What's Ahead?

Those that follow this blog may find it slowing down in the next few months. Why? The last official field season ended this past November. I'm in writing mode now and will continue to be for the next several months. I've now finished analyzing the data for the C&R manuscript and just need to compile it into a meaningful document. My goal is to have this manuscript off to a publisher in the next couple months.

Following that I will be crunching the 260,000+ data points from our telemetry project this past summer. Basically, I will be spending much of the winter slouched over my computer, probably doing irreparable damage to my spine, and trying to spend as much time ice fishing as possible.

My intention is to keep this blog alive through reviewing various concepts key to my Master's and important papers I come across. For example, in the past I have reviewed a paper discussing muskellunge stocking. In the future I will likely attempt to explain things like lactic acidosis or the mechanisms behind cortisol production. Though some (most?) of you may find it rather boring, the process will be useful to me as I prepare to defend my thesis next fall.

Many thanks to those who have remained steadfast visitors and followers of this blog. For those new, I hope you take a few minutes to peruse the archives and have fun with the content. Any questions, feel free to drop me an email.

Compromised

It looks like my blood/plasma samples may have been compromised during transit. Our control fish have higher cortisol concentrations than our angled fish, a finding not at all expected. Cortisol concentrations, overall, were simply higher this year than they were last year. Chloride ions were also consistently higher than last year's data.

Given all of this, we may be forced to turf some of the data. It's quite unfortunate, but there's nothing I can do about it now. Bummer...

ATTN Students

If there's anyone working on muskie-related projects in Canada, here's a link to student funding through Muskies Canada: Dr. Ed Crossman Research Grant.

Prairie Home Companions

My weekends throughout high school and college usually involved fishing somewhere with friends and/or Dad. This weekend, after a nail-biter week, was no different. At 5AM, Dad and I hooked up the boat and headed out through the vast expanse of corn and soybean fields, now barren after the fall harvest, and scattered with glinting eyes of coyotes.

Shortly after sun-up we swung by my friend Ryan Jozwiak's house. I met Ryan in my first year of college, where both of us were members of the Fighting Illini Bass Club. We shared a passion for muskies and had the opportunity to fish a few times together. Since he's begun chasing these toothy critters, Ryan's angling prowess has grown tremendously. He now quietly boats big Illinois muskies every year, though he's too humble to tell many people. When I told him I was coming home we made plans to fish together, which brings us to today's shenanigans.

The day began with quite a bit of wind. We needed to figure out how the fish were behaving so the plan was to throw a variety of baits. Ryan had a small follow early on an erratic bait accentuated by many pauses. As we continued casting throughout the day, I began drawing from some of the information gleaned in my studies, particularly the use of vegetation by muskies no matter what time of year and regardless of forage base. OK, so not ground breaking, but when faced with coves full of great looking timber it was a necessary move. Sometime midday as we drifted down a shoreline, my bait was thumped hard and I was fast into a scrappy little muskie. A quick de-hooking and photo process led to a speedy release. The day yielded little action after that, save for a few follows here and there.

We left the lake as the sun blazed its twilight glory - a dazzling light show of purples, oranges, and reds. Watching the sun set over the prairies of Illinois brought back a flood of memories and I felt fortunate to be reminiscing in the company of friends and family.

So Far So...

Good.

My samples arrived today and I've begun conducting the remainder of the analyses. I have to isolate three plasma ion concentrations - sodium, potassium, and chloride - and quantify cortisol concentrations. I was able to finish analyzing sodium and potassium ions today in a few hours.

I compared the values obtained today to those from last year's data and they are very similar. There's nothing out of whack... yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next several days will yield similar results with our other physiological parameters.

Major Bummer Update

Online tracking tells me the samples are en route to Illinois. Hopefully the samples arrive today and I can begin working tomorrow. Only until I process the samples will I know whether the plasma has been compromised or not.

If you've got fingers and toes, cross them for me. Wood nearby? I'd appreciate a couple knocks on it in my honor.

Apparently the online tracking system lied. It's a day later and the package is STILL in Memphis, Tennessee. I was told last night that the package would be shipped today and yet it has not. US Fish and Wildlife approved it, but FedEx must be having fun flinging poop around their warehouse because it's still not in the air! Looks like tomorrow will be the day, or maybe the next day, or maybe the next day after that, or maybe never! YAY FOR FEDEX!

Major Bummer

Tomorrow I am headed to Illinois for a combination family visit and to finish analyzing my blood samples. Last Tuesday I shipped them FedEx from Carleton, packaged in dry ice with the appropriate documentation stating what the blood was (fish) and that it was taken with authorization from the MNR. The folks at Carleton figured it would take 1-2 days to get to Illinois.

