Port D pic's

[Guest bigfish1965]

now I know this is my first reply on here and I dont want to step on toes here BUT, I am pretty sure that taking a picture of a Out Of Season musky is illegal, as that is in essence in possession of that fish.... plz dont get me wrong thats a great fish and I bet was a great fight, but I may be wrong but I am pretty sure not allowed. I think I was out there that day you were as well on the bar tho. GL this season...

Robert

A fish is not in possession until it is placed into a position where retaining it is the reasonable outcome of the action of the angler. In short, putting it on a stringer, into a livwell or leaving it on the bottom of your boat.

Taking a picture is not illegal at all. This has been confirmed by several sources within the MNR.

I'm positive this fish is female. Check the genetics of the lower Niagara musky and you'll see only the females get this big. THis looks to be about a 50-52" Musky likely around 30 lbs. She is pre-spawn and probably getting ready to find a nest.

I'm fairly certain this is the same fish I caught last fall in the same spot, so she's likely a year round resident. Posting locations of musky does not lead to poaching. You can hit the same spot with the same bait for the next five months and likely not catch her again.

There will be hundreds of musky spawning on the upper near Navy Island and at the NPC marina in a few weeks. It is a treat to watch these monsters.

IT is also a testament to the growth of other species of fish on this end of LAke O. More and more walleye and musky are being caught from Oswego right up to Hamilton HArbour.

[smerchly]

Hey Catfish........I hope you know I meant using a #10 Mepps for musky "Soon" meant "In season" ....And Tommy was just stretching the comment a little further with his comment , with a . I guess the muskies will hit any crankbait , like the reefer I was using & the Doc took a pic. of the 4" trout that hit it . I think that 99% of us know that you don't target out of season fish whether it be bass or pike or trout. And I don't think we would put a pic. of it on the net if we did . I wasn't there , but I'll bet there was an audience that was fortunate enough to see this huge fish caught . Like I said in my previous post , the fish could die if the line snapped with the lure inside it's throat . I trust the catch was legit . and handled very well . Now.....if that big girl ? happened to hit my lure on 8# test line....I don't know what the hell to do ! Do I fight it out for an hour or two and possibly weaken the fish from exhaustion ...or let it break off with the lure in it's mouth ?

[ROB MCINTOSH]

Look guy's I don't know whats going on here but with almost 2,000 veiws on this post you all must think this is a big joke. I myself think it is a joke and Rick I am very diapointed in your post it almost sounds like you are all for more trying to catch these 2 fish and yes there are 2 and you can see them every day and if I get pissed off enough I will just post where these fish can be caught as many times as you think they will hit something dangeled in front of there face.COME ON GUY'S enough is enough this post should be nuked because you know every sam, dick and tommy are going to go down there and try and catch these fish what did you not read my last post or do some of you condone this type of fishing. If this is the case then I am on the wrong site because in my eyes the more this is in the open the more idiots are going to just stop in and see if they can hook them. Then come on here and put a post Oh what a surprize was in port today fishing for perch and look what I got I had to fight it for 2 hours because I only had 8lb test line on and didn't want to loose my lure. GIVE ME A #$^$&* BREAK I am getting real sick of hearing this crap OH LOOK WHAT I CAUGHT I DIDN'T KNOW THEY WOULD HIT THAT but my kids had a great day catching them. GET A #$%^&*$ BOOK AND LEARN WHAT YOU CAN CATCH AND WHEN .I have had it with this crap see ya Catfish

[Guest bigfish1965]

Anyone targetting these fish now would be breaking the law. But while in season they are fair game like every other fish in port. There are many more utile places for musky poachers other than dalhousie.

[scottydog]

Hey Bigfish: Great response. I also fish Musky in Niagara and on Georgian Bay. The water temp needs to be near 65 for musky to spawn. This hen was feeding before spawn. He or she would normally spawn in Jordan. Looks like a female. These fish have a range of at least 10 miles. This fish is feeding on MNR stockings. Your little browns Smerch? Again great fish but remember he is king of the food chain. Good fishing. Scottydog

[jwl]

