Cat Guys: Pool 2 Musky Stocking?

I heard that stocking muskies is being considered on Pool 2, and since I am not fishing and bored, I thought I’d pose a question to gauge cat guy’s feelings. If there is a user named “cat guy” on the board, no this question is not just for you.

How would you cat guys feel about muskies being stocked on pool 2? Do you have concerns about how it might affect the cat fishery? I know that looks like 2 questions, but the second is just an example of how you might expound on your answer.

I’ll reserve my thoughts, because I don’t want to influence any responses, even if I am known as the least influential guy on these boards.

As MNCSA #7, I felt it was my duty to gauge my fellow cat guy’s opinions.

What’s the worst it could do Pug? Increase the forage base of the flathead?

Pool 2 muskie stocking? Doesnt seem like a good match to me. Dont muskies mainly sight feed? They are not going to be seeing much in that muddy water. I have often thought this is the same reason the pool is not a great smallie fishery.

Pre bass season pool 2 is all ready a zoo with bass anglers. We dont need it flooded with muskie guys to. Lets just keep it walleye guys during the day. Cat fishing at night and we will all get along just fine.

Stocking musky’s just to stock them?
Nope, used to be able to fish for northerns in Nokomis, people I know that fish Nokomis say since the musky’s were introduced the number has declined.

Maybe, maybe not, but our DNR has made a few mistakes along the way and stocking just to stock is nuts.

Al

They already are stocking pool 2 with muskies. They are getting put into Spring Lake. I have not heard of anyone fishing them. I think the people who do fish them are probably even more secretive then normal. I have heard of a few getting caught by other people, like this one.

There is definitly good sized muskies that come out of P2. Heard of one guy with 4 over 40 inches last year

Here’s dnr stocking info for 2008. And it goes back for years. Obviously it helps the catfishin.

Mississippi River (Pool 2)
Muskellunge – 7,150 fry weighing 0.3 lbs.

I don’t have the specifics on what this stocking will be, so I don’t know if we are talking more, a different age class or stocking them in a different part of pool 2.

They have also stocked Pigs Eye and Spring Lake for many years with tons o’ fry. There are some really nice Muskies already swimming the waters of Pool 2.

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Pre bass season pool 2 is all ready a zoo with bass anglers. We dont need it flooded with muskie guys to. Lets just keep it walleye guys during the day. Cat fishing at night and we will all get along just fine.

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Mike-

Muskie and Pike season doesn’t open on Pool 2 until their regular opening dates for each species. So no worries about Muskie crowds down there pre- season or at all for that matter, as I have never seen anyone out there huckin’ baits besides myself. The looks you get from the other fisherman can be pretty funny as well…I can just imagine their cartoon bubbles. “What the hell are those morons doing.”

Not to pull this thread off topic but here’s another question for you Pool-2 guys. How many Pike/Muski have you caught down there?

I’m sure a lot of it is the fact that I’ve never targeted them, but I’ve pulled a lot of cranks up and down that river and I think I can count on 1 hand how many pike we’ve caught.

Not to let you continue to pull this thread off track, but I remember fishing cutbait in the middle of summer and kept having what I thought was a cat break my leader. It happened a couple times, so I came back the next day and used an actual metal leader.

Sure enough, it was a pike. I’ve heard of using deadbait in winter and spring for pike, but not the dead of summer. Plus, it was odd enough he was still there the next day and willing to keep taking the bait. I suppose ‘he’ could have been a ‘they’.

Despite what a lot of people think, large predators are generally very good for virtually any body of water. Lots of literature out there on this. And yes, Pool 2 has been stocked with muskies for a while. I get the impression that they’re present throughout the pool, but that it’s a very low density population. I wish they’d stock more of them and that the population would take — I’d love to have a realistic shot at boating them with regularity.

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I’d love to have a realistic shot at boating them with regularity.

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There’s alway the St Croix.

Dang, I didn’t say that out loud AGAIN did I?

Not to mention that muskies are native to the ol’ Mississip. And not just the northern stretch.

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There’s alway the St Croix.

Dang, I didn’t say that out loud AGAIN did I?

