Muskies in Creeks and Trout Streams?

[misanthropist]

Awesome topic!

Yes, I have caught pike in small trout streams. the most memorable was about ten years ago. I was fishing way up in the headwaters of a wild brown trout stream in Venango County. It was a tributary to Oil Creek, and was probably late September. I was a good 4 or 5 stream miles from the mouth. The creek was probably 6 feet wide. I was standing in the creek and working my way up stream with a streamer targeting overhead cover. I came across a nice looking undercut bank, and tossed my streamer at the edge of it and out shot a three foot long pike. You can imagine the feeling I initially felt when I saw a massive torpedo shoot out from under the bank and nail the fly. I thought I had some kind of freak of nature brown trout on until I saw it jump. I ended up landing it on my 4 weight and took it home for dinner. It was full of brown trout. There had been heavy raining and flooding earlier in the week, so my guess is it followed the high water up to the headwaters and then got stuck.

Another story involves my great uncle. This story sounds hard to believe, but it's true. Back in I believe the 50's, my great uncle and my grandfather were on a small tributary to the Clarion River in Clarion County. The water was low and they came across a monster musky stuck in a small pool of water. My uncle jumped in the water and wrestled the beast onto the shoreline. It was over 50 inches long. This fish was a few miles from the mouth.

 

[STONEMAN]

Got a 15 or so inch muskie pretty far up the c&r section of Penns in June. Thought it was a big trout. Bit off my woolly bugger. Tied on another and he came back for more. I landed him. Friends said I should have killed it.

 

[jifigz]

STONEMAN wrote:
Got a 15 or so inch muskie pretty far up the c&r section of Penns in June. Thought it was a big trout. Bit off my woolly bugger. Tied on another and he came back for more. I landed him. Friends said I should have killed it.

First, misanthropist, that sounds more like it.

And finding a musky way up Penns sounds very likely. It's and large WW stream right into the Susky and then just keeps getting a little smaller, colder, but still has some deep slow pools etc..you definitely should not have killed the musky. Just my opinion. One, it's illegal, two, it's just one fish and the circle of life..

 

[afishinado]

jifigz wrote:

.....it's just one fish in the circle of life..

I like that ^

 

[sandfly]

Northern pike were introduced in the 1970s in the Allegheny Reservoir. They are now abundant throughout the Reservoir and the Allegheny River, as well as many mid-size tributaries such as Olean Creek, Conewango Creek, Tununguant Creek and the Oswayo Creek. In fact, fisheries surveys in the 1970s showed that only muskellunge were captured. Today, northern pike outnumber muskies 9:1. Northern pike simply out-compete the musky in every way - reproduction, survival, feeding. Although pike can be taken on surface plugs and large spinners, live shiners or suckers remain most popular.

Muskellunge
Although native to the Allegheny River, muskellunge have historically been stocked in the river to bolster the population.

this is from the nydec site, I only fish above the res.

 

[Bamboozle]

When Charlie Fox was still around, he often told me he was headed to Conodoguinet Creek to fish for muskies. I know he fished the Breeches too although I can't say for sure for muskies and he used, heaven forbid, casting tackle & plugs!!

I know he fished the "Dog" often, and he even wrote a book titled "Advanced Bait Casting" and another titled "The Book of Lures."

 

[BradFromPotter]

sandfly wrote:
Northern pike were introduced in the 1970s in the Allegheny Reservoir. They are now abundant throughout the Reservoir and the Allegheny River, as well as many mid-size tributaries such as Olean Creek, Conewango Creek, Tununguant Creek and the Oswayo Creek. In fact, fisheries surveys in the 1970s showed that only muskellunge were captured. Today, northern pike outnumber muskies 9:1. Northern pike simply out-compete the musky in every way - reproduction, survival, feeding. Although pike can be taken on surface plugs and large spinners, live shiners or suckers remain most popular.

Muskellunge
Although native to the Allegheny River, muskellunge have historically been stocked in the river to bolster the population.

this is from the nydec site, I only fish above the res.