Wow this has really turned into a mini soap opera , I am obviously new to this forum, but not new to fishing..lol.And if you die hard regulars will have me around I would love to join in where ever I can.but i think alot of people have come to realize that there are a lot of "trollers " around on these kind of forums..well its the web and its open to the world to see, I see that alot of you put alot of time into our sport and alot of times sharing info in these forums...some have a couple thousand posts, thats alot of time spent on the water and sharing info about it...and also alot of you guys work hard in different clubs and give back to our sport in alot of different ways, I really commend you guys for this.I just found this forum recently, and joined in to see what its all about, myself I love fishing, my kids do too, I think this would be a great venue to start to see how i myself could give more to our local fishing community and resources and perhaps come across a few nice people who share the same value in our sport and the outdoors along the way.I can understand Rob's point about this matter and with 2000 views you gotta know that ther are people who called people who called people and said hey ya gotta check this out..lets go down there and try to catch one like that, alot uneducated people may not realize the whole concept of "resident fish" and hey look at that let's try to catch it...myself I have came across a few spots where some pretty nice bass where nesting in my spring pike quest this year..but i would never in a million years think of trying to catch them on purpose,I leave the area, have cauhgt a few even this year while pike fishing but I certainly wasn't out to catch then and they went back in a.s.a.p....uneducated people dont realize things like that,and thats where some of us guys can come in as well...not to sound like know it alls..but to help educate people as well, there are more to these forums than bragging rights..lol..people don't realize things like researchers have come to find that Muskies such as those 2 in question..may pair up for life( tracking tagged fish has proved this in the ottawa area)or that fish like pike when they mate..usually like one female..and a few males together..and of course usually the female is the big one..uneducated people may see this group of fish and go hey look how big that one is and try to catch it..or even worse snag it on purpose..or where permitted net it or spear it in the shallows...but hey if we inform them a little more about that, think about it..take away the big female from the group..sure there still might be 6 pike sitting there but no female..no babies..same for muskies..if they pair up for life..take away the big female out of season ..and hey..there goes next years brude...one of the reasons i made the comment on an earlier post about myself not posting pics of OOS bass specially if ya can easily tell where it was caught..Odysseus posted a good example of how to cover that up though...and who ever made the comment about cracking down on people trying to fish there now with obvious musky tackle.. I agree its up to us avid anglers to speak up about it maybe even if it meant banning together and confronting the culprits or no one may not like it..but tipping off the MNR. Sorry for the long winded post again..really I am not on here to try to "steal" evryones good fishing holes..lol..just share info and learn along the way JWL

[smerchly]

JWL......you could have got 3 posts out of that ! Thanks for your input , as you see we do get into some serious stuff sometimes and with all the obvious hits on it , we all learn something from the comments . Hopefully , this educates (informs) us young and old ....pro & novice , that there is a lot more to angling all the various species , than meets the eye . In my 50 plus yrs. of fishing , I have caught one small musky ....Deer Bay , Buckhorn ,about 1963 ...and that was accidental when fishing for eyes . Keep them comming JW.....you will hit 50 in no time !

[Guest Rockfish]

Niagara river Muskie, accidental catch I believe don't know for sure when it was caught but a great one, it was posted on here I think back in Dec. and not sure who it is .......

[knightfisher]

Wow, what a beauty of a fish. Going to have to try the upper niagara

this year.

[Guest Rockfish]

Actually think that was the Lower at Queenston, Daniel. Have another Muskie pic somewhere of another one caught at Queenston, I'll try to find it.....

Getting a bit off topic but don't know who this is either, but nice Queenston Muskie, it's a little beat up too, LOL ......

[Guest BrownBomber]

I was in Pete's when that guy in the red was talking about the muskie. I think they were trout fishing when he hooked into that. I recall him saying it didn't put up much of a fight.

[Guest bigfish1965]

The guy in the red is Aldo Nava. Monster fish, too.

[Guest gumby]

Wow didn’t expect this much fuss over posting a few pictures.

For the record I had no idea their would be musky in Port D I have heard of them being in the upper Niagara but never seen any personally (Hence my surprise). So in thinking about it now it makes sense that theoretically one could be there. So could all kinds of other fish that aren’t in season. It was not our intention as I stated before to catch it. I know there out of season. Not my intention to create a musky fishing frenzy down there. Like I said I was totally surprise to see the one we caught. We released it right away like I said before didn’t weigh it measure it just two quick pictures of it in case one didn’t turn out. I would like to say to everyone who reads this good luck catching anything in Port D right now I spent three day out their fishing now only to catch the one musky and one salmon in the lake near the canal. We only went into the harbor because we were bored of not catching anything in the lake and though well it’s a nice day lets go see if we can see any tail walking the board walk.

