That's a very nice and clean Muskie.
Like the Gheenoe too😎
Caught on the New River in Virginia. Use to be an awesome Small Mouth river and occasionally catch a Muskie. Now, guys who know what they are doing catch 3 a day and the smallmouth are harder to come by. I mean on a good trip you could catch 100 smallies. Some good ones. They say the Muskies don't eat the small mouth but I don't believe it.
Lol they don't. At least not in a large part. Muskies 10-1 prefer soft rayed fish (suckers, carp etc). Been a ton of studies done on this subject. Where Muskies are shocked, then stomach contents flushed. I can't remember the percentages but when it comes to bass, bluegill, etc.....it's extremely low.
Ever notice that some of the best smallie and walleye lakes are also first class Muskie fisheries? Lake st Clair, lake of the woods, come to mind.
I would challenge that line of thinking. I guide from Minnesota to the northern limits of musky range in Canada for musky and can tell you they do not discriminate. They may have preferences but I have seen countless muskies attack smallmouth on the line from the Mississippi on north.
I have had many attack walleyes being reeled in as well. I know of many terrific smallie lakes in Ontario that have primarily Muskie, lake trout, and bass for game species and whitefish and Cisco for forage base where every client will have Musky hit bass on the line at some time during the day. It’s very common.
As they get larger in those lakes the trophy’s tend to move out deep and prey from below on the Cisco and whitefish schools. Trolling under those huge schools in open water produces wonderful musky and pike as well if they share the water.
Musky are eating machines period. We even have multiple instances i recent years of musky in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Canada attacking people with their feet hanging in the water while sitting on docks.
Osky
And there is a perfectly logical reason for that. It's a "fish in distress". Doesn't matter what the species is, a bigger fish sees a fish "fighting on a line" it's going to trigger the predatory instinct. You can challenge that line of thinking or you can look up Muskie diets and stomach contents that are actually factual and evidence backed. They are seemingly a fresh study released every year. Hard rayed fish are a VERY small percent of the diet.
Muskies will
Also hammer other smaller Muskies when on the line, same with northern pike.....but they are not part of the general diet and not negatively impacting other game fish populations. Again. Check LSC, lake of the woods, eagle lake, etc etc etc etc the list goes on. If that were the case....you could not have both a world class bass lake and a world class Muskie lake working together.
Eating machines LOL! Muskies are SUPER LAZY fish. And they in fact do not eat everyday. A big Muskie might go 2-: days between feeds. If they were eating machines they would be easier to catch. Because they are a pretty stupid fish.
As far as smoking toes off the dock. It's funny to me that when bluegill do it....it's cute. When a Muskie does it, he's a ferocious eating machine. If a fish sees something moving in the water, and thinks he can eat it.....he's going to. Idc what the species is.
I've spent all of my adult life around these fish....nothing conjures up more "stories and false assumptions" than a Muskie. Start chasing the fish, and you'll soon lay a bunch of this to rest.
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