My samples are still sitting in a customs agency in Memphis, Tennessee, chilling in a refrigerator (despite my insistence that they be frozen) awaiting clearance by the Fish and Wildlife Service. I'm sure at this point the dry ice has evaporated and it's possible the samples may slowly be degrading. As the title of this post suggests, it's a major bummer. I worked all summer for these blood samples and, although not all will be lost if the blood goes to crap, to think that my data is being compromised by a "system" is nauseating. No problems last year, but then again this year isn't last year.

The good news is cortisol, the one physiological parameter I'm most interested in (it's the body's primary stress hormone), is fairly robust. If the temperature gets too high or the samples stay unfrozen for too long, however, the properties of the hormone may change and artificially increase or decrease concentrations in the plasma (not sure which way).

I hope they arrive tomorrow...

80 Pounds

I'm not convinced weight calculators are very accurate, but in the absence of a scale they provide a better estimate than simply pulling a number out of thin air. Using the standard weight formula - (Length x Girth x Girth)/800 - the three fish Wally Robbins and I (err... scratch the "I" part) caught yesterday weighed, in total, 80 pounds!

Having learned from some of the best, including "Big" Jim McLaughlin, and putting in hundreds of hours on the water, Wally is quite intimate with the system we fished yesterday. He employs tactics that many of today's fast-paced anglers tend to scoff at or simply ignore. His methods give him the ability to unveil tiny nuances along vast weedlines, making him a much more efficient angler in a system that can often be overwhelming due to its seemingly uniform nature (i.e., very few "fishy" looking areas).

Wally primed me on his approach prior to stepping foot in his Lund, but I would probably consider myself the aforementioned fast-paced angler and had to see it to believe it...

After Wally's first fall fatty, I tried duplicating his tactic, but to no avail. I quickly went back to throwing faster paced lures telling myself, "Hey, one fish doesn't make a pattern."

When I slid the net under Wally's second fall fatty, I decided "OK, I get it now!" And after Wally's third fall fatty (our biggest of the day), I was thoroughly convinced. Although we did not catch any more fish, a trifecta of heavy muskies made for a great day!

Here Comes the Sun!

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes... NOT!

The rain began the moment we started driving to our destination today and is still coming down as I type. I hate cold rain...

That didn't stop us from putting five in the boat. Nothing huge though, in fact this body of water is not known to produce many fish over 40". Nevertheless, it was a blast. And I got a bonus 25" walleye to boot!

Cheers!

Afternoon Delight

"....Started out this morning feeling so polite; I always thought a fish could not be caught who didn't bite; But you've got some bait a waitin' and I think I might try nibbling;
a little afternoon delight." (Starland Vocal Band)

OK, so this is a different afternoon delight than what's referred to in the song, but it was still oh-so-sweet. Following a few hours of desk work for me and a visit to the Doc's office for Hedrik, the two of us reverted back to simplicity and fished from his little portable boat - no gas powered motor, no electronics and only a handful of lures. We silently drifted down the river with rush hour traffic whizzing by behind us. Ah, the joys of urban fishing.

As we finished our drift Hedrik suggested trolling back upstream. I hopped on the trolling motor and we proceeded forth. Just past a bridge abutment my rod buckled. Thinking my Grandma snagged bottom (previously my Depthraider had last year when we fished the same area), I half-heartedly reefed back. When the rod responded with a couple solid thumps I knew I was not snagged! A couple minutes later after a great fight - lots of twists, spirals, and rolls - the 38.75" muskie was safely secured. It looked quite gnarly sporting a rather nasty mucous coat, but upon release it bolted out of my hand like bullet from a handgun.

After fishing the remainer of the river stretch we drifted back down to the bridge and anchored just upstream of a couple bridge abutments. I fired my Grandma past the abutment and worked it upstream. Just as the lure cleared the base of the abutment my rod loaded up. I slammed the hooks home and the fight was on. It didn't take long for this scrappy 37.75" to relinquish itself to my firm grasp. The out-of-body experience, or should I say out-of-water, didn't last long for the fish and again it swam back to whence it came.

Afternoon delights (plural)!

Triple Whammy and Tim Allard's Photos

Did a bit of relaxing fun fishing today with friend Eric Fontaine. Headed out to the river this morning with a couple rods and a box of lures. Before leaving the storage room I grabbed a few quick-strike rigs with the intention of stopping to grab a few suckers. We are doing a small side project to assess the viability of alternatives to J-hook rigged live-bait fishing for muskies. (For those in the greater Ottawa area who might be concerned about what our "agenda" might be, I can assure you that we are NOT trying to take away your privileges of using suckers for muskies).

I made my way over to Manotick Bait and Tackle and had a nice chat with the owner. She pumps a bit of compressed oxygen into the bait bags for you which is a nice little gesture. The bait was plenty lively and overall high quality. With three suckers in tow I headed to the ramp.

