Muskies Are Creatures of Habitat

Musky Range Expanded With The Hybrid Tiger Musky by James Smith
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Are you looking for really BIG muskies? I mean REALLY BIG MUSKIES! Well if so here are a few tips.

First: You need to be able to look at all of the lakes where you can find muskies. There are many lakes available to fish, but there are only certain lakes with viable populations of muskies. Your easiest resource for information is your state DNR. Contact them for a listing of their muskie lakes.

Second: Now sort these lakes by minimum size limit. In other words, if you have a number of lakes with a 36” minimum size limit, some with a 40” size limit and a very few with a 45” minimum limit, then this is where you should start. Gather all the information you can about those in the 45” size limit category. These will be your traditional “trophy” class lakes. Wisconsin classes their muskie waters as Class A, A-1, B, and C waters based upon fishing quality, so not all states do things the same way. Let’s look at how this system works:

Class A – Prime muskellunge waters are placed under the “A” classification. Most of these are native muskie waters, particularly those located in the northern part of the state. These waters constantly support good muskellunge populations and are considered among the best muskellunge producers. Wisconsin has 309 Class A muskie waters.

Class A-1 – These waters are best known as “trophy waters” for their ability to produce larger muskellunge, but overall numbers of muskellunge may be relatively low. Muskies that are caught in lakes with this classification, have a larger average size. At certain times when conditions are just right, however, these waters can also provide lots of great action!

Class B – Waters in this listing class provide very good muskie fishing, but in general muskies are not the principal species or as abundant as in waters listed in Class A. There are 195 Class B waters.

Class C – Waters in this listing do not produce muskies as regularly as those in the first two categories. However, they should not be overlooked or ignored. Fishing results do not always depend on the number of fish present. There are 188 Class C waters in Wisconsin.

I have found that Class A waters tend to hold the larger or “trophy” class muskies. Class B waters tend to hold better “numbers” of muskies, so if size doesn’t count, look for waters in this classification.

Third: If it is possible to obtain stocking records from your local fisheries biologist for your selected lakes, this would greatly assist you also. If you are truly looking for that elusive 50” class animal, you’ll be interested in the age class of fish in your selected lakes. A 50” muskie is more than likely a fifteen year old fish.

Fourth: Review the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame records, Muskies, Inc. M.O.C.R. records, and others to determine (those lakes you have now sorted) which of these lakes has the most catches/releases recorded and/or the most recent muskies recorded.

Next: If you have access to, or can obtain muskie catch & release records from some of the resorts on these “sorted” lakes, you will have some very good information to work with.

Finally: Your goal in each of these steps was to eliminate or cull out this large group of muskie lakes and whittle your choices down to a very few, one or two lakes. Having completed the research portion of this venture, you are now prepared to spend a few dollars to purchase a map(s) of your selected lake or lakes. Have you ever wondered why all of the fishing spots on your favorite maps remain the same after each edition is printed? The only changes I’ve seen on the maps over the past few years are the addition of GPS coordinates or they’ve been printed on waterproof paper. Occasionally you’ll see the addition of a new weed bed, but otherwise your fishing maps are pretty much the same maps each year.

I suppose many of you have heard the old adage about; “90% of the fish live in 10% of the lake”. So what does this mean to those of us who spend an inordinate amount of time pouring over our maps to find the perfect “honey hole”? What this means to me is that you need to obtain a map of the lake or lakes that you are going to spend time fishing on, then you need to “customize” your new map(s). By customizing, I mean finding that 10% of the lake where 90% of your fish are going to be.

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