Fish were moving so well Tuesday, first chance I got to today I had to go back.

Moved 4 fish, lost a real nice mid 40" fish and got this one right before I left for the day. She is pretty beat up from the spawn but should heal up fine.

Nice fish.

That’s a great fish! Looks like he got hit with a prop blade.

Good looking fish. Thats not the same boat ya got back in September.

I'm pretty sure it's spawning scars. We see them like that this time of year all the time.

Nah, it was too big....sold it and downsized.

That’s interesting, thanks.

Nice fish KY.. I take there isn’t a very strong pike population where your catching the muskies?

Osky

No pike in KY. Too far south.

I didn’t think so going by your pictures but wasn’t sure. Thanks.

Osky

What part of Kentucky you fishing Ky? My son moved to the Mayfield area just after the tornado, he's been to the spillways a few times seeing what the locals do. We saw some good sized skipjack laying up in the rocks (assuming that's what they were).

I'm in the Ashland area. Boyd county. NE part of the state.

Wow....that fish was petty well beat up. Glad your fishing and posting pictures again.

Hell ya!! 👊🏻

Nasty wounds on er.

Thanks guys.

Hopefully more to come!

Nice!

good stuff Ky221

You have found a real Muskie niche in that little creek. Generally we think of Muskie water as big and weedy. Are those spawning fish or fish the live in that creek year round? That cut on the one you are holding looks like it could be a cut from an outboard motor.

Kentucky has several native Muskie streams. These fish have always been here and stay in the system year round. I rotate between 4 streams that are here close to me.



This particular creek, there is no way to get a boat in with an outboard unless it was a small 2-5hp motor as there is no access for a trailers boat to launch, I'm almost certain they are form spawning but I could be wrong. But coming from an outboard; highly unlikely.

As I mentioned earlier, I thought it looked like a prop injury too. Given what you say about the smaller outboard seems even more plausible to me. I certainly know nothing about Muskies or their spawning behavior, but those wounds appear to me, based on the angle and equal distance between them, seem like they could have been caused by one revolution of a small 3 bladed prop. Regardless, I enjoy your photos and you do have an amazing fishery!

You could be right man. I just know that every year around this time of we get fish that are beat up with scars not unlike this. Granted this is one of the more severe cases. Knowing most of the locals I can't think of anyone who would use an outboard on this river as there's just not much need. But I'm not there everyday and it could be possible.

What typically happens during the spawn is a big female will swim a slow serpentine pattern. The smaller males ram and bite her inducing her to drop eggs. They are pretty rough on them and the females get really beat up in the process.

Interesting to see a muskie come out of that water.

Everybody keeps saying that. I'm not sure I understand why it's so hard to understand lol. Maybe it's because we grew up with them here?

Here's a video from several years back that our local outdoor show KyAfield put out. All of the fish I posted lately came from this same stretch of river. Once you actually see the river and streams we have in person.... it's not hard to see how it supports the fish and how they came to call it home. Plenty of depth, cover, and food. That's all they need.

I don't approve of how the fish were handled in this video, but that's neither here nor there.

https://youtu.be/YUr5A-hHSsw

You are one outdoor-bein, predator-poppin, fish-fightin mo fo man kudos to you you’re livin the dream man nice work!!

No idea about all that but I do have fun lol.