Eric arrived with his slick Stratos 285 bass boat rigged with an adrenaline pumping 150 E-Tec. It's not everyday that I get to go 50mph down the river (contrast that with a whopping 22mph top speed in our jon boat)! Anyway, once we arrived at our first spot I rigged up a sucker and dropped it in the drink hoping it would work its magic. After a couple hours sucker #1 was grabbed by something. With my heart pumping extra hard I slammed the hooks home. The result? A swing and a miss (pretty much what my entire batting career was like when I played baseball). Bummed but not totally discouraged, I rigged another one up.

Eric was tossing a Bulldawg and hammered the steel to a fish as we drifted a weedline. He looked like Kevin VanDam setting the hook into a 5 lb smallmouth! In fact, I'm pretty sure he delivered a knock-out punch to the fish; it barely fought! A quick scoop with the net and Eric had himself a nice 38" fish. It was Eric's birthday today, too!

We switched weedlines a short while later and in mid-sentence I was jolted by a swishing noise behind the boat. I turned to see a boil on the water's surface and my float gone. The muskie must have chased my sucker to the surface and gobbled it there. We positioned ourselves over the fish and I made sure this time I did not miss. I drove the hooks home and nearly whipped a 30"er across the bow. The little tike was quickly in the net, just as quickly unhooked, admired for a couple seconds (the little ones are always so fascinatingly pretty!), and released. Shortly thereafter Eric put another 38" in the net, this one quite a bit heavier and much uglier (weird crackly mucous coat and red sores on its body).

When I got home I found an email from outdoor writer and photographer, Tim Allard, in my inbox. A few blog posts down you'll see one about Tim, his photography, and new ice fishing book that was just released. If you're an ice fishing newbie (like me), seasoned vet, or just a fishing/outdoor enthusiast, check it out! As promised, below are some of Tim's photos from last week's excursion. The last two images portray what all our gear looks like when it's laid out.

Halloween Musky...

Carving. Although I've seen pictures of guys with Jason masks fishing muskies on Halloween day. That would be pretty fun. Instead, I had to settle with this. Had to use toothpicks after I forgot things can't suspend themselves in mid air... oops.

This logo is on my truck's rear window (would make a cool tattoo actually).

Letters were too hard to cut out and after a day of being dried out a bit of the fish collapsed near the head. Valiant effort nonetheless!

It's gotten very cold here and snowed a solid inch yesterday evening/night. I'm wondering if we're going to have early ice this year!

Though not muskie related, this one became a head-turner!

Too Perfect...

This past weekend I noticed the weatherman (no, not Brick Tamland) was calling for Tuesday's high to be near 20C. I called on my trusty sidekick Hedrik to see if he could give me a hand, but unfortunately he was busy. Remembering one of our lab's new undergrads, Travis Raison, is an avid bass angler and has expressed interest to another labmate of mine in going muskie fishing, I shot him an email. He was free yesterday and we agreed to get an early-ish start to maximize our time on the water.

When we arrived at the launch the river was like glass. In hindsight I should have snapped a picture, but I was too stoked to hit the water to have that amount of foresight. If Tuesday morning had been three months earlier I would have rigged nothing but topwaters! Although one should never discount the power of surface presentations, I had a better idea of what might produce for us.

Apparently I was a little cocky because what had worked this past Friday and Saturday produced nothing for us (big surprise, eh?). The system we were fishing doesn't require the mental capacity of a rocket scientist (or a Master's degree for that matter...) and it's merely a matter of staying at the right depth (weed edge) and cover water.

Towards midday I turned to see local angler and Loomis rep Wally Robbins passing by headed toward an area that was going to be my next spot. We finished up our drift and ran down to have a chat. It turns out that Wally was fishing with local outdoor writer Tim Allard. Tim's writings are prominent fixtures in Ontario's largest outdoor magazine, Ontario Out of Doors. He's also just finished a new ice fishing book. I have a copy waiting for me back home in Illinois, but was able to check out a copy from a friend. If this book doesn't get you excited to ice fish then I'm not sure what will. The pictures are superb and capture the essence of ice fishing, from peering into an 8" hole to the thrill of pulling a lunker from the depths on a sunny winters day. Pictures aside, the content is what makes the book. Tim goes in-depth into everything from electronics to how to catch your favorite quarry, be it panfish or trout, and everything in between. Take a look at Tim's book online or see if your local tackle shop has copies or can order them in: Ice Fishing - The Ultimate Guide.

Tim also does photography and snapped a few (quite a few actually) photos while we were out there. Looking forward to seeing them and I'll be sure to post them here.

After parting ways, Travis and I went back to fishing. We casted a rock spot and then returned to fish weedlines. The wind picked up so I had to move the boat across the channel to the opposite side. As I slowly slid my Red October tube back to the boat I had a "Rideau Runt" grab it about 15' away, but the hooks never penetrated. Maybe 10 minutes later as my tube slid forward and then de-accelerated at the end of the rod's sweep (the slide-and-glide), a slightly bigger fish darted up and thumped the lure. This time the hooks found flesh and it wasn't long until the small 30.75" was in the net. The little female had a tummy full of something large and deep bodied, a panfish perhaps. Its blood was easy to get and she was soon on her way. We had one more sniff from some kind of esocid that swirled on a Top Raider at the boat, but aside from that we had barely any action all day. I guess the weather was too nice...

