Their eyes were as big as a doe's in a set of high-beams (mine were, too). None of them had ever seen anything that large before. I just watched four kids today COMPLETELY ENTHRALLED with a big fish we electroshocked. In a nutshell, muskies are apex predators that, for many people, command the utmost respect largely because of their size and odd behaviours, and they signify the most difficult gamefish for many people to tackle. Do sturgeon follow your lures to the boat and strike them at your feet in the figure 8? Do they cause cardiac arrest when obliterating a topwater bait in glass calm conditions? Do they possess teeth that could shred your hands in the blink of an eye? I'm pretty sure the answers are no (but if they are 'yes' to any of the above questions. What other freshwater fish (not anadromous salmon) in Canada grows larger than muskies? The answer? Sturgeon. Perhaps not, but muskies are highly susceptible to habitat degradation, moreso than pike. 'Is their habitat disappearing any more than that of a pike or trout?'

Areas in the States (like my homestate of Illinois), however, stocking sustains all of the lakes with muskies in them. To my knowledge there is no supplementary stocking occurring. Healthy populations often have less than one individual per acre of water.

They have very low densities compared to other fish, perhaps some exceptions being sturgeon and salmonids (e.g., Atlantic salmon). muskies are amongst the rarest fish in a system. Of the popular gamefish in North America - bass (smallmouth and largemouth), walleye, pike, sunfish and panfish, etc.

What makes a muskie more special than a bass or a trout or a pike? In my opinion, muskies don't deserve that kind of pressure. It's a cash tournament any way you slice it.

HEX wrote:Sorry, but I'm with horsehunter on this one.

Unique clear muskie fishing planet