackfish

[@911PUC]

There are no musky in the UK. Musky only exist throughout a range in North America. Anything you're catching in the UK is a pike.