Bittersweet

After spending a few fruitless days searching for a muskie to redeploy one of our accelerometers onto, we finally struck gold. A lull in the wind and rain sparked an urge to throw topwater for a bit. As I neared the end of a cast I caught a glimpse of a shadow quickly zeroing in on my Top Raider. In the past I have always taken the lure sub-surface, but have recently seen many fish simply turn away or lose interest. So, I kept the lure on the surface, made one turn and the fish lunged forward and grabbed the bait. When the fish was in the net, I realized that it had a Floy tag. However, it turns out the muskie was a fish that was caught last fall as I cast artificials during our live-bait study; no transmitter was affixed, just a Floy tag.

Fall 2009.

Summer 2010.

Though that was definitely a step forward, we took a step backward when we found one of our tagged fish floating dead. Cause of death is unknown due to the body being badly decomposed. At the time of tagging, however, I do recall it exhibiting some hemorrhaging on its flanks which could have been an indicator of poor health. I removed the transmitter, but now we must forge ahead and find another fish to tag.

Hybrid!

We are trying to attach a final accelerometer (one that was accidentally removed) onto one more fish and came very close to completing our task today. It wasn't until I had the fish alongside the boat that I realized we weren't going to be victorious just yet. I stared down at a beautiful tiger muskie (hybrid northern pike x muskellunge) of 33 inches. This was a first for me, and although we could not use it in our study I was thrilled nonetheless.

A nice gift after beginning my day by finding four Rubbermaids had toppled onto about 12 of my personal and project rods, including a brand new St. Croix Legend that my girlfriend won in a raffle on Saturday (see previous blog post). Fortunately, only one rod was broken, and not the Legend. In fact, the new rod bagged today's tiger!

Muskies Canada "Rockland Rage" Outing

What an excellent weekend! Friday marked the beginning of the Muskies Canada "Rockland Rage" shenanigans with a meet-and-greet complete with burgers, beer, and fries. The socializing was an added bonus and it was great fun listening to fishing stories and fielding interesting questions from the anglers. However, the real fun began Saturday.

With an early start in the morning, my girlfriend and I hauled butt to our first spot. Full moon, breezy morning, and cloud cover and light rain prevailed throughout the day. These conditions brought high hopes for me, but fishing was quite slow. After losing two lures (line snapped) and contending with the added fishing pressure, we had nothing to show by noon. As 1PM rolled around, I decided to work spots closer to the ramp. One location was within eyesight of the ramp, and had great weedbed that has held muskies in the past. Though it was midday, I opted to cast a topwater in and around the vegetation. As my gazed followed the lures path back to the boat, without notice a muskie struck and launched full-body out of the water, turning and landing completely horizontally back into the water. It was a miss. I continued the lure's cadence to no avail. I peppered the area with a few more casts and on one of them, about 20' from the boat, the muskie returned but did not miss. The fight was on and my girlfriend ran for the Big Kahuna net, which was only slightly smaller than her. Following my instructions she carefully lowered the net into the water, waited for me to guide the fish into the net, then lifted with all her strength. The muskie was safely secured! (Good job again, Sarah!) We collected blood and released the muskie.
When all was said and done, I ended the day with my first grand slam: bass, walleye, pike, muskie. I think I was happier for that than actually catching the muskie!

To cap the end of an already great day, Sarah won the grand prize that night at the banquet's raffle - a St. Croix Legend "Lipstick" rod!

Shake 'n Bake

OK, so no baking took place, but we definitely shook! I thought I had seen a lot during my time on the water, but I have never felt an earthquake before, much less while on a boat. As we casted at a small piece of structure, I began to feel vibrations under the boat. At first I merely thought it was the trolling motor's prop getting caught in a clump of weeds, but then I noticed bubbles rising in unison around the boat. And not just around the boat, but EVERYWHERE. Before I could even figure out what was going on, someone on shore began shouting, "IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE! IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!" (Yes, that dramatically.)

Although we didn't catch anything (close, but no cigar), the experience trumped the poor fishing!