Muskies Gaining Increased Publicity

Have a look: Muskies are 'it'. (For Canadians, I would be surprised if you soon don't see an article on fly fishing muskies with a well known female fly angler).

Maybe a fly rod is on the list of winter purchases this year! (It was last year, but I bailed last minute).

Something's Foul

I fished with John Anderson and Wally Robbins yesterday. It looked like the fish might be active as the first spot produced a boatside strike for Wally from a small muskie as well as a muskie that grabbed my bait for a few seconds before kindly giving it back to me. Our cloud cover dissipated and the action slowed. Soon the wind was roaring and it was evident that we were likely chasing inactive fish. I switched to a glide bait hoping for a reaction strike...

Before I continue I'd like to point out (perhaps state the obvious?) that fish will often strike lures from a variety of angles, speeds, and motions. With muskies, sometimes the fish stalk the lure and carry out a perfectly horizontal strike with a rapid lunge forward. Sometimes muskies will eyeball a deadsticked crankbait or topwater, then slowly and quietly nip the lure. Others will launch themselves completely airborne from a near 90 degree angle to viciously strike a topwater lure. Still others may quickly swipe or roll at a lure.

A swipe or roll strike can sometimes result in foul hooking. The photo below shows a chunky 37" male that rolled beneath a glide bait, missed the lure with its mouth, but whose body made contact with the bait causing the atypical hooking location. This isn't necessarily a rare occurrence as I have seen this happen before with gliders and crankbaits. However, there are a few considerations to make after realizing you've foul hooked a muskie.

I'm not too thrilled with this whole foul-hooking business.

To prevent further damage to the fish, avoid horsing your catch to the boat. These types of battles necessitate light drag settings (I prefer to free-spool all hooked muskies, regardless of hooking location). Also, net the fish as soon as possible even if its head is pointed away from the net which is usually the case with foul hooked muskies. Take extra care to avoid wrenching on the hooks during the de-hooking process. Cut hooks if need be and be sure to remove any cut pieces prior to release.

Good luck out there!

Data x 262,212

With help from two of my labmates, I retrieved and uploaded my data last week. The water was a frigid 13C (55F), but we pulled the receivers quickly and without issue (unlike when they were first deployed and I may have entered the first stages of hypothermia). It took me a couple of days before I got around to actually uploading the data, but when I did I was pleasantly surprised.

The 16 tagged muskies, eight surgically implanted and eight externally attached, gave me 262,212 data points! We have a temperature spread of over 15 degrees, which would be higher but an alarm was activated on one of our thermal loggers preventing temperature data from being recorded above 26.375C (almost 80F). I will likely group the temperatures into extreme high (above 26C), high, medium, low and extreme low (below 10C). I will need to take a closer look at the data before I decide exactly what I'll do, but that's just a thought.

I'm excited to start parsing apart patterns or trends in our data as they relate to activity during the day vs. night vs. crepuscular periods (dawn/dusk) and at different water temperatures. If time allows, perhaps I'll take a look at activity as it relates to lunar phase or barometric pressure; all things anglers have associated with increased catch-per-unit-effort.

We are still going to continue angling and hopefully catch a few more muskies before season's end to boost sample sizes for our physiological data. And, if we can get hold of some, we may sucker fish for muskies as part of a side project attempting to assess the viability of alternative J-hook live-bait rigs.

One For The Memory Books

After a brutal 23 hour cross province drive, with no overnight stops, I finally arrived home from my Lake of the Woods fall trip this morning. The drive itself was spectacular along the northern rim of Lake Superior, but Lake of the Woods in the fall was wonderful. I can only imagine what it will look like in another week or two when the temps start dropping and the colors kick in full tilt. We had unseasonably warm temps which probably hampered just about everything, from wildlife spotting to the fishing.

Over the course of the week our boat put nine fish in the boat up to 43.5". Two came casting and the rest came trolling. Our group's big fish topped out at a thick 47 x 23". Lots of pike were caught up to 38" and a handful of walleyes as well. Fishing the lake at this time of year was completely new to me; I have always fished Lake of the Woods in the summer and trolling is not my forte. I walked away having learned a great deal about how to troll more effectively and discovered new details and idiosyncracies about some of our favorite summer casting spots.

When trolling rocky systems like Lake of the Woods anglers often use long, single-strand steel leaders to reduce line abrasions caused by constantly rubbing rocks. During the angling event, esocids will often roll in themselves up the leader and line as they attempt to throw the hook. When these fish roll onto the steel leaders they material can actually cause tremendous damage to the fish, slicing the flesh as if it were scoured with a chef's knife. I witnessed this first hand last week and was appalled by the damage dealt. The alternative is to use long, heavy duty fluorocarbon leaders which I strongly encourage all to use en lieu of steel leaders, for the fish's sake. Fluorocarbon leaders in 150-200 lb test up to 5' in length are incredibly abrasion resistent, offering many of the same qualities that steel leaders do for the angler. In any case, food for thought for those of you considering whether to use steel or fluoro this fall.