It does not say they are not native to the Allegheny watershed. Also you got your info from NY State... that should be a warning in it's self!

 

[bigjohn58]

This was below the dam on Bald Eagle Creek back in 2000

 

[Wild_Trouter]

Hey BigJohn-

Is that you in the pic? If so, you haven't aged a bit

 

[tomgamber]

I USED TO FISH MAIDEN CREEK NEAR BLUE FALLS QUITE A BIT. THERE WERE QUITE A FEW MUSKIES IN THERE. HAD MORE THAN ONE TAKE A FISH FROM THE END OF MY LINE. THEY HID VERY WELL AND DIDN'T REALLY CARE TO MOVE MUCH, EVEN OF YOU GOT CLOSE. I REMEMBER HAVING THE CRAP SCARED OUT OF ME WHEN I ALMOST STEPPED ON ONE.

 

[Mike]

The Conodoguinet may have been stocked directly .

Maiden Ck, Manatawny Ck, Perkiomen Ck, Tulpehocken Ck, and the Conestoga were all being stocked directly at one time. The Conestoga removal from the stocking program was the most recent, so there are probably still some Muskies below the Lancaster Waterworks Dam, which was a good area to find them, especially in spring. The rest of those SE Pa streams were removed from the stocking program in the neghborhood of a decade or more ago.

 

[Bruno]

I once saw a guy land a musky on Tionestia Creek when the musky decided to eat the trout he was fighting. This was at the confluence where Salmon Creek meets Tionestia Creek.

 

[bigjohn58]

Wild_Trouter wrote:
Hey BigJohn-

Is that you in the pic? If so, you haven't aged a bit

Hahahaha that was my brother...I was the net man. He has a lot less hair right now!

 

[Jessed]

I thought I heard somewhere that from Gilbraltar on up the skuke has a musky population.

 

[misanthropist]

Tionesta Creek has a good population of muskies. When they stock that creek the muskies have an all you can eat buffet. I know of another small trout stream which I won't mention by name in Jefferson County that is full of pike. They are there on account of man's hand, but have managed to form a very healthy naturally reproducing population. When they dump the trout in the water during the spring you can see swells and whirls in the water from the pike devouring them.

 

[jifigz]

Sandfly,

Pike outcompete muskies because they are one of the first fish to spawn which happens directly after ice out. They come shallow, spawn before muskies, and therefore are larger when the young muskies are smaller since they are hatched later in the year. However, in the end, the musky grows larger. Once again, just the way it works. There will always be more pike but the monster muskie will still be around.

 

[chubmaster]

I spotted a pike in the delayed harvest section of Laurel Hill Creek above the lake near the boy scout camp. This was several years ago (maybe 6 or 7?). It definitely wasn't a large trout, and it was before the big trout program was introduced to this stream. I was in the midst of casting and it swam in front of my legs. It was shocking at first, but after further review I found the lake has a very small population of these alpha predators. Considering the water it was actually a fairly nice fish, 25"+. Not exactly a hammer handle.

 

[fishhead]

I have caught fingerling muskies while seining for minnows in a small trib to the Brandywine in Delaware county on two occasions now. My fish obsessed 10 year old son now calls it "muskie creek".

 

[Dave_W]

fishhead wrote:
I have caught fingerling muskies while seining for minnows in a small trib to the Brandywine in Delaware county on two occasions now. My fish obsessed 10 year old son now calls it "muskie creek".

Are you sure these weren't redfin pickerel? They look like muskie fingerlings (so do juvenile pike).

 

[Dave_W]

jifigz wrote:
Pike outcompete muskies because they are one of the first fish to spawn which happens directly after ice out. They come shallow, spawn before muskies, and therefore are larger when the young muskies are smaller since they are hatched later in the year. However, in the end, the musky grows larger. Once again, just the way it works. There will always be more pike but the monster muskie will still be around.

Rather than being competitors.... There's a theory that this process is part of how these species have co-evolved across much of North America: The pike hatch first and are large enough to predate on the muskie fry that emerge weeks later. This helps ensure that muskies remain scarce and fit in their role of top predator.