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Fishing: Earn your stripes -- catch a tiger muskie
By GREG JOHNSTON
P-I REPORTER
LAKE TAPPS -- I can't guarantee that the colorful, razor-toothed beast
known as the tiger muskie is anything more than a mythical creature among
anglers -- at least based on the several hours I spent during two fruitless
expeditions to capture one of the fearsome beasts on this sprawling Pierce
County lake.
"They call them the fish of 10,000 casts," says my affable host, Bill Green
of Buckley, with the unmistakable drawl of his native Texas. "They'll eat
anything that goes past them. They are opportunity feeders. Once they get
past 2 feet long, they are the predator -- ain't nothing going to eat
them."
musky
Zoom Jack Tipping
Mark Wells, of Puyallup, shows off a 43-inch tiger muskie before he
releases it back into Lake Tapps. "If you really want to catch a muskie,"
he says, "you're going to have to chunk and wind all day long, until you
get sore wrists like the rest of us." Photo by: Jack Tipping.
I'll have to take Green's word for it. He has scars on his hands to prove
their existence and keeps a box of bandages on the console of his 16-foot
fishing boat.
"The first one I caught, I had no idea what a tiger muskie was. That thing
ate me!" he says offering up a handful of scarred digits, suffered while
removing his lure from that tiger's jaws.
Actually, I know tiger muskies exist, I have seen them -- just never on the
end of my line.
Properly called tiger muskellunge, these fish are a cross between northern
pike and muskellunge, both long, thin, toothy predators of the Northern
Hemisphere. Where natural populations of the two species overlap, such as
in Minnesota, occasionally they interbreed to produce the sterile hybrid
tiger muskie.
Long ago fish managers in northern Midwest states began breeding tiger
muskies, and today they're widely planted both as a game fish and as a way
to control prolific populations of less desirable species, such as carp and
suckers. Over the past 19 years, they've been stocked by the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife in 11 lakes and currently are stocked in
seven -- three in Western Washington and four across the mountains.
"They're doing very well in the fish communities where we're stocking them.
They grow fairly rapidly and they're creating a great recreational
fishery," says Bruce Bolding, the state biologist who coordinates the
program. "They represent fishing opportunity that we don't have anywhere
else in the Northwest. It's unique and very exciting."
Typically, tiger muskies are planted in lakes infested with the
"soft-rayed" scrap fish, such as carp and pikeminnow, that they prefer to
eat. Because they cannot reproduce, biologists can plant them without fear
that their populations will explode and out-compete native or other
desirable species.
"Because they're a top-end predator, we don't want them to eat themselves
out of house and home by overgrazing their forage base," says Bolding.
"They're stocked in very low densities."
lure
Zoom Gilbert W. Arias / P-I
Bill Green finds that bass lures, such as this jointed plug, also work well
for tiger muskies. "Fishing is my passion; lures are my hobby," he says.
Certainly I can verify they're stocked in low densities, being unable so
far to shake the tiger muskie skunk. But many other anglers can and do
catch 'em. In fact, a new chapter of the national group Muskies Inc. has
formed in Washington, even though only seven lakes here support tiger
muskie fisheries. Chapter 57 -- the NW Tiger Pac -- was formed in May and
has more than 50 members.
These are hard-core anglers, many of them initially bass anglers and many
of them originally from other states.
"Fishing is my passion; lures are my hobby," Green says with a grin, pawing
through several of his many tackle boxes while selecting an appropriately
big and gaudy offering. "I catch most of my tigers on bass gear."
Typical tiger muskie lures are huge plugs with buck tails, and spinner
baits almost large and flashy enough to stop a midnight train. But
medium-size bass lures also work, and they offer the added advantage of
drawing strikes from bass, so we caught plenty of smallmouths while
stalking the elusive tiger.
Green, a true Southern gentleman, always uses a short, stainless steel
leader, because a tiger's teeth can easily slice monofilament.
"I want to be good to the fish," he says. "I don't want to leave a hurkin'
lure in his mouth."
Most tiger muskie anglers in Washington release the fish they catch,
although state regulations allow anglers to keep one per day at 36 inches
or longer.
map
Seattle P-I
And they get plenty big.
Green's largest, from Tapps, measured 4 feet long and weighed about 26
pounds. The state record is 31.25 pounds, a tiger muskie taken in 2001 in
Lewis County's Mayfield Lake. The National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame
lists the world record as 51 pounds and 3 ounces, a beast pulled from Lac
Vieux along the Michigan-Wisconsin border in 1919.