The trip wrapped up in two ways. The first was our visit to a new tackle shop, muskie-focused I think would be fair to say, right on the water in Kenora. The shop is called Figure 8 Baits and run by Ryan Marlowe and his buddies. Great prices, great selection, and the guys have great personalities. A win-win for all involved. You can try out anything in the shop down at the dock below them. They've got a great policy when you try their baits out, one I'd certainly be happy to respect if I were ever that lucky! The second and last thing we did was attend the inaugural meeting of the Northwest Ontario chapter of Muskies Canada. There are some very big names associated with this club and it's an exciting time for MCI as folks like Gord Pyzer, Steve Herbeck, Linda Rice, Jeff Gustafson, Jeff Moreau, and Gord Bastable become involved. I gave a presentation to the chapter covering both research initiatives covered under Project Noble Beast.

Enjoy the pictures below!

What's a trip to Lake of the Woods without a shorelunch? It's making me hungry just looking at it! Thanks, Keith for cooking and Ryan and Sean for providing the fish!

Electrofishing results and Lake of the Woods v2.0

This past Monday we hooked up the electrofishing boat and trailered down to the river. It took us slightly less than one hour to shock our first muskie, a little guy just under 30". Though we shocked up several more, only two made it to the boat (another just under 30" and one just over 30"). We had a brute come up alongside the boat, but evidently just outside the electric field. That was a bummer, but my goal was three and we accomplished that. Water was 16.5C, perfect temperature to fill in gaps for our control physiological data.

I was also given an offer I simply couldn't refuse - a return trip to Lake of the Woods. I've always wanted to fish this body of water during the fall and have heard many stories from good friends. The drive alone - through northern Ontario, around the rim of Lake Superior - might be worth the trip. I suspect the colors will be spectacular a little further north of us.

I was strong armed into going on the trip by these two characters.

BUT, I will be bringing my computer with me to get some much needed work done in the car so not all will be fun and games... When I get back it will be time to make the last push with field work for 2010.

1 Year (+1 Day) Anniversary

I just realized that yesterday marked the 1-year anniversary of perhaps the most significant phase of Project Noble Beast - catching and tagging our 30th muskie. Although the catch-and-release research has continued since then, no more tags have been deployed and field work has been reduced dramatically. We are still in the process of obtaining physiological data at various temperatures (can never have a large enough sample size!) and baseline data via electrofishing.

The manuscript that will eventually be sent out for publication is currently in the works...

A little liquid inspiration to get the words flowing.

Post-conference muskies

Last week I attended the annual American Fisheries Society conference in Pittsburgh to give a presentation on part of my thesis (the catch-and-release work). I was quite pleased with my presentation and received good feedback for future consideration when I begin writing my thesis. It was very cool listening to the wide array of presentations highlighting the variety of research being conducted globally. Two of my favorite presentations focused on alligator gar in the Fourche LaFave River, Arkansas (though I may be partial to anything with lots of teeth).

But all good things must come to an end, and after our return Friday evening Jonathan Jordan (Upper Ottawa chapter of MCI) coordinated an outing today with Hedrik Wachelka and me. The morning greeted us with a shroud of fog. Though we diligently worked our spots under our cloud cover, we failed to move anything. After the fog burned off, we headed upstream to a new area. Hedrik explained how the spot was laid out and we began flogging the area. Shortly after firing our first few casts, Jonathan calmly said "I got one!" Fifty-four seconds later I slid the net under a 43"er, from which we took blood and a scale sample (the latter for an unrelated project being conducted by Dr. Chris Wilson with Trent University and the Ministry of Natural Resources). The fish was slow to take off, but eventually it kicked away, dropped its head, and disappeared into the abyss.

The remainder of the day was fairly slow, though Jonathan was successful in capturing a second fish just before calling it a day. I was happy to be out and fishing new(ish) water with yet another volunteer. Thanks, Jonathan!

I Brake For Muskies

This week has been a headache and a half. My truck's brakes have been giving me serious issues, to the point I did not feel safe driving my own vehicle. Everything was fixed this morning, but not without a hefty price tag - $1200 (new caliper, new brake pads, rotors, and drums, and an apparently faulty oxygen sensor). Friday was hopefully going to be a welcome reprieve from the week's events, though I had no concrete plans for the day.

Yesterday a mini-front moved through the area, one that was forecasted to precede a larger front which will drop temperatures severely over the next couple of days. The weather today, however, did not turn sour, but remained hot and muggy, although a bit windy. With the impending storm front approaching the city, I called Hedrik to see if he'd like to fish for a few hours and take advantage of the pre-frontal conditions. He agreed and we were off to the races.

