A guy at the launch said he got 140 muskies on Thursday 3/27/14!

In total he got 300 muskies in 3 days! I believe him – I saw his livewell on Friday and he unloaded about 50 really nice fish and many of them were over 40”. The largest was a 27 pounder on Thursday. I have photos of some of the fish.

All of the fish came out of the trap nets set by crew from the Jake Wolf Hatchery on North Spring Lake, IL. All the fish will be back in the lake Monday or Tuesday. The biologist was very happy with the results of the netting this year. Note: they took out about one fish per acre - and I wonder how many fish were still in the lake. The ratio was about 3 males to every female. These fish are the brood stock for all of Illinois muskie stocking programs.

Friday water temperature was 46°, ten rigs in the parking lot, only two boats had follows – none caught, as far as I know. I guess they had other things on their minds – the biologist indicated they spawn at 50°. A different guy at the launch showed me photos of two fish caught last fall before waterfowl season – a 48” and a 45”. Note: there is a 25 HP limit on the lake and it does close for waterfowl season. In addition, any time after late April the lily pads are so heavy you cannot get out.

The weather man was wrong – it was a very cool (cold ) day.

Dick