STOCK THE MUSKIE
FONTANA, Wis. — Harbormaster Jason
Zamora chatted with Luke Roffler, then whipped out his cellphone and began thumbing through photos by the Abbey Springs Yacht Club launch. Zamora pulled up a photo of a 48-inch, 32-pound muskie.
Muskie have adapted well to Geneva Lake. The initial stocking only came in 2010. Zamora’s muskie indicates how rapidly they have grown.
Now comes the next level of muskie stocking on Geneva. The inaugural planting of 319 Leech Lake-strain large muskie fingerlings (10 inches) in the Dean Rosset Stocking Program, led by the Chicagoland Muskie Hunters chapter of Muskies Inc., came Thursday.
“Right now, it is an experimentation; so far now we know our strains do well,’’ said Roffler, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist.
The Leech Lake strain is prized for growing large. Previous stockings on Geneva were the common Wisconsin strains, Chippewa and Upper Wisconsin River.
“My inkling is that the lake is certainly set up for muskie success,’’ Roffler said. “It is deep, it is big, it is cold and it’s got fantastic forage of all different sizes for all different sizes of predators. Our strains have survived and grown very well, so it is definitely set up for success.’’
Geneva is Wisconsin’s southernmost home to cisco, a top muskie forage.
CMH’s Kevin Butts said they hoped to plant 600 fingerlings from Minnesota Muskie Farm, but there weren’t enough. Excess donations will be rolled over for the 2019 stocking. Each fingerling costs $16. Funding came from private sources, CMH, the Fox River Valley MI chapter and the Blackhawk Musky Club.
“The club is not only paying for the fish, but also looking forward to giving us an annual donation for genetic testing and also some tagging,’’ Roffler said.
The five-year Dean Rosset Stocking Program is named for the late Dean Rosset. He and his wife, Leah, were Team Rosset, the legendary muskie-fishing couple. The culmination will come in 2022 with a genetic study.
CMH’s Frank Loye released the first net of fingerlings. Turns were taken releasing fish. Butts had his 2-year-old son, Weston, help release a netful.
As Dun Dubin released his, he said, “Beautiful fish.’’
They were beautiful. I wandered around and looked at fingerlings hiding, camouflaged spots from the future.
“At the very least, we will produce more arguments out on the lake of what that fish was and if what lure it hit on was because of the strain,’’ Roffler said.
Stray cast
Watching Chris Sale close out the World Series was like seeing a migrating common loon bob on our town lake.