Well sort of... With the trolling motor on 80% all I could do was hold our position in the wind, and bumping it up to 100% would drain the batteries lickity-split. We made one quick drift to gauge fish activity and were rewarded with just one follow. The wind increased and was pounding a nearby shoreline, so I hopped on the main engine and we trolled deep water for a while.

Both Hedrik and I are not big fans of trolling and prefer more tactile casting techniques, so we made a run up to an area that was out of the wind. Halfway through the drift the wind suddenly died and the "calm before the storm" descended upon us. The sky turned a dark, ashy gray. I began to get twitchy as I could feel the stars aligning for us. We approached a productive area and I noticed Hedrik clipping on a lure that has been particularly good for us. I thought, "Nice choice, Hedrik," and continued casting.

"THERE'S ONE," grunted Hedrik as the boat rocked from his solid hookset. I whipped around to see the boil created by our adversary. Hedrik was fast into a BIG fish. As it neared the boat my heart skipped a beat. This was bigger than I expected! There was no controlling the beast and Hedrik was at the absolute mercy of the fish. Every time the fish neared the boat it made another 180 degree turn and bolted from the boat, on a couple occasions peeling line from a locked drag. The fight lasted about 1 minute and with a quick scoop of the net Hedrik's prize was in the bag!

I knew instantly this fish was pushing that magical number. When we laid it on the bumpboard I was ecstatic as I read the verdict: 51 inches. The fish was so massive that I could not get a full vial of blood, though did get enough for glucose and lactate readings, which were both extremely high (might be the highest yet). The lengthy fight, water temperature (near 80F), and possibly air exposure from the photo period may have caused the stress levels to spike. We noticed rosy flanks, fins, and bloodshot eyes on the fish which could be related to the increased glucose and lactate values, though difficult to corroborate. Interestingly, guide Marc Thorpe has made similar observations and urges quick releases when this is seen, perhaps even forgoing out-of-water photos. I think this is good advice that should be considered when surveying your catch.

Triple bypass surgery? No problem. Hedrik's physio is lifting 30 pound muskies in his free time.

Swim away, sweetheart!

To top off the day, I caught a scrappy little 31". A guppy when compared to Hedrik's, but still fun nonetheless. This time I got a full vial of blood, a small victory for me. So after a long week I was well rewarded for my troubles. And for icing on the cake? My dinner consisted of a delicious pizza delivered to our front door. That little soft spot in my heart was beaming as the "Carlo's Special" was devoured in mere minutes. I will sleep well tonight!

Nice shirt, Hedrik!

Fisheries article review

Stocking programs exist across North America for a myriad of species. Some programs seek to control certain species of introduced fishes (e.g., tiger muskellunge stocked in New Mexico to control gold fish introductions), others to rehabilitate (e.g., sturgeon and lake trout), and still others to promote fisheries usage (e.g., salmonids in the Great Lakes basin and largemouth bass throughout U.S. waters).

For muskellunge anglers stocking this prized quarry may or may not be a familiar concept, depending on where you live. In my home state of Illinois, for example, our waters are maintained solely by stocking; there is little to no natural reproduction. For states like Wisconsin and Minnesota, stocking may be conducted on some, perhaps most, but not all lakes because some can be sustained through natural reproduction. As muskellunge angling has increased in popularity, the call to stock additional waters and current waters with more fish has risen greatly.

Muskellunge stocking in Wisconsin is commonplace and supported widely by anglers throughout the state, particularly in the more southern waters where natural reproduction has little influence on populations. One large problem exists with widespread stocking: genetic conservation. In other words, it is imperative to keep certain molecular components (i.e., alleles) within a population of muskellunge that will allow them to survive and thrive. Although this seems like it would be easy to do, not all fish from one lake react in the same way to conditions other lakes present. Some fish have rare genetics/alleles that allow them to survive in a given environment(s).

Hatchery programs often involve only a few individuals to supply vast numbers of fingerlings for stocking. When only a few individuals are used, the likelihood of extirpating rare alleles increases and muskellunge may lose the ability to naturally reproduce in the wild. This phenomenon is known as outbreeding depression.

One of the first issues researchers faced was figuring out where to take the adult individuals (i.e., broodstock) for Wisconsin's stocking program. Researchers identified broodstock as needing to have the ability to grow, mature, and reproduce in their present habitats. Another potential problem arises when choosing which bodies of water to take broodstock from because, in Wisconsin, some waters are either maintained solely by stocking, supplementally stocked, or not stocked at all. The latter water bodies are ideal as adults and offspring alike have not undergone artificial selection against various heritable traits (e.g., some behavioral traits). Researchers further identified lakes greater than 1,000 acres as appropriate for the stocking programs, and water bodies should be used on a rotating basis rather than only focusing on one. In addition, the minimum number of broodstock to be taken must be considered because if too few individuals are used then genetic diversity decreases. A higher number is better and researchers suggest a minimum 50 breeders to be used, with a target of at least 20 females bred with 3 males being ideal.

