Questions and a Call for Volunteers

[Scott McKee]

I can’t sleep, so I thought I might ask a few questions and offer a pitch and a plea to boot.  While I don’t expect answers, these questions are not rhetorical.  I think they should be pondered.  The answers to these questions are important to you as musky anglers, what you hope to gain from musky fishing and how you can contribute to our fisheries and therefore entrench our club as the conservation minded musky fishing club I think we all hope it is.

Why do you fish for muskies?  Generally, how long we’ve been musky anglers dictates our answer.  Early, our answer may only be to catch big fish or big numbers of fish.  I started leaning towards conservation because I didn’t catch as many muskies as I thought I should.  If there were more muskies to be caught, I figured I had a better chance to catch them easier.  I am not ashamed to admit this idea still motivates me to a degree.  I have fished through the recent good times and the bad times.  I have had great seasons and awful seasons.  I have fished hundreds of hours in a season and I have fished far less.  One thing remains the same; my love for muskies.  I can’t put my finger on a calendar and point out exactly when I fell in love with muskies, but it is a love I generally reserve for my family, friends and Carrie.  I know that sounds extreme, hyperbolic and perhaps ridiculous, but it is the truth.  I just love the damn things.

I am going to ask myself a few questions now: Why do I love them so?  Why do I hold them in such high regard?  Why do they consume so much of my thoughts?  Why is catching them such a barometer to my spirit?  Why do I get so upset when they are mishandled, angled for illegally, or killed?  Why does a floating, dead musky make me so sad?  They’re just fish, right?

Most of the answers to these questions I can’t answer easily.  They can be difficult to catch and I like that.  They get big and I really like that.  Catching the biggest predator swimming and just being a musky angler gives me a (perhaps false) sense of superiority to other species anglers.  In fact, I think the act of musky fishing is relatively easy and getting skunked musky fishing doesn’t automatically make you a bad musky angler, which is great because I am far from a great angler.  I love quiet mornings fishing for them.  I love peaceful nights searching for them.  Is there a better feeling than having the entire Niagara River to you and you alone?   These times afford the best chance at this feeling.  But, couldn’t I get this same sense if I was fishing for bass or walleye or anything?  Why is it only musky fishing gets my adrenaline pumping and gives me such a sense of purpose however ludicrous that purpose may be in the big scheme of life itself?

I can’t pinpoint an answer to any of these questions, but I know the basis of each of these questions is founded in truth.

Musky angling's popularity is on the rise as is the River musky fishery.  More new anglers will take up our sport and it is up to us to attempt to educate them with proper release ethics and techniques.  While doing this, our club and the muskies in the River and Lake, would be best served if we tried to instill in these new anglers the (hopefully) deep respect we have for these fish.  We have made excellent progress by erecting numerous “Know-the-Difference” signs around the area.  These signs alone are not enough.  As individuals, we need to educate novice anglers and any angler for that matter, to the fragility of muskies and how and why they should be released so carefully.  What can you do?  Talk to other anglers chiefly.  Watch out for poachers yes, but try to turn an uneducated angler into an educated one.  Do this at Gander Mountain, Dick’s, bait shops, the launch, on the water, on-line, anywhere for that matter.  Talk and attempt to educate.  I'm a gregarious fellow and this is easy for me, but if you see someone looking at musky stuff at a store, or heading out on the water without the proper equipment, just take a minute and talk to them.  Simply giving a leaderless angler a cheap piece of stainless steel wire, a swivel and a Stringease, may be enough to save a fish or two.  It won’t kill you to try.

We are entering a very interesting time for our Club.  As we embark on procuring habitat restoration and enhancement projects and the monies to accomplish these endeavors, I hope that our membership will volunteer for whatever it takes to accomplish these ends.  Whatever your answers are to any of the questions I’ve posed, I believe since we spend so much time trying to hang hooks in their mouths, we owe the muskies swimming in the Niagara River and Lake Erie our best to insure their health and their continuing (in the River) and returned (in the Harbor) success.  Let’s make these habitat projects and our desire to see the Niagara River and Lake Erie “artificials” only fisheries, our highest priority.  Let’s work as hard as we can to help see that these goals are accomplished. Let’s do this for ourselves and for future angers and for the muskies themselves.  Thanks and good night.

[Mike "the facilities" Fortunate]

after a few years of musky fishing I finally figured out why I love it sooooo much, ill list a few of the reasons below!

1) I love going days without catching anything.
2) I love watching fish follow my bait to the boat, flip me the bird and then sink back into the depths.
3) I love hording expensive baits that could double as a weapon in a pinch.
4) I love the cuts and slices from the line in my fingers, the burning it causes for days is wonderful.
5) I love the risk of being mauled by the T Rex of the river and possibly loosing a finger.
6)I love having to buy another countries fishing license just so I can fish 20` further to the left.
7) I love the sound as a 1lb bait with HUGE hooks whizzing past my ears, hoping that they will survive.
8) I love watching the dingdongs on the bird island peer, and at the foot dream that they could jump onboard (even though it
I dont have a boat)**I feel bad but thats what I think**
9) I love the camaraderie
10) I love all the wonderful people that take me out and give me a chance to catch a slob!!!!

well 1-9 are true #10 well idk

[jojo wilczewski]

Good Day

Another part of our job is speaking out to other fishing clubs.

How many bass anglers have a bolt cutters or even a wire cutter?

We need too reach out to these others and pass on the knowledge.

Scott and I are speaking at a club in Lancaster on June  11. I am sure they are more interested in info about catching them more then releasing them, but they will get it.

If interested in assisting or have a interested club, step up to plate my friends.

ALA BALA BALA jojoout