FFS

So, I’m seeing reports of someone catching 29 Muskies and other reports of 10+ on the Fox River before daylight on opening day.  Just curious on people’s opinions on this.

Here’s mine:

A:  I feel that it is unethical harassment of fish that would otherwise not be caught.  I’ve not heard of someone catching that many fish in that short of time.

B:  I assure you fish are being snagged.

Man, bringing more technology into this debate and then talking about spearing really goes down a bad rabbit hole.  Vegas OUT!!  :)

Yes, it’s not many.  And they keep dumping them into the main winter spearing lakes.  I believe they have been buying fish older than even the extended growth fish which cost even more but have a better survival rate.  They do 3000 a year normally I think.  

If it is limited to just one strain, and the DNR biologist won't budge on that, then you see how few fish $60,000 actually is in relationship to acreage of those lakes.

I understand what you’re saying Vegas but there are very strict stocking regulations in the area.  They have to be Chippewa River strain and some systems require them to come from the same system they’re going back into.  So I’m not sure you can ​get your own fish to stock.

Absolutely Junkie, it all contributes.

Trolling has really opened up access to otherwise inaccessible fish up here.  It hasn’t been legal for that long on our class A waters but I see quite a bit of it.  

While we're at it, these new reels that allow you to reel 10:1 or 9:1 ratios cutting down on reel time drastically. So many more fish being caught because you can get the line back into the water faster. 

Or don't even get me started on plastics! Back in my day everyone used live bait, you'd only catch one fish per time baiting. Now with these darn plastics, you can catch 5, 10 sometimes 20 fish before having to re-bait.

And then there's electric fillet knives. Holy man, I never would have thought about keeping my limit back when you had to filet them by hand. Now it's like cutting butter to filet a fish, imagine how many more fish are being kept!

Sorry rant over.   

Going in another direction let’s not fail to recognize how trolling with boards has certainly placed even more pressure especially on the Walley fishery in recent years. Spearing is devistating to say the least, ice fishing pressure has also increased & seeing boats pulling 6 flicker shads covering 150’ of water isn’t helping matters either. 

Got.  The Chapter raises money, a lot of money, and determines where to use it.  Some people get upset at where the stocking goes.

I know it is different for us down here where we do not have many musky lakes.  But.....
When we had some extra money, a member stepped up and said he wanted to see if we could stock "something different".  He was very active in the chapter, so we did what he asked.  DNR allowed the stocking.  And he fishes the area a lot.  Seemed like a win-win.  Expand some of our musky water, help out a very active member.

Not saying it would 100% go down like that, but if someone were to voice their opinion at a board meeting, or member meeting, I'll bet it gets considered.  I would also venture a guess that if that person raised say, $3,000 on their own for stocking, the club would allow them to dictate where those fish would go. 

But let's look at the real numbers.  Assuming $60,000 is raised, at $22 per fish, that is 2,727 fish.  That isn't a lot of fish if there are a high number of lakes to stock.  That's .17 fish per acre on the Chip.  .53 fish per acre on LCO.  .83 fish per acre on Round.  I can see why there is the need to alternate when you have that much water.

Now, If a member raises $3,000, that would be 136 fish.  If the goal is to stock a smaller lake, that would be a nice number of fish.

I'm not saying what is "right" or "wrong", I'm just using math to illustrate how much money it takes to stock a fish and how # of lakes and size of lakes greatly impacts how useful that stocking really is.

Vegas,

Hayward Chapter raises a pile of money each year and picks a lake stock each year.  Generally LCO, Round or the Flowage.  The fall tournament is a huge fundraiser generating over $60k annually.  

Grace,
And guides.  There are guides on Vermillion that guarantee you won’t cast at a fish below 45” all day.  The days of giving people the benefit of the doubt are kind of over for me.  Definitely has turned into a selfish world.

W6, "I can see someone with all the right intentions easily saying.  We didn’t do much today, let’s go try and save the day."  Once again always thinking the best in people.  Believe it or not the majority of other guys you see on the water are also conservationists and care about the resource.  

The scenario you described, I could see happening occasionally but would be more likely with the guys that only get out a few days so there is more pressure to "save the day".  So lets just say the save-the-day guy catches 2 muskies a year,  and they both die of delayed mortality.  Is this worse than the guy that fishes 100 days a year, boats 40 fish and 10% die of delayed mortality?  My point is the guys that are fishing 4 or 5 days a week don't really need to throw stones at the guy that fishes once a month with FFS on the boat.

What lakes get the love?  You mean stocking?  That is interesting.  Unless the chapters goes all out and actively tries to raise money for stocking, there is not a lot left to get via grants.  Some money, yes, but not a lot.  Fish are about $22 per right now to order.  Cheaper if you want to raise fry, but then you have to buy minnows to feed them AND keep them protected so that birds, beavers....do not eat them.  It's tough. 

As an active member of Muskies Inc, if there are complaints over what lakes get additional stocking, drop a few donation bins at local taverns, bait shops....etc.  Then with that money, direct the club as to where you want those fish stocked.  I'll bet if you raise it for the club, you will be allowed to determine where it goes.

Sorry, this is not FFS related.  On a FFS note, I will say this.  I've never been in a boat musky fishing and had anyone suggest to use FFS to "save a day".  I have been boat(s) when we've turned hats inside out, or turned to a little liquid refreshment to save the day.  

It’s a great debate.  I have no problem if people don’t abuse them.  Muskie fishing is difficult like Vegas said.  I can see someone with all the right intentions easily saying.  We didn’t do much today, let’s go try and save the day.

Muskie inc in Hayward is down on membership but the tournament has grown tremendously.  Plenty of people around here have issues with Muskie inc and their biased selection of what lakes get the love.  I personally don’t have any issues with them.  One thing that has always caught my attention is how few guides support Muskies Inc in our area.

It’s a good debate either way. I don’t own one, but respect all sides on this one.

Uh.  Yah.  I'm part of Muskies Inc.  Our member population is old.  And we try hard, really hard, to attract younger members.  But, in my opinion, it is not working.  (This is an observation that gets denied by the higher ups on Muskies Inc, but I see the new members and the dropped members from our local club that says otherwise.)

One of the reasons is FFS.  Younger fishermen love it.  Need to have it.  Won't fish without it.  And the organization tries to toe the fine saying it is for ethical use only.  And bans it in any sponsored tournaments.  

I do not see musky fishing growing.  It's hard fishing.  Heck, I used to be 90% muskies 15 years ago.  Then I started fishing walleyes and smallmouth bass more and more every year.  Now I can tell you that while I still love musky fishing, my love for walleye and bass fishing has at least equaled that of musky fishing.  And my body?  It much prefers walleye and bass fishing. 

And, I know I speak for a few of us older musky guys....having FFS does not make you unethical.  Having it does not make you want to use it unethically.  Many of us have it and don't even put it in the boat when musky fishing.  It doesn't even cross our minds.  But again, we are old, we've caught hundreds of muskies.  The younger generation that has not caught that many?  I can see the temptation.  But it isn't that way for most of us.

One of the best, if not the best musky guide in the state is Jeff Hanson in Madison.  He's in the top 1%-2% of anglers in all of Muskies Inc for numbers of fish caught...himself.  That is nationally, even though his season is fractional in length compared to same folks in other states.  Jeff rarely uses side imaging, and does not have FFS.  He doesn't need it.  Sometimes experience is all that is needed.  

...

I get it, we’re over run with wake boats and everything too.