mostlymuskies

Another picture of the 51"er!

At least the high water pressure hot showers are good at Prendergast Campground!

45 1/2" & 27" muskies tonight,tougher in East wind & heavier moss!

Back out tonight before the big storm,hope the big girl's are still on!

40",46" then 51" Fattie at 00:30! I will post pictures later today!

Some of the potential fishermen for the Tourney are asking me if there will be a make up date if the weather is to bad on Saturday.What is the policy?Simular to NMA Tourney's if there is Small Craft Warning is it called off?

Yesterday just before dark was assume, 37",35",32" & 40" muskies in less then 1 hour.Then from dark to 00:30 nothing.Moss was not that bad.

We caught a couple low 30" muskies on Sunday in west river.Took Monday & Tuesday off for grandkids graduations.Back out tonight on the west river to early morning hours.

When you receive your NYSDEC Angler Diary Book please try to fill in pervious muskie trips on Chautauqua From May 30th till now!

All fin clipping is done slowly one little muskie at a time.Some may slip from ones hand before clipped and get through unclipped.Others that are clipped did not get the whole fin clipped,only part of the fin and those maybe grow back.Your talking about a handful of hatchery personal clipping thousands of muskie fingerlings,some slip through.

They did supply Vermont muskie fingerlings that were excess after stocking NY Waters a couple years ago.That was an above average year for Muskie fingerling survival in the outside ponds and there was an excess.The year before that there was a problem with feed change and the Hatchery lost a big number of muskie fingerlings in the inside tanks.That year they recieved muskie fingerlings from Linesville Hatchery in Pa.Some years there are excess and other years there are not.But they always have stocked the quota of muskie fingerlings allocated into Chautauqua Lake.

Spring shocking studies of previous years at Chautauqua Lake have only came up with yearling muskies,with fin clips stocked the previous fall.If they believed there was 20 to 25 percent natural reproduction at Chautauqua Lake the season never would have been opened earlier this year with a May 30th Opener!

First of all the extra muskie fingerlings were always traded to other states for other kinds of fish to stock in most years.It has been only the last 3 to 4 years that they dumped the excess into Chautauqua Lake because they had no other state interested in them.There have been years where Prendergast Hatchery has given Linesville Hatchery muskie fingerlings and also Linesville has given them to Prendergast Hatchery.They have always had a set number of muskie fingerlings they stock at Chautauqua Lake and other lakes,those numbers have not dropped and there are no plans to lower those numbers.The whole purpose of the Angler Diary Study is to compile data of fin clip position vs size of fish to determine if any one or more year classes of stocked muskie fingerlings have survived better then others.Then once a year class by size & Fin clip has stood out as a very good stocking year they can go back and see if different feed was used,colder water stocking etc. So as to fine tune the stocking effort for best success.This year I do not even see the Hatchery having any excess muskie fry.The return on muskies stocked in the Allegany River by Olean has been low I would bet they all most all move downstream to Kinzua to NY & Pa waters.

They are not runts,just excess they do not Not have room to raise or the ok to raise!I believe all the unclipped fin mature muskies being caught on Chautauqua Lake came from those smaller unclipped muskies being dumped in the lake.They may not have many excess muskie fingerlings this year,seems like there are less small 1 1/2" match stick muskies in the inside tanks this year then on a normal year.

Steve,M.I.Chapter 69 needs to make this request to put the extra muskie fingerlings into Lamoka & Waneta through Brad at NYSDEC Region 8.We need to send a formal letter with boards signing!But they may not do it due to the muskie fingerlings not having clipped fins when stocked.This is why they are no longer going to be stocked in Chautauqua Lake.I'm not sure if the fins can be clipped at that small size,probably not!

In all my years of muskie fishing I have never seen a muskie that dark either.Adam,thanks for sharing!

The NYSDEC will give me an address to mail the Angler Duary Books to at the end of NY Inland Musky Season,I will post that address here soon.No one will see your Angler Diary Book but Chis Legard from the NYSDEC and the books will be returned to you after data is recorded.

I will be mailing out the NYSDEC Angler Diary Books today to those who agreed to participate in recording Chautauqua Lake Muskie size,Fin Clip position,scars,red spot,angler hours & date.If you do not catch any muskies on a day please still record Angler hours.Anyone else that would like to be in the Angler Diary Study let me know and I will mail you a book.Mike Sperry at Chautauqua Reel Outdoors Tackle will have some Angler Diary Books available as well.

Nice! Congrats!

Well we spent from midnight to 6 am covering every inch of the Buffalo Harbor South Gap trolling Wiley's.We did not mark much and got no hits.Should have gone to the river instead,will try there tomorrow night.

I also found out that the extra 2 1/2" to 3" muskie fingerlings that are left over after stocking fingerlings are picked to raise to bigger size will no longer be stocked in Chautauqua Lake but will be stocked into the Allegany River from Olean upstream.May be only trout food at that size!

http://www.nefga.org/forum/showthread.php?27086-musky-cleithrum-bone-removal

I hope this link works to show how to remove the cleithrum bone!

Mike Sperry has agreed to keep and freeze any Cleithrum Bones collected at Chautauqua Reel Outdoors Tackle in Lakewood in the Dollar General Plaza on NY State 394.

I recieved the Angler Diary Books today and will mail them out on Monday.Chris Legard has asked if anyone runs across a floating dead muskie that they get measurements and cut the cleithrum bone out and save for the NYSDEC.They want to age a few fish and that is the best way.I will find a link to removing the Cleithrum Bone and post it here.I will also see if Mike Sperry can make Chautauqua Reel Outdoors Tackle a drop off Point for the Cleithrum bones.

Ivan,They really have no idea if there is natural reproduction at Chautauqua Lake.The reason why is because they start with thousands of muskie fingerlings,keep from that larger raised number of fingerlings only a portion to raise for stocking.Then the other 30,000 to 80,000 2.5 to 3" muskie fingerlings are dumped in to Chautauqua Lake at Prendergast Launch (their fins are not clipped)! So how many of those small unclipped fin muskie fingerlings survive to get big?Shocking studies have only shown fin clipped yearlings they say.I guess this Angler Diary Study should give us some good numbers on clipped vs unclipped and sizes with clipped fins to break down into year classes.When clipping if they do not clip off the whole fin,it can grow back as well.Some slip through the clipping by missing the cutter and slip out of hands unclipped at larger stocking fingerling size as well.

Well here we are,tonight at midnight is the Great Lakes Waters Muskie Opener!

We have next to no bait fish present in the Buffalo Harbor and I marked no big hooks while walleye fishing to 1 am the other night inside the walls.So I will spend most of my time in open water outside the walls going over reefs & humps of 25 ft to 28 ft out in 30 ft + water!

The river looks to be a sea of floating moss so I will probably avoid going there tonight.Good Luck to all that get on the water tonight at midnight.