Muskies on the Mississippi River

I am wondering if any one has caught a muskie on the Mississippi. River Ive seen 2 muskies caught on pool 10 and I caught my first muskie on pool 10 last week.The two bigger ones came off of current in the main channel and were caught on crankbaits. The smaller one that a friend of mine caught was 25 inches and was caught on a popper. I was told that a few years back that a bunch of muskies got loose from the hatchry at Genoa. Would Like your input.

Buzzer, are you sure they weren’t big Northerns? I know alot of fisherman who fish Pool 10 and I’ve never heard on anyone catching a muskie this far south. But…..stranger things have happened.

Interesting ! I’ve cught them from pools 3 up and into the Croix
Every once in a while I hear about one being caught down on the warm water pools (you said pool 10).

Don’t take this wrong, but Musky that far south is rare !! Usually, they are Northerns, IDd as Musky. A lot of times those fish coming from the warm, muddy waters of the Ol’ Miss. will be washed out color wise and hard to tell apart!
But, crimeny guy, you hear of Trout being caught too !!!!

Hope you didn’t handle’m to much, and got’m back in the water quickly. Stress and body slime removall, kills em quick in the summer months.

Kensyl Reading——–EFN ProStaff
Ol’ Miss Guide Service

Ask fireflick about muskies he caught one this spring casting a sand flat for walleyes on pool 5. He snapped a quick picture an got her back in the water…He cant catch walleyes in the spring so atleast he can catch something. lol

I’ve seen a musky caught out of pool 8 also. It wasn’t very big, but I know that it was a musky.

Caught a 33-incher on a spinnerbait on Pool 16. Photographed and released. State of Illinois stocks muskies in Lake George. Lake George has a spillway into Pool 16. My theory is that it was either caught in the Lake and released in the river or it came through the spillway as a little guy and grew up in the mud.

Nice go’n. I’ve caught big Northern but no ski. Sounds like a plausible theory.

Kensyl Reading——-EFN ProStaff

Ive caught plenty of northerns while fishing for bass. I know for a fact that they were muskies they were pure silver no markings like northerns the muskie that I caught was down stream of Dam #10 by lynxville. My fishing partner caught one that was about 40 inches right below the dam on a crankbait.

Here’s proof (PHOTO ATTACHED). From 1994. If I remember right, fish was caught in Arab Chute on Pool 16.

Yup! That’s a musky all right! A down right pretty one too! Is that a barred morph ar a tiger?

Illinois DNR info says there are pure muskies in Lake George, not tigers. I assume this fish came from Lake George somehow. But I’m no muskie expert, so I don’t know for sure.

Here is a picture of the fish I caught this spring. I wasn’t very big but surprised me. Some one thought this might be a pickerel. You tell me is it a musky or pickerel?

I just did a quick glance through some pike/muskie books and they claim that pickerel are more commonly mistaken for northern. In fact, a book made by the NAFC stated that pickerel is just another name for northern. I think that statement is wrong………………but anyway, I did find one mention that Chain Pickerel rarely exceed 5lbs. and Red Pickerel rarely exceed one pound. So, judging by what info I have “in-house”, you have a spotted morph muskie. It’s also backed up by the pointy tail and fins. The other muskie pic is indeed a pure muskie in the barred morph…………..I looked up an example of the tiger and that’s not a tiger, as pointed out.

Each year or so we have some small muskies in the goose island sloughs. They never seem to come around again at grown-up time, with one exception..either 5 or six springs a go we were trying one of our biggun Northern spots and the guy from shore cast out past me and pulled “some kind of fast” with a huge bait,(looked like oversized buzzbait), and when it bumped over a log about 25 feet from us a huge Flat olive gray monster soared out of the water and let’s just say when it came back down it took something with it. The guy said there is always one around. One of our local guys help me out here . I’ve heard we’ve had a large population on the Black River, (it flows into the Mississippi by La Crosse) ,both before the dam up by Hatfield broke and more after????? Flick that is one of the strangest marked fish I have ever seen. Ask B Brecka what he thinks it is. Lawrence

Fireflicks fish is definetly a muskie- the spotted stain stocked commonly by the MN DNR. Muskies are pretty rare below the twin cities. I believe most muskie caught below that are fish that wash in from connected waters. For example muskies that turn up in pool 5 usually came from lake zumbro- which has a very small population of muskie. Pickeral are usually found in the eastern and southern states and look basically like small pike.