CPR: Cardio-pulmonary resucitation, catch-photo-release

I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon and evening with fellow lab mate, Jason Thiem. Jason hails from Australia and has never had the pleasure of fishing for muskie, though is no stranger to "the hunt" (accomplished marine and freshwater angler and hardcore hunter). I wanted to help Jason put another notch on his belt by boating a muskie, and in the process help me gather additional physiological data.

Just before our departure the heavens opened up, and our drive to the ramp took us straight into the storm. When we reached the ramp it was still raining, but didn't last long. We zoomed to our first spot and I clipped a Top Raider on Jason's rod (what better way to catch your first muskie than on topwater?). Shortly after we began casting, and after explaining to Jason to pay attention behind the lure, Jason yells "FISH." The fish boiled under the bait and followed a few more feet before veering off. So close, yet so far.

As we left the spot and headed to our next one I made a sharp left and decided it couldn't hurt to take a few casts in a bay I've previously never seen anything at (though have been told it is good). On my third cast, way out from the boat, my bucktail was stopped cold by a muskie and the battle was underway. This was a particularly good fight as the fish ran under the boat, toward the motor, back toward the trolling motor, caught itself in another dangling line, and almost evaded the net. Almost. After successfully taking blood, the fish was held for a brief picture and released. We saw a few more, but not much else. I'm hoping Jason will join me again in the future so that I can play netman.

Oh, and I also completed a Red Cross CPR certification course (key points: doing something is better than nothing, 30 compressions for every 2 breaths). Not a bad day!

Yes? No. Yes? Yes.

With post-frontal conditions and hot temperatures, my confidence was a bit shaken this morning that we would capture our 8th and final muskie for this phase of Project Noble Beast. Nonetheless, Rick Collins and I headed out to tackle our quarry.

After all but one follow in the morning, we eventually worked our way down the river. I casted my Red October tube out and began pumping it in. As the bait slid forward and paused, I felt a jolt at the end of my line and instinctively set the hook. From beneath the murky waters a decent sized muskie head shook and bursted forward. After a short battle, the beast was safely secured. Was this #8? When I looked down at the fish laying in the net, I saw familiar wounds that I first noticed two days ago on a fish John Thibert caught for the project. Unforunately, John's fish could not be tagged because it already had a tag in it! Likewise, the fish I stood staring at today could not be tagged... because it was the same fish! This fish was recaptured 48 hours after being released.

It was certainly a bittersweet moment as I welcome any and all recaptures, but we still needed our 8th fish! As the day wore on, the sun came out full force and, to make matters worse, the trolling motor's pedal died on us. We were left to drift or use only the "constant" setting on the trolling motor (vs. the momentary on/off switch). With one more follow by early afternoon, it was time to try one last tactic: trolling.

We trolled. And trolled. And trolled. Nothing. Nothing. Nothi... FISH! As we slowly cruised down the home stretch to the ramp, Rick's spinnerbait was hammered and the fight was on! Was this going to be #8? Maybe, but the fish defintely was not going down without a fight. It was a gong-show trying to get it in the net, but as famed Chicago White Sox announcer Ken "The Hawk" Harrelson says, "YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOOOOOOARD, YES!" 40.5" and we're good to go, Houston.


Over, and out.

Uno Mas

Our lucky streak continued today as Patrick Scholz caught two muskies, making them numbers 6 and 7 out of 8. The first fish was small, but still very tag-able, taping out at a whopping 25". The second fish was much larger at 42" and violently struck a Top Raider worked through the pitter-patter of rain drops. Upon striking, the fish churned the water to a froth in an incredible display of head-shaking power.

One more fish to go for this phase of Project Noble Beast. Once all eight are tagged, all I have to do is sit back, relax, and let the fish do their thing!

Trifecta

After deciding to forgo torturing ourselves in the hot sun today, we opted to fish the latter half of the day beginning around 4PM. Just as we hit the water, clouds from the north rolled in and lingered for the duration of the outing. While casting a lure I have been experimenting with for the last couple of days, a Red October "Monster Tube," a nice fish opened its yap and shut it just behind the lure that was gliding slowly beneath the surface. Fortunately, the fish paused and remained focused on the lure, because on the next pull and subsequent pause it coiled up, lunged forward, and smoked the lure. After a few decent runs and a good aerial display, the fish was ours and safely secured in the net. The female taped out at 43.5" and was fitted with an accelerometer.

