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Larry Hines was at the Muskie Inc meeting back in March and told us that PA had went to a pellet feed for the muskies and that they were more consistent in size when compared to each other, very healthy looking and growing faster than what they had when they fed them fatheads...
I know that the MI-50 chapter raises monies (earmarked for the PFBC) so they can buy more food for the fingerlings and keep them in the hatchery longer. Those guys bust their humps out there working with the PFBC to help better their musky waters.
At the Pendergast Hatchery on Chautauqua Lake they feed the muske fry fathead minnows once they are transfered to the ponds.We have had tournaments on Chautauqua Lake the past few years to raise funds to purchase extra fathead minnows to go into the pond that holds the musky fry to be stocked in Chautauqua Lake.But we were not getting the bang for the buck out of this effort.The fry grow the most when the water temps are above 60 degrees.We were adding the extra minnows when the water temp was falling below 60 degrees and only getting about 1/4-1/2 inch increase in growth.So we are going to skip 2009 and put all our efforts into 2010,then we will add extra fathead minnows to the last three months of the growing cycle.This will mean that the musky fry will have extra feed during the warm water period,this will help with extra growth,possible 2" or more in extra growth, instead of the 1/4" we are getting from our efforts now.The trouble I see in pellet feeding is,are the musky fry going to be adapted to feeding on forage fish like they are when fed live minnows,will they still have the hunter instinct?I have seen Trout that were raised in hatchery ponds and fed pellets when released into streams all stay in one spot where they were released waiting for someone to toss the pellets,to be caught on any thing you throw in the water and many become prey to pretator birds with in hours.