Bolding is certain that tigers larger than the current state record lurk in
at least one of four lakes: Mayfield, Merwin Reservoir in Clark and Cowlitz
counties, Newman Lake in Spokane County or Curlew Lake in Ferry County.
Tapps, first planted with tigers in 2000, could -- in a year or two --
produce a state record.
"They're doing great in Tapps," he says. "It definitely has the potential
to break 32 pounds."
The other Washington lakes where tiger muskies are planted are Evergreen
Reservoir in Grant County and Silver Lake in Spokane County. They were
planted one time in Seattle's Green Lake several years ago, but Bolding
says they ate so many of the rainbow trout the state also was planting that
tiger muskie stocking was discontinued.
Wherever they exist, tiger muskies appeal to hard-core anglers because they
are a challenge to catch, because they get big, and because, although I
can't say this from firsthand experience, they fight like a cornered and
crazed cougar when hooked.
"Your bigger ones tend to jump less than the smaller ones, but my wife got
a 43.5-inch tiger muskie about three weeks ago and it came completely out
of the water," says Mark Wells of Puyallup, like Green a member of NW Tiger
Pac. "That's pretty impressive, to come completely out, half flip and go
back in."
Wells is known as one of the more consistent tiger muskie anglers around,
perhaps because of appropriate DNA, since he's from Minnesota, where his
grandfather was a muskie fishing guide.
"I actually think it's in your blood. We're not just nut cases," he says
with a chuckle. "In all honesty, I think a guy kind of matures into his
fishing. When you're young, you want to catch as many fish as you can. (But
eventually) you get to the point where you'd much rather catch one large
fish than a bunch of dinks."
Most anglers cast and retrieve for tigers, pitching their lures into likely
ambush spots where the fish lurk, such as weed beds, stumps, logs and
docks. Green does quite a bit of trolling in water as deep as 20 feet,
which may work well in Tapps because it is a reservoir with shallows
littered by stumps and logs.
"If you think you've gotten stuck on a stump, hang on because it could be a
big tiger," advises Green. "It will just stop, then it will start swimming
away. If you're casting, power down on it (setting the hook hard) because
they have an awful bony mouth."
Both Green and Wells say an overcast day with a slight chop on the water
improves the odds of hooking a tiger. You're also going to have spend
serious time on the water.
"I don't think anybody ever gets dialed in on them," Wells says. "Most of
the time on a half-day trip you have a pretty good chance of hooking up on
one, or at the outside every other trip. If you really want to catch a
muskie, you're going to have to chunk and wind all day long, until you get
sore wrists like the rest of us."
Warmer water, in the mid- to high 60s, makes the fish more active and
improves your odds. Anglers typically start casting for them in June,
depending on the lake and its tendencies, and those who don't turn to
hunting in the fall fish tigers through October, when they're at the annual
peak weight.
"I think a guy could do all right even in November," Wells says.
But not everybody loves a tiger muskie. There has been some criticism of
the state's stocking program, because of fears the muskie will eat other
popular species such as trout, or even native species such as juvenile
salmon or steelhead. Some also argue that the state should focus its
limited resources on more popular species, or simply on protecting native
species, such as threatened salmon runs.
Bolding says he has conducted studies showing that tiger muskies will take
trout only when the less desirable species they prefer to eat are not
available.
"We've done a couple diet studies that give us an indication of what their
targets are going to be," he says. "They don't seem to target too much on
salmon. In Green Lake and Curlew Lake, they have eaten a fair number of
rainbow trout at certain times of the year. But most of the trout fisheries
in Washington are based on hatchery trout we put in, and tiger muskies
don't really have a chance to eat many of them."
He also said that tiger muskie fisheries generate interest among anglers
and income for fishing-related businesses, such as resorts on Mayfield and
Curlew lakes, plus tackle makers and boat manufacturers. He noted that
tiger muskie tournaments are being conducted, including two this summer, on
Tapps and Mayfield.
"The fact that there is now a Muskies Inc. chapter here and several
tournaments is a good indication of their popularity. The word continues to
get out and they're getting more popular. They're just an exciting animal."
Wells and Green agree.
"They're a real pretty fish," says Green. "No two look alike. Each one is
different, like a fingerprint. Some are more colorful than others."
I wouldn't know. But I will find out. Some day I'll reel in and grab a
tiger by the tail.
IF YOU FISH
# To find out more about tiger muskies in Washington, check out the NW
Tiger Pac site at nwtigermuskies.com. A message board and forum devoted to
Washington tiger fishing can be found at washingtonlakes.com.
# You need a state fishing license to angle for tiger muskies. Find details
and fishing regulations at the Department of Fish and Wildlife site,
wdfw.wa.gov. |
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