One issue that adds complications to conserving genetics within the bounds of a stocking program, is the needs of the angling public. More specifically, anglers want fast growth rates and big fish. However, in order to fulfill the objectives of a hatchery-based conservation program it is necessary to represent a wide variety of traits that mimic natural populations. Certainly, hatchery operations should include large fish, but should not be limited to the largest individuals.

Jennings et al. have provided researchers with excellent guidelines to improve hatchery operations. Although it may be difficult to swallow, stocking isn't or shouldn't be about only producing the biggest fish possible. Selecting only the biggest fish to be stocked could pose serious problems for the future of a fishery if important alleles are eliminated from the genetic pool. Instead, the goal should be to produce a population that can thrive and survive for many years to come (and still kick out big fish!). The future looks bright for muskellunge stocking programs, and an added benefit of this article is that the contents provide a set of guidelines for hatchery programs of other fish species to utilize for enhancing their fisheries.

Article reference: Jennings, M.J., Sloss, B.L., Hatzenbeler, G.R., Kampa, J.M., Simonson, T.D., Avelallemant, S.P., Lindenberger, G.A., and Underwood, B.D. 2010. Implementation of genetic conservation practices in a muskellunge propagation and stocking program. Fisheries 35, 388-395.

Holy Doodle!

The blog has been a little stagnant lately because I've been catching up on much needed writing and spending time with my girlfriend in the Catskills. It was a much needed break as, unfortunately, my break from this C&R muskie study to C&R muskies on Lake of the Woods did not rejuvenate me as I had hoped (though it was delightfully enjoyable!). Sarah and I returned home last night and after looking at the weather for today I decided it would be a good idea to get out and fish. I emailed my trusty sidekick and we made a plan to begin fishing around 1PM today.

When Hedrik and I launched the boat we immediately headed as far south as we could. Within 15 minutes I had a muskie charge a bucktail and nip the back end of the lure, missing hooks by mere millimeters. Little did I know - well, actually I had a pretty good feeling - that this was only the beginning of an outstanding day.

I will keep this brief because I need to apply some Icy-Hot to my muscles or pop a few ibuprofen, but we contacted 20 fish, with 10 strikes, and boated four - 39, 41.75, 42.25, and a whopper of a 48.25"er. As has been the case for the majority of the fish this year, each fish's lactate values were relatively high due to water temperatures. As we enter late summer-early fall, the same precautions should be taken to reduce the stress associated with the angling process. Pay attention to details of the fight (e.g., lots of headshaking, jumping, drag running, etc.) and modify your handling techniques accordingly.

Here are a couple pictures to whet your appetite:

Another transmittered fish recaptured from a past, unrelated project: Gillis et al. 2010

Hedrik's whopper.

To the waters whence you came.

Welcome Back, Sir!

Last night I fished with my trusty sidekick, Hedrik Wachelka, for a couple hours. Hedrik has been out of commission since June 8th after having surgery and this was one of his first times out casting since then. I mostly wanted to catch up with Hedrik and take a few casts, but in the process of chit-chatting I was able to raise two muskies. We made a plan to spend more time on this body of water the following day (today... well, yesterday for those on Eastern time) and call it Hedrik's first outing since his surgery.

We got a late start and arrived at the launch around 1PM. I didn't have a follow for several hours, and we kept returning to the same area multiple times in hopes of finding the fish during an active period.

Eventually, we did. It started with a bass here, then there, then here again. Three bass in a short period of time wasn't too bad, but we were looking for Esox masquinongy, the fish of 10,000 casts. As we continued drifting down our narrow path, I finally contacted what looked to be a very active fish. The black Weagle was suddenly looking very much like it would be the victim of an attack, but alas twas not to be. The fish sunk below the bait and out of sight when the lure reached the boat.

We finished our drift and I said to Hedrik, let's re-drift this area again. Without even pulling the trolling motor up I turn the boat and slowly start idling back to the beginning of our drift. Earlier, we were trolling bucktails to no avail and Hedrik still had that rod on deck. As I began slowly motoring away, Hedrik picked his rod up and chucked his bucktail out. Not more than 15 seconds later, Hedrik's rod is doubled over and Hedrik is struggling to gain control of the rod. Stupidly I ask, "FISH?" I needn't hear the answer as Hedrik's rod-tip began thumping wildly and the culprit churning the water to a froth in the distance. The fight lasted about 50 seconds and soon we had another fish for Project Noble Beast in the bag!

Hopefully this is the start of good things to come!

Let Me Paint You An Image

In the spirit of keeping you, the readers, aprised on the ups AND downs of this project, the following is my attempt to help paint a picture of what it feels like to blood sample... with good results and bad.