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WTG BK now musky fishing on the Croix will be forever ruined and its all your fault

P.S. I also heard there is some good musky fishing in Raspberry Slough also :whistling

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Muskie and Pike season doesn’t open on Pool 2 until their regular opening dates for each species. So no worries about Muskie crowds down there pre- season or at all for that matter,…

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That’s bizarre because I just looked in the rules and you’re right, but the CO’s I talked to on walleye opener said that pool 2 was continuous for “walleye, bass, northern, everything…” catch and release only.

I wonder who’s right… the regs or the enforcement officers?

On a average year I catch maybe a half dozen pike on pool 2. I don’t think the way we walleye fish the river is very enticing to muskies. Even trolling cranks on the st croix for walleyes I catch very few pike or muskies. Due these fish just tend to find more at the surface than towards the bottom?

Hate to say but a good muskie population on pool 2 may even get my attention. Maybe I should switch over to trolling bucktails.

This is going to come off sounding harsh, but I think in general the DNR looks at stocking as an instant fix for problems that probably don’t exist in the first place. I’d rather see the resources spent on clean water, reducing polution, wetlands and backwaters protection, etc. Let’s make the river healthy and see what IT wants to grow. If there are supposed to be Muskies in there, they’ll be there.

If the stocking numbers are accurate, you’d think we’d run across Muskies more often. As much time as we spend throwing crankbaits and bright colored plastics, I’d have to believe we’d see Muskies. I don’t think it’s a water clarity issue as some of the lakes I’ve been successful on are real swamps. I just don’t think there are a lot of them down there.

Rootski

I think your on the rite track Steve. Spend more effort on returning the river to its natural state instead of trying to manipulate it more. Who knows, maybe the DNR thinks the river is back to a state where it could support a muskie population.

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I’d love to have a realistic shot at boating them with regularity.

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There’s alway the St Croix.

Dang, I didn’t say that out loud AGAIN did I?

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SHHHHHHH, we don’t need that secret to get out

For those of us that already fish she Croix for Ski’s, I think we have enough competition as it is

I don’t disagree with you at all, Rootski. But if we hadn’t built the locks and dams in the first place, the whole stretch of the Mississippi in MN would be an awesome muskie fishery! It’s impossible for us to reverse everything we’ve done (locks, dams, wingdams, riprap, revetments, bridges, etc., etc.) so I do hope the DNR focuses on managing the fishery to its fullest potential.

Mike, we’ll probably never catch many muskies when we’re walleye fishing. They generally hang out in different places and do different things. Just like any muskie lake, you rarely see them when you’re targeting something else except during specific circumstances (for example, smallies and muskie generally use the same stuff in the spring).

Well i don’t think that it is the dnr that wants to stock the fish the rumor is it is another entity. But they would need permission from the dnr. I think.

Muskies exist in the whole upper missippi river I dont complain when a Scent feeder feeds on a young muskies

I’ve got 2 Ski’s in my long illustrious P.2 career….
one around 10 pounds the other around 5.

I have no problem with Muskies themselves or what there impact on the fishery is….I do worry down the road about what the Ski anglers and there PULL could do to the fishery.
so I would be against it for non-biological reasons.

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I dont complain when a Scent feeder feeds on a young muskies

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Channel Cats eat Muskies too?

Fill the whole river with ‘skies and put extra in Pool 9. wouldnt hurt a thing and it would add another dimension to river fishing.

Personally, I have no issues with it. Rivers are strong ecosystems and short of snakeheads and silver carp, I don’t think any stocking would harm it. And I’d welcome muskies in any body of water I fished. An apex predator that never seems to disrupt a body of water with over population is a good for an ecosystem IMO.

So along those lines, I’d see the stocking as having a neutral to positive affect on the cat fishery in pool 2.

Just wondering if you have a stable or strong ecosystem why you want to add to that and take a chance of screwing it up?

While I fish for Musky’s, I don’t believe we need to add them to any lake just because a few people wants them.

Bit of study on what the fish will do to the exsiting fish population would be a nice start, seems our DNR is quick on the draw to fix problems with out enough study, or cater to special interest groups.

A lot of caution is needed imho, once a species is added they’re hard to remove.

Al

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Channel Cats eat Muskies too?

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Just like BK, but only the cheeks