Shortly thereafter I lost another on a figure-8 (well executed, hookset was the wrong way... oops), and not more than five minutes later John Thibert called in a fish. We zoomed over to John and after lifting the fish into the trough and giving it a good once over, I noticed a Floy tag. However, there were no other marks on it indicating one of 2009's tagged fish, then it dawned on me to flip the fish over. Wouldn't you have it, there was an incision! This was a fish that had a surgically implanted accelerometer and was tagged in April several kilometers down-river.

Before.

After a little over two months of healing (note closed incision, absorbable sutures gone).

After figuring out we were in the middle of an activity period, we headed to another spot and commenced casting. As I turned to watch the wake of a pleasure boat barreling down on our boat, I briefly turned back to look at my lure and noticed a fish following very closely behind the bucktail. I entered the figure-8, as the giant wake rocked the boat, and the fish hit immediately. It taped out at about 34", was fitted with an accelerometer, and quickly released.

All in all, a solid five hours of fishing!

"Get out of my house!"

"Catch and Release to Die" - Star Tribune Article

This post is in response to Bill Klein's (of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune) post on his blog (http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/blogs/96226054.html). I'd like to share a few things with the public that Mr. Klein did not address in his post, and address some things that perhaps the public may not be aware of regarding the study he discusses.

The article was written in 1992 by R. Ferguson and Bruce Tufts of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and is titled "Physiological effects of brief air exposure in exhaustively exercised rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss): implications for catch-and-release fisheries." Dr. Tufts is a leader in the field of fish physiology, and has done extensive research involving recreational angling (including helping to develop, along with my co-advisor Dr. Cory Suski, the water weigh-in system). His interests are most certainly with the fish, which is exactly the crux of this paper. The study has implications for informing managers that perhaps fish handling plays a more important role in successfully managing recreational fisheries than previously thought, particularly as C&R fishing and the field of C&R research (like my Master's thesis) continues to grow.

Part of the blood sampling process used in the paper was to cannulate the dorsal aorta to obtain samples. Cannulation, in a nutshell, involves sticking a tube (picture an IV) straight into the target area, in this case the heart. This procedure can be extremely stressful for a fish, particularly after exhaustive exercise and confinement in an unnatural environment. Ferguson and Tufts acknowledge these procedures may have affected their results, something Klein did not mention in his blog post. You can see in the previous post on this blog that we use a very non-invasive blood sampling protocol that involves a small needle and vacutainer to pierce the caudle vasculature. Long gone are the days of invasive cannulation...

Obviously, sticking a tube into a fish's heart is going to require surgery. The use of anesthetic in human surgeries may be the most stressful part of a procedure, and the same holds true for fish. Again, the fact that surgical procedures and anesthesia were involved could have skewed results, as noted by the authors (but not Mr. Klein).

The study is an interesting one, and has important implications for proper fish handling. However, it is not the be-all-end-all (not much is) of recreational fishing research. Release rates are affected by lots of things, and vary widely from fishery to fishery. Something that needs to be considered when we discuss C&R fishing in general.

Will Don Mercerau's fish survive? I guess we'll find out!

I set out to try and externally attach our new acoustic transmitters (the accelerometers) on Saturday. I fished alone for the day, but had help from several other volunteer boats (thanks to J Carroll, Russell Spanton, Ross Nicholls, Dale MacNair, Julie Cashaback).

The weather was very fishy - cloudy, calm winds, threatening rain, warm air. I was confident the fish would be cooperative and that between four boats we would boat multiple fish. However, the fishing was not so good. Over 5-6 hours I personally did not catch any nor have any follows. The same held true for most of the other boats, too.

Julie Cashaback, on the other hand, fared much better. Shortly after lunch, I received a phone call from Julie and Dale telling me to "Get on my high-horse because they had a fish for me to tag!" (OK, that's not at all what Julie said, but that's what I was telling myself when she and Dale called and told me they caught one). So what did I do? I got on my high-horse and booked it to their boat, about a 5 minute drive up-river.