Before I pick up my brush and paint, you all must know what I will be painting on. In other words, you need to have a bit of context. For starters, imagine yourself quitting your day job and becoming a technician at a clinic's lab drawing blood from peoples' arms for a living.

One day, in walks a patient. This patients arms, however, look like the Hulk's as they bulge beneath the shirt that covers them. As the patient nervously sits down in the chair, arm outstretched and fist clenched, you politely ask him to roll his sleeve up. When the patient does, you are met with tattoos that parade up his arm and disappear beneath his Van Halen shirt. Upon closer inspection, the guy has actually had sequence surgically implanted into his arms. Body builder meets female fashionista?

You are now effectively working blind. You cannot see a vein to puncture. You know, in theory, where the vein is supposed to be, but everyone's veins are different - some big, some small in diameter. Needle and vacutainer in hand, you begin prodding. Your first attempt yields nothing, not even a single drop. You remove the needle and reenter, hoping to strike gold. Again, nada. This repeats itself several times, but now your patient is getting a little antsy and starts writhing, complaining about how long it's taking and that maybe you should never have quit your day job. Finally, the needle hits pay dirt and blood rushes into the vacutainer.

This is, sometimes, what it's like trying to take blood from a muskie. The amount of tissue between the anal fin and caudal fin is massive, and gets even more impressive the larger the fish. The scales are like battle armor that deflect needles like an M1 Abrams deflects 9mm bullets. The vasculature system you so desperately need to find lays hidden beneath tissue and scales, and lays in one particular fashion along the backbone. A difficult sweetspot to hit, indeed.

At times, all it takes is one vacutainer. Sometimes, multiples. It is, without doubt, the most frustrating aspect of the data collection process for this project. Well, save for fishing eight hours and never even getting a single follow (now THAT'S frustrating).

Ah, thanks for letting me vent!

I was once told that earplugs bring good luck. Apparently, I was mislead.

When the Going Gets Tough...

Go electroshocking!

With upcoming projects that need the use of our electroshocking boat, I needed to take a few days to electroshock for Project Noble Beast. My hope is to obtain control physiological data from six muskies at temperatures above 20C (68F).

After hooking the boat up and driving down to the launch, I quickly realized that I had a case of the "Mondays"; I had forgotten multiple items. Fortunately, none were imperative to the success of the day, and in roughly 20 minutes we had things under control. When our tail-gate safety meeting was completed we zoomed off to begin probing the waters.

It was a slow start to our day, but after one muskie managed to evade the electric field another was stuck in the middle (with you?) and was immediately scooped by my expert netters, Keith Stamplecoskie (lab manager) and Sarah Larocque (fellow Masters student). The muskie measured 31.75" and had recently eaten a large meal as the outline of a fish could be seen protruding laterally from its stomach (looked like a sunfish). We released the fish in good health and kept on trucking until our generator ran out of gas.

A quick fill-up with our spare gas can and we were back at it. I decided to turn the boat around and head back toward the launch and down a particular weedline that would eventually put lead us to a popular muskie spot. We passed several boats, who all paused their fishing excursion to see what the heck we were up to. As we entered the aforementioned spot and began poking around with the electrodes, one of the nearby boats came closer to check things out. Not wanting to cause unnecessary harm to the other boat, we briefly cut the power to survey the situation. After I contemplated moving further downstream, I decided the other boat was sufficiently far away and motioned to Sarah to resume shocking.

As Sarah pressed her body weight against the power switch, the water immediately to her right suddenly illuminated the image of an extremely large muskie. The split second it took for everyone to react to what lay before us seemed like a millennium. When I snapped out of it, I took the boat and whipped it to the right, putting Sarah and Keith in perfect position to place a net at the head and tail of the beast. When it was secured I shut the power off and jumped to my feet, grabbing the net and hoisting the muskie on board. The nearby boat - dad (presumably) and four kids - eventually made their way over to us. Sarah fielded questions while I concentrated on extracting the blood. When I finally obtained the sample, made measurements and recorded other data, I asked the gentleman in the nearby boat to snap a quick picture for us. As I strained to lift the heavy fish up, the four kids quickly let out several OOOO's and AHHH'S. I laid the fish back into the water between our boats and let the kids touch the muskie before it paddled off out of sight. Needless to say, I believe I heard one of the kids say "I want to catch one of those!" and I smiled knowing that this group of kids will probably never forget the sight they just witnessed. In fact, tomorrow I need to retrieve the email address they provided us and send them pictures.

49 inches with a stout build. Go A-Team!

Released to hopefully be caught another day, and perhaps by the children that witnessed her capture today.

Many thanks were given to the other boat, and we kept chugging away. Not long after, we had the day's final muskie in our nets. This one taped out at 43.75".

It's been a while since I've handled a muskie for this project and it felt good to touch a few today. Hopefully tomorrow we can have similar results!

Yep, I see you too!