01-19-2011, 02:25 PM
The male true muskies at the Lee Kay Center should be mature this year. They will be three years old this spring and are about 30 inches long now. The DWR will use male true musky and female northern pike to make tiger musky.
As far as additional tiger musky waters in Utah....there have been discussions but nothing formal. Tiger musky really serve a purpose to thin out excess forage fish and provide a truly trophy fishery. I have never seen any literature that indicates that the stocking/presence of tiger musky or true musky have led to a decline in a fishery. Perhaps they could cause an issue if you really stocked them heavily but we don't and neither does the rest of the US. We stock between 5-15 fingerlings per acre per year which after mortalities really is pretty low but it does provide a great fishery and takes the edge off of some of the boom and bust cycles of crappie and yellow perch in some of our waters. We are also using them to control Utah chub in Joes Valley which is a first. I don't know they can ever get on top of the chubs in there but the tiger musky are doing amazingly well in Joes Valley.
Just so you know I fish for bass, crappie, bluegill, perch tiger musky and whatever else I can find. First and foremost though I am paid to do the best for our warmwater fisheries in Utah that is possible and I take that job seriously.
If you have ideas for additional tiger musky waters let me know. I agree with what was said about Utah Lake though. Tiger musky would be a hard sell for a water that holds the only known population of an endangered species.
Drew
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As far as additional tiger musky waters in Utah....there have been discussions but nothing formal. Tiger musky really serve a purpose to thin out excess forage fish and provide a truly trophy fishery. I have never seen any literature that indicates that the stocking/presence of tiger musky or true musky have led to a decline in a fishery. Perhaps they could cause an issue if you really stocked them heavily but we don't and neither does the rest of the US. We stock between 5-15 fingerlings per acre per year which after mortalities really is pretty low but it does provide a great fishery and takes the edge off of some of the boom and bust cycles of crappie and yellow perch in some of our waters. We are also using them to control Utah chub in Joes Valley which is a first. I don't know they can ever get on top of the chubs in there but the tiger musky are doing amazingly well in Joes Valley.
Just so you know I fish for bass, crappie, bluegill, perch tiger musky and whatever else I can find. First and foremost though I am paid to do the best for our warmwater fisheries in Utah that is possible and I take that job seriously.
If you have ideas for additional tiger musky waters let me know. I agree with what was said about Utah Lake though. Tiger musky would be a hard sell for a water that holds the only known population of an endangered species.
Drew
[signature]