5 inch muskie frys

Correct me if I am wrong, but after reading one of the IMA, Newsletters, its it true that the IDNR stocked Shelbyville with 20,000 5 inch muskie fries, -6/11/09..........many of my muskie hunt'in friends thought that was dinner time for Mr Bass,and Dr Walleye. Why so many?Was it because they had no room, nor the food to feed them. I am curious to find the out the percentage of the fry that made it through the winter, as well as the team that does the work, and how. Will young muskie fry, school together until they reach a larger size , or are they known to scatter , as they stocked into the lake? What is the growth rate of these younger fry? Will it be , 2-3 years before they grow a foot or more? I would like to know..

kev

Hey Kevin hows it going? I haven't visited the website for some time now, just been too busy with other outdoor activities (crappie fishing and waterfowl hunting). May be I can help with this question, at least some parts. For the last two years, as far as I know, Jake Wolf has had an over abundance of muskies. Of course all biologist make their request for 10-12'' fish for Fall stockings, but like I said abundance has been great at the hatchery, so they have been making calls to stock 5''ers. Obviously it would be sweet to grow all and any extras to 12" but with Illinois' budget thats not going to happen. So the last two years there has been a huge stocking of 5''ers at the Kaskaskia lab in History Survey Bay. Location was based on high water. High water provides habitat and of course lots and lots of larval fish. These fish were stocked during a time when white bass, buffalo, carp, shad, and other species of larval fish are abundant, i.e. crap load of food. As far as growth rates, the water is warm and food is available so they should grow well, but as you pointed out, they might not grow fast enough before a bass or walleye find them. As far as stocking and fish movement, we are currently doing a study looking at different aspects. I can tell you one thing, muskies coming out of a stocking truck during a boat ramp stocking are dumb. They sit at the ramp and wont disperse at all. Some get ran over by the truck( one or two) or by a fishermens trailer, or the water snakes eat them.
Personally, I believe in a few years muskie fishing on Shelby is going to be hot. Buddy caught a 12"er way up the Kaskaskia this last spring, had to be last years 5"er.

Like what was said above, thse are overflow fish that could not be stocked into the ponds to grow to 10-12' long. It is too bad we could not somehow fund spring grove and raise them there. The survival rate would be very low for these fish. They have been stocking them in pana lake this size and have yet to survey an adult fish.

Todd M email me rstanley@chipsnet.com or give me a call 217-562-3281 and I will give you a report on Pana Lake muskies. They are doing great but I am afraid we will lose a lot of them going over the spillway. I mentioned this at the IMA meeting at Shelbyville.

If the IDNR, raises so many muskie fry, and stocks the overflow into shelbyville, why not spread the amount of fry into the state and county lakes, that have not been stock for years, ie - Mill Creek, Stephen Forbes, Pana, Paradice, Site m, Otter. What of the possibility to stock them into private ponds, or Borrow pits that you see, along Illinois Highways, that are new, when a off-ramp has been built. If the state owns them, why not use them, for test stocking, ie off ramp just north of Mattoon. If each state lake had their own stocking ponds, that would increase employment , which this state is in direr need of......

kev