Musky Stocking – Petenwell Flowage

Sometimes if you want better fishing you just roll up your sleeves and do something about it! And that just what Bob Koeshall, our FTR Field Staffer on Petenwell/WI River, did back on October 15, 2001.

In his own words…”We planted 280 Musky in the Petenwell on the 15 th. of Oct. I’m the good looking guy in the Black jacket, thought you might like to see them. I’ll be doing an article on them at some point.”

Ain’t they cute?!…. for now!

Now with any luck and maybe some subsequent stockings, Petenwell anglers can look forward to some super musky fishing in the future.

We thank you for the pics and your effort in working towards a better fishery for ALL of us. Our collective hats are off to you Bob.

EFN Webstaff

If there were muskies in the Mississippi, I don`t think that I’d fish anywhere else.

Beav

This is great!! This is the area that I grew up in. Fish both lakes on a regular basis. I know Castle Rock like the back of my hand. Lived right on the water and all we did was fish all day. Boy those were the days, no cares in the world. I have only caught 8 muskies on the pete. but by the lookes of things it will only get better. Good job you guys now if we could only keep the power company from dropping the water 6+ feet every winter things would really be jumping.

I’m keeping my eye’s open for some land for you. Did you sell off your hunting land yet? Oh well back to the thread. Why don’t you think there are any musky’s in the Mississippi. There’s plenty of them in the Chippewa River and I’ll bet if you get into some of those backwater lakes and throw some big baits you might be suprised.I know those musky babies must get washed downstream in the spring and they end up in the Mississippi.Maybe a lot of them don’t get huge or maybe not a lot of numbers but I’d be willing to be bet there in there.

The Mississippi River is not classified as a ‘musky water’ by the DNR. There are a few in there but muskie fishing is to hard to handicap yourself by fishing a body of water with a low population. However from L&D #3 up there is a fishable population and pool 2 is stocked regularly.

Swimwizz,

Honestly, I kinda chuckled when I read that Pool 2 was stocked with Musky!!! After a little checking, I found that you are indeed correct. Here is what has been done the last three years: (Source – Mn DNR Website)

1998

Mississippi R. (pool 2)

Muskellunge – 21,128 fry weighing 0.8 lbs

1999

Mississippi R. (pool 2)

Muskellunge – 28,417 fingerlings weighing 34.4 lbs.

Muskellunge – 76,220 fry weighing 2.8 lbs.

2000

Mississippi R. (pool 2)

Muskellunge – 5,770 fingerlings weighing 6.7 lbs.

I have never seen or heard of a Musky caught in pool 2. I do run into them on the St Croix and would expect to see them in pool 3.

J.

There are a lot of nice muskies in the upper stretches of the Mississippi. I actually caught one on cut-bait while fishing for cats in the Monticello area. That was kind of weird. It went about 15 lbs. I know the Brainerd area has good muskie water. Pool 2 could get interesting in a few years when your trolling for walleyes. Vern

Pool 2 is where lots of left over muskie fry and fingerlings from stocking are dumped. I don’t think the survival rate is as good in pool 2 as it is farther north. However those numbers of stocked fish are much higher than most bogies of water and I know the DNR has found adult muskie in pool 2 during shocking surveys.

A budy of mine caught one up by the Ford Dam 2 weeks ago. 41 inches. Small shad rap. 2 feet of water off the back end of the island. Nice lokin fish.

Ive often tangled with musky in the area below the coon rapids dam…… seems to be lots of them there…….