NOT-SO-RARE SPECIES
We near the point where muskies being caught in southern Lake Michigan are more than oddities. Ryan Henry added the latest Sunday evening off the pier at Michigan City, Indiana.
“I was using a Mag Wart, casting for cohos and kings,’’ he emailed. “I had caught a nice coho the day before on the same lure. I was ripping and pausing it, and the muskie smacked it not long after I started the retrieve. It jumped pretty much immediately and cleared the water.
“I thought it was a pike at first, but the next time it surfaced, it was apparent that it was a muskie. It jumped three times total, and it was a great fight. There was a small crowd that gathered as it was netted, cheering us on.’’
David Martin Repya netted the fish. Henry wanted to release it quickly, so he didn’t get any measurements.
Ben Dickinson, Indiana’s assistant Lake Michigan fisheries biologist, estimated it at 36-38 inches and 15-18 pounds.
“Most likely it is a Great Lakes muskie that ventured down here from Green Bay or even more likely is a fish from Michigan’s recent Great Lakes strain stocking in several Lake Michigan tribs,’’ Dickinson opined. “They started in 2012/2013 in Macatawa [Holland], Muskegon and Grand Rivers, I believe.
“So the several recent muskies caught in Indiana waters of Lake Michigan are about the right size class to have come from those stockings. There’s also a slim possibility that one of the handful of muskies in the Elkhart/St. Joseph River system swam down here.’’
For several years, there have been spotty reports of muskies in southern Lake Michigan.
On April 8, 2017, Greg Remec caught and released a muskie about 34-36 inches near the Adler Planetarium in Chicago while fishing for steelhead and coho.
In early September 2016, Dan Chick, a customer on Tim Morris’ “Just 4 Fun Charters,’’ caught and released a 34-inch muskie while trolling near the “Hole-inthe-Wall’’ outside of East Chicago Marina in Indiana.
In the last few years, the Indiana DNR knows of a couple caught out of East Chicago and a couple inside the Port of Indiana. One was electroshocked during a survey in the Michigan City harbor in the early 2000s.
Another change grows in our everchanging great lake.
Snagging
Snagging season on the Illinois lakefront begins Oct. 1. As usual, some crooks can’t wait.
At Jackson Park on Monday, BoRabb Williams and friends were on the kings with at least six caught. But Williams also messaged, “But them snaggers are [ticking] us OFF, Man . . . . They come in the wee hours of the morning . . . . Some are BOLD . . . daytime.’’
If you see illegal snagging, contact the Illinois DNR at (877) 2DNRLAW, which is (877) 236-7529.
Appreciate
Part Bait’s Customer Appreciation Day is 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday at Montrose Harbor.
Kids fishing
The second “Get Kids Hooked on Fishing’’ — 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday at Turtlehead Lake in Orland Park — could become the biggest of its kind. Find it on Facebook at “2nd Annual Get Kids Hooked on Fishing Event.’’
Wild things
Ron Wozny and others sent notes on fall mushroom hunting. Time for Mushroom of the Week.
Stray cast
Sunday night was like a beautiful evening on Lake Michigan ending with a storm roaring down the lakefront from Milwaukee.