Ronix 51

Well first off they are stocked through by State agencies, so they are an intentionally introduced species that are sterile and can be controlled at the population level through stocking efforts. Second off, tiger musky occur naturally in any system that contain both Northern Pike and Muskie.

Invasive? Not sure if you are referring to tiger muskie as "invasive" but if so I think you may need to rethink that...

Look forward to it Ivan, I'll take you out casting if you give me a trolling 101 haha!

Very sorry to hear of the loss, Mike seems like the kind of guy everyone respected and liked for sure. This is an awesome cause and I will definitely be donating. Thanks for posting Ivan!

Gents, Just wanted to give everyone a heads up Mike Sperry is holding an open house at his shop on November 7 from 10 AM - 6 PM open to the public. He will have in store specials, discounted muskie tackle, raffles on all sorts of geaar, and a bow tech in the shop for any archery/hunting questions! Should be a good time, I plan on stopping by and if anyone else is in the area fishing that weekend just thought I'd pass it along!

Survival will definitely take a hit with a lack of cover, but I do know that Lamoka has more cover than Waneta. I believe the Lakes association avoids treating both lakes simultaneously (at least there is 1 thing they can do right). It certainly wouldn't hurt to put extra fish in Lamoka, some will survive and it helps to get a jump start on reestablishing stocking efforts there and it opens up another fishing opportunity.

Gents, I sent an email to region 8 requesting info on reestablishing stocking to Lamoka. If anyone else has the time to do so too it couldn't hurt in showing that there are a few of us interested in seeing that happen. I would really hope that it wouldn't be a pain in the ass since all they would have to do at the launch is turn left with their boats!

Let's make it happen!

I agree, giving the lake more angling attention may be the push needed to simply have them start throwing a few hundred of the YOY over there instead of all just in Waneta.

Brent and I were tossing around the idea of having a tournament on Lamoka lake next season other day while on the water...I think it would make for an interesting tournament and would force all of us who have a hard time of leaving waneta to explore lamoka to fish it thoroughly! They are definitely in there, it'd be cool to have several people fishing it at once to get a rough beginning estimate of what their population density is. While still at ESF, I almost did some seining towards the south end of the lake to see if I could find any un-clipped young of year fish...there does appear to be some better spawning habitat that may allow for natural reproduction. Any thoughts/interest from anyone on this idea?

Great fish! Awesome catch and one that many anglers will spend a lifetime to try and accomplish! I don't mean to be a downer but I'll be that guy and mention that if that's how a "guru" handles a fish especially of that caliber then it has me re-thinking the definition... Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Steve those are great ideas but when it comes down to feasibility it could get tricky...raising them would require a lot of time and supervision (all of it would have to be volunteer too) plus transporting them from a hatchery holding tank to a civilian-made pen in a lake would probably require additional clearance to assure no diseases are spread. Just my opinion, the most ideal method for stocking would be to stock fewer but larger fingerlings/yearlings. They throw thousands upon thousands of them all over the state (many of which are wasted in waters that receive hardly any angling effort - if any at all). If they cut back on the number of fish they try to produce and focus on feeding fewer fish a higher quality forage diet and transport them to outside earthing ponds before release I think it would increase survival. Good luck conveying that to the hatcheries though. I tried having this conversation with Dave Lemon a few years ago and he was all for making changes but the hatcheries are where I recalled the most resistance.

I think a lot of it depends on available manpower (laziness could also be a factor as well). As far as I know they will gladly accept volunteers. I think a lot of it comes back to how they are reared in the hatchery...there is an abundance of research indicating that pellet-fed tank reared fish have a much less survival rate than fish raised on minnows and in ponds. But since pellets are cheap and tigers will take to them NYS hatcheries will always go the cheaper route and raise as many as they can, throw as many as they can into a body of water and see what sticks. If you do it long enough you there is obviously some success (i.e. Conesus and Otisco) but there are far better ways they could be managing hybrid muskie fisheries.