It's been roughly a year since I've taken blood from a fish and you could most certainly tell I was rusty! Unfortunately, I did not get the blood I needed, but then again it was not my top priority. First and foremost was tagging the fish, and after a couple snafoos the fish was tagged and released next to a receiver to obtain fine-scale post-release behavioral data.

Back at 'em tomorrow!

Opening Day 2010

After watching the Blackhawks take a brutal beating in game 4 of the Stanley Cup final, opening day of muskie season would be a welcome reprieve from Philly's onslaught. It was a fitful 5.5 hours of sleep, but perhaps my mind was only preparing me for the thrills today would bring.

My faithful sidekick, Hedrik Wachelka, and I decided to do a bit of fun fishing (since some of my field equipment is not with me yet). Fishing water we previously had not spent much time on together, Hedrik scored big.

Actually, it was a slowish start. After surveying the area and concluding that yes this appeared to be "money," we began casting... and casting... and casting. Already my arm was screaming "UNCLE" from chucking and winding big lures (or maybe it was because I slept on it wrong), but we persevered. Finally Hedrik had two almost back-to-back follows from different fish. We toyed with another fish in a different spot before returning to the location Hedrik had his follows from. The water was "just right" and the lighting looked good, so I felt it necessary to chirp up and comment about how good the spot looked. Just as Hedrik finished agreeing with me his bucktail was hammered about 40' from the boat. With big, powerful headshakes and a short tussle, the 45" muskie was in the net and quickly released.

We were both excited as this was no slouch of a fish, but a dandy indeed. However, we knew any cast could bring another fish so it was back to the races. Hedrik soon had another fish following his bucktail, going round and round in the figure-8. Good sign the fish are moving! We loop back around and as I'm retrieving my topwater, Hedrik quietly says, "Fish." As I turn around to see the fish inches behind the bait I KNEW the fish would eat at Hedrik's feet, the figure 8 just had to be executed perfectly...

Hedrik went left, fish was still there, Hedrik came up and created the first turn of the 8, fish still there, Hedrik went back down the straight-away, still there, and up the outside turn... CHOMP. It felt like time stood still as the fish opened its yap and slammed it shut on Hedrik's bucktail, pausing momentarily to give Hedrik just enough time to adjust his grip and set the hook. The big fish wallowed and thrashed, made a small circle, and swam gently into the net. We both let out victory screams. Both of us knew it was big, and pushing that magical number, but neither knew for certain. Hedrik slid the fish out of the net and the official verdict came in... 50 inches on the button!


I think I was happier and more excited than Hedrik was. I was on cloud 9. It couldn't have played out any better, and could not have happened to a more deserving person. Hedrik, the muskie gods were smiling down on you, my friend. And they will continue to on Wednesday, that you can take solace in.

Hopefully we didn't spend all our luck for 2010. Still lots more fishing to do, and lots more data to collect. As always, keep it here folks. After going a bit stagnant over the last few months, I promise to have more and exciting stories posted as they arise.

Here's to a great 2010 muskie season, wherever you may find yourself!

Data Data Data and a Squirrel?

After some issues on Monday trying to upload data from our remote receivers, we hit the water again today in an effort to collect data that has been gathering since late April. I had to jump in to retrieve the receivers and haul them on-board for uploading, but unlike in early April when the water was barely over 50F, I didn't mind this time as temps were in the mid-70s.

I was quite anxious to get our first receiver hooked up because before we had to abort Monday's mission, I caught a glimpse at the amount of data - a lot - on this particular receiver and was interested to see truly how much was there. When the file opened and we saw that I had more than 19,000 data points I was floored. We continued to upload different receivers and finally ended the day with over 100,000 data points... in less than two months! Looks like I know what I'll be doing ALL of next year (sitting in front of my computer)!

In addition to the crazy amounts of data we uploaded, I also plucked a crazy black squirrel from the water today. Oddly, this little dude/dudette actually swam to me! After picking it up for a few seconds and getting a chance to pose for a picture, the squirrel swam back to shore, scampered up a tree, and bolted up the bank. First swimming squirrel I've ever seen!

Muskie opener is this Saturday. Then, it's game on!