# Muskie Forage



## Madison (Mar 1, 2002)

Here is some information from a Musky Hunter magazine a few years back. 
It's from a study conducted from 1991-1994, in 34 different bodies of water in Wisconsin. 1,092 muskies were examined, of which 375 stomachs had something in them, containing 582 food items. Here's a portion of the chart that contains the most common items.
PREY/Total # Found/# of Stomachs Containing Item/% Frequency/% of Diet (lbs.)

Suckers/49/45/12%/46.6%
Minnows/40/35/9.3%/4.6%
Yellow Perch/175/123/32.8%/16.9%
Panfish/41/34/9.1%/4.5%
Crappies/33/29/7.7%/7.0%
Bass/17/17/4.5%/3.1%
Walleye/5/5/1.3%/3.4%
Pike/Musky/8/8/2.1%/4.7%
Bullhead/5/5/1.3%/2.4%
Unidentified/100/84/22.4%/3.0%

Do you think the anti-muskie groups realize that walleyes, or whatever they might be trying to protect, are such a small part of the muskie's diet? Only 5 walleyes were found out of 582 total food items. Now who does more damage to the walleye population, the muskies that swim in these waters or the fishermen that are targeting these walleyes?


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## tlowes (Dec 17, 2005)

I'd also say that if you look at the top Muskie waters in Minnesota they are often some of the best walleye waters. Cass, Leech, Mille Lacs, Vermillion, Lake of the Woods...... Obviously Muskies and other game fish can successfully coexist.


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## Invector (Jan 13, 2006)

Here is the thing...musky eat walleye, pike eat walleye, bass may if its small, hell i think walleye eat walleye. But since pike and musky get big like realy big, people blaim them for eating those fish...er i mean their fish. They dont realize that in a day a musky might eat one walleye. Say the population has 100 musky. Thats in one day 100 walleyes that can be eaten (just for example) Now lets say that there are other fish in the lake. So say 10 other food items a musky can eat. That puts the possibility of a musky eating a walleye low. (hope I did not lose you up to this point). So why is the population on my lake dropping? hm lets see...cause you take out more walleye then are eaten in a year by musky. People dont get the fact that take often lowers a population then natural means. Granted musky and pike target big food. But there are other things like suckers and small carp that are eaten too. Its the facter of we take and when the fishing gets tough or the population lowers...we blaim everything else but ourself. Its happend to the fish around my place. Fish eating fish would not be a prob if we all would release what we catch. But its the fact we do keep and some out there keep more then their fair share. I've had the musky feaver for 12 years now and I have run into this over and over and over and have read that same point over and over and over in musky hunter and other websites. Just look at the person who is doing the blaming. They are more then likely the one's that are out there keeping several limits in a day then cry when fish are gone. That or they just are that bad at fishing.


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## Madison (Mar 1, 2002)

Thats just it Muskies do not target walleyes.. Their main forage base is always going to be the soft rayed/finned fish.. SUckers, perch, crappies (which I think is there favorite ) Tulibees, ciscoes, shad, minnows, etc. etc.. Its not like Muskies target walleyes exclusively and thats what people need to realize..

Heck if you want to control the snake pike population, introduce muskies.. Muskies will eat smaller pike I garuntee it!!


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

> Now who does more damage to the walleye population, the muskies that swim in these waters or the fishermen that are targeting these walleyes?


NIETHER! IT'S CORMORANTS KILLING WALLEYE!!!! QUICKLY, EVERYONE, GRAB YOUR 12-GAUGES!!! GET 'EM GET 'EM!!!! :lol:

One of my favorite commercials was the one for the BASSaturday lineup on ESPN. It was a print ad that said "Fish: Cannibalize their young. Humans: Teach their young to fish. Advantage: Humans."

All big fish eat little fish, doesn't matter much if they are the same species or different. Food is food, survival is survival. Walleyes will eat other walleyes if they need to.


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## ficher45 (Jan 30, 2005)

Cormorants do destroy small fish populations no matter what the species. On Leech lake this last year the Minnesota DNR exterminated several thousand to help restore the walleye and perch population. the comorants had eaten almost all of the 1-2 year old class of fish. Take Hobart lake just west of valley city, nd. Every time I drove by there this year there was hundreds of comorants. Now nobody is getting any perch of any size or numbers out of there. Something has to be done about the cormorants for every species of game fish, big or small. they are all of the forage base.


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

> Take Hobart lake just west of valley city, nd. Every time I drove by there this year there was hundreds of comorants. Now nobody is getting any perch of any size or numbers out of there. Something has to be done about the cormorants for every species of game fish, big or small. they are all of the forage base.


Yes, I'm sure the ARSELOAD of anglers that have pummelled the bejesus out of Hobart for the last seven years has NOTHING to do with it. :eyeroll:

And, FYI, there were TONS of perch there at early ice this year, coming through in about 4-6 feet of water. They just don't bite as readily as they used to. I think that the ones that didn't get caught, caught on.

Cormorants have been around for thousands of years, explain to me why our fisheries have not all been destroyed by these vicious, efficient predators?


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## Madison (Mar 1, 2002)

njsimonson said:


> > Cormorants have been around for thousands of years, explain to me why our fisheries have not all been destroyed by these vicious, efficient predators?


I think that the ones that didn't get caught, caught on.


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

Thanks Maddy. :lol:

This idea that the Cormorants have totally destroyed everything is just cockamamie armchair biology. Things like this happen all the time in the history of nature. Boom-bust-boom again. That's just the way it goes.

In the scheme of things are X,000 dead cormorants going to help sustain a fishery? From what I've read, no.

Furthermore, Hobart isn't even a LAKE. It's an overflooded slough which has NEVER had fish in it before. It's a MAN-MADE fishery. We provided the food for predators like pelicans and cormorants. You can't possibly be surprised that the opportunists fed on stocked perch, can you?

Don't give me this scourge of the earth debate about Cormies. I'm not buying it. Ugly birds? Yes. Voracious opportunists? Sure, maybe. But the cause of bad fishing. Doubtful.

Everyone knows Doug Leier is the cause of bad fishing anyhow. Dang human cold front. :x


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## Invector (Jan 13, 2006)

ficher45 said:


> Cormorants do destroy small fish populations no matter what the species. On Leech lake this last year the Minnesota DNR exterminated several thousand to help restore the walleye and perch population. the comorants had eaten almost all of the 1-2 year old class of fish. Take Hobart lake just west of valley city, nd. Every time I drove by there this year there was hundreds of comorants. Now nobody is getting any perch of any size or numbers out of there. Something has to be done about the cormorants for every species of game fish, big or small. they are all of the forage base.


The thing about the cormorants destroying fish is not as bad as people think. Its the fact more fish were kept out of hobart then could be replaced. As humans we often try to find and blaim somthing else then looking at the fact we are to blame for takeing out so many fish and not realizing the impact it has. Take the number of Cormorants and how much they eat then compair it to the amount of fish and the lbs that were taken out that first year hobart was hot. You will see that the lbs of perch taken out then could feed those birds for many years down the road.


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