I caught my first musky

[Peyton]

I’ve been musky fishing for about a year now with bait casting setups and fly setups, both to little success. Lots of follows, missed hooksets, and missed eats. I decided to fish a little creek to catch some chubs and sunnies with the fly for catfish bait, and maybe do some musky fishing once at the river, I caught zero chubs or sunnies, only a tiny musky. Every fly I throw for muskies are bigger than that one, and the lure are way bigger to, it’s not a good one but a non stocked one is definitely better than a stocked musky of the same size.

 

[poopdeck]

uh oh are we gonna start stocked musky hate like stocked trout hate? I disagree, a 6” fish is a 6” fish no matter it’s origin or species. Nice first though.

 

[Dave_W]

Neat! Stocked muskies these days are typically much larger than this and some natural repro has been documented outside the fish's native range in western PA.

I'll catch juvenile muskies on a rare occasion when fishing for bass or sunnies. Got one on a hellgrammitte fly once.

 

[silverfox]

uh oh are we gonna start stocked musky hate like stocked trout hate? I disagree, a 6” fish is a 6” fish no matter it’s origin or species. Nice first though.

yep. Maybe not in the way you think though.

Trout get a lot of attention, but the state is also stocking hybrid musky, and hatchery-born pure strain musky over native musky in the western part of the state. On the other hand, I think there's a place in central pa where some pure strain musky have started to naturally reproduce and the state stopped stocking over them. I do think PFBC pays pretty close attention to where musky are able to reproduce or not in their small native range in PA, and stocks the places where they aren't able to sustain themselves. So it's not all bad, and in general, I think they do a pretty good job w/ the species given how disrupted their environment is.

OP, I'm not sure what size fly you're using, but the best patterns for me have been 7-9" long deceiver patterns in perch/fire tiger or white. My biggest was 48" on a 7" white deceiver. I've never done well with the big roasting chicken dragon tail contraptions, though I tend to just fish the smaller deceivers because that's what I have confidence in (and they're less tiresome to cast). A buddy does pretty well on the foot-long bulkhead stuff so they obviously work too.

Another bit of advice; find where you're getting follows and just hammer that spot as frequently as you can vs hunting for them in a wider area. There was a huge female that a few of us encountered for 2 years in a row at the same spot every time. Also, I ain't into voodoo n whatnot, but there's absolutely something with the moon phase w/ musky (probably more so than other fish). Moonrise/set 1 hour before/after, and on a new moon. I had a day in the fall last year where I had 5 takes and landed 2 others in an evening (hour or 2) on the rise of a new moon.

 

[Mike]

This fish is very suggestive of a chain pickerel fingerling because of the exceptionally dark “tear drop,” the thin body in comparison to muskellunge of the same size, and the long jaw, which adds to the long, thin appearance of this fish. It also seems that the fish was caught in the creek, rather than the river, although I’m not certain of that from the description. If the creek name was mentioned, that would also help determine if it was a cp rather than a mky based on the likelihood of either species being present. Small members of the pike family present field id challenges, although this fish is clearly not a redfin pickerel or grass pickerel.

 

[Peyton]

This fish is very suggestive of a chain pickerel fingerling because of the exceptionally dark “tear drop,” the thin body in comparison to muskellunge of the same size, and the long jaw, which adds to the long, thin appearance of this fish. It also seems that the fish was caught in the creek, rather than the river, although I’m not certain of that from the description. If the creek name was mentioned, that would also help determine if it was a cp rather than a mky based on the likelihood of either species being present. Small members of the pike family present field id challenges, although this fish is clearly not a redfin pickerel or grass pickerel.

Wyalusing creek, the tail has spots on it and chains don’t have those. It also was 50’ up there creek, easily could have made it into the river.

 

[Peyton]

uh oh are we gonna start stocked musky hate like stocked trout hate? I disagree, a 6” fish is a 6” fish no matter it’s origin or species. Nice first though.

A musky is a musky, but there’s way less naturally reproducing musky rivers and creeks than there are wild trout streams. Without stocking there wouldn’t be many muskies, I’m all for stocking them.

 

[jifigz]

I don't know what kind of esox species it is at that age, but I will say that if you fish long enough in a place with musky you'll catch them whether you're fishing for them or not. I have never targeted musky but I've caught my fair share while targeting bass or walleye, especially in the winter. I've never been very impressed with the fight they give, though.

 

[Solitariolupo]

Keep on trying that sure is a good Muskie as it shows some natural reproduction is going on.

They can be picky for such a big fish. Start learning different techniques to get them to bite. One is letting the lure or fly fall but hold on and keep line tight as they will hit and let go quickly. If they follow figure 8 your lure until they go away. Cloudy darker days are a good day to fish for them or certain times of the day.

 

[Fishnmusicn]

With those spots it looks like it might be a purebred, hope it grows up without predation.

 

[Mike]

Wyalusing creek, the tail has spots on it and chains don’t have those. It also was 50’ up there creek, easily could have made it into the river.

Peyton, thanks for the follow-up. You forced me to do some homework and after going through a few sources I believe you are correct about the spots,in the caudal fin being unique to muskellunge. I did not find that in writing, but via careful examination of pics from other states’ muskellunge surveys, not just random pics on the internet that could be misidentifications, and comparisons with pics of YOY CP, plus a review of some other materials including descriptions of other YOY pike family body (not caudal fin) colorations and patterns, including those in the text “Freshwater Fishes of Canada,” I became better educated. Thanks for the exercise.

Additionally, by providing the capture location and the info on the distance upstream it made me even more confident in your identification, as I am familiar with the “North Branch” and many of its tribs from surveys that I did decades ago. You are absolutely correct that your fish should be a wild Muskellunge since that Branch receives no Muskellunge stockings anymore, management
there is based solely on the good reproduction found in that Branch and as Dave said, stocked Mky are now much larger, ranging from 10-14”. Your fish was the right size for a late June ( approximately) YOY Muskellunge.