I want all of you to know I play by the rules and carry the Regs in my tackle bag. I’m quite aware of every lake, river, stream has it own rules and there is no way I can remember them all. So there with me every where I go. Don’t believe me if you ever see me fishing come over have a chat no problem I love to talk to other fisher people and I will show you them no problem. My only problem is they’re getting a little ratty looking go wet a few times. They should make them in a waterproof version. How many other people carry them all the time?

My father is an avid fisherman. Probably spent more time in tackle shops than most people spent one the water fishing. I would be more afraid of him kicking my butt then the MNR if I was ever to do anything illegal when it comes to fishing. I love fishing and respect it.

My intention in posting the picture was to show my surprise (a musky in port) and give my buddy some more encouragement into fishing, as it was the biggest fish by ten fold he had ever caught or even seen being that he just started fishing. Hence me having to do all the work and it was all my gear. Well actually it was one of the millions of rods my dad own that he lent to me we caught the fish on.

I hope the 2000 viewer (wow didn’t see that coming) just took it for what it’s worth. A couple of pictures of a nice fish that my rookie buddy caught.

[Guest Rubby Rubby]

posted and then read your post... so edited.

gl this season

[Guest S.S. Minnow]

Gumby,

I'm new to this site, I thought it would be a great place to hear from a wide audience of other fisherman how they were doing this year, maybe I could pick up some pointers, and somewhere I could ask questions. I can't believe that it came to this where you had to defend the pictures, I thought it was obvious that the Muskie was caught by accident, hense the title "Port D pic's surprise" I want to say thanks for sharing the pictures, and please don't stop sharing. I have never seen one that size, and congrats to you're buddy fisherman, he's probably "hooked" on fishing now. Great to hear that it swam away unharmed.

Cheers Andrew

[jwl]

That's how I took it, and after a fish like that anyone deserves a great pic, PortD just happenes to be one of those spots that gets easily over run with alot of uneducated anglers..they see people fishing and catching fish, and being as it is an easy access any one whith a car can go to spot thats what happens, just like when they stock it..specially when people see the trucks pumping the fish in..and all the fish sticking close by and doesnt help that they sometimes put it in the paper when they are stocking it and how many and what species..lol. I love talking about fishing too, thats why I joined in on the forum and also like introducing people to fishing or teaching them things that I can and vice versa.And for a novice angler..well there are guys who have been fishing for years and never caught a fish like that. myself personally have loved fishing since I was a little kid and only ever caught 10 muskies with only 4 of them being over the 50'' mark. One I kept as a trophy a couple years back, and as stated in an earlier post I really debated keeping it alot..but figured hay 1 trophy is ok..and on another note..it came from a relatively small lake with a huge fish poulation..and from personally being out on the water there one day about 6 years ago, and watching some people from the MNR doing a survey of fish on the water, you know where they shock the fish and when they float to the surface they bring em in..conduct a few test and things like that.I went over to check out what they where doing, cuz well I saw them pull out a few huge ones..lol The MNR people had told me at that time..that they where trying to encourage more anglers to keep some of the bigger pike and muskies from the lake, because the big fish population ratio was greatly effecting the small fish ratio..belive it or not in not so many words they where telling me that there where too many big fish in the lake for the size of it.And that some of the larger fish should be culled.

[Guest Rockfish]

I want people to continue posting their pictures and sharing their success!

I don't if its a few sunfish or a sturgeon.

There is always going to be a few nitpickers here and there, but ignore them....you aren't doing anything wrong.

Keep'em coming boys!

You don't want to see a Sturgeon Tommy,

[Guest Rockfish]

Thanks for the Edit Tommy, makes more sense now.

[Guest Rubby Rubby]

JWL I would like to know the name of the MNR official that said that they want to cull th bigger fish from the Niagara?? Musky in the Niagara have diminished so badly the past few years that its almost at a critical point.. BTW the legal limit is like 48" and is trying t be extended to 54", trying to keep the musky population up does not mean cull the big fish...why do you think musky guys are so defensive when they see OOS pics like I was?? they are on such a rapid decline that its almost to the point of no return. If you dont believe me ask DR.Casselman about this area. Understand this musky are nothing like the salmon population in Lake O nor are they stooced like them... all the fish you see are of natural reproduction and non hatchery fish. PLEASE do some research on this before taking a musky and check your regs to be sure that it is legal. This is in no way an attack, just something that people are mis informed about.

GL this season

[Guest Fly Me In Scotty]

Congrats on the catch. It is a real hog.

I hope that it does not stop you from posting future pics with all the reply's.

Looks like a great board with alot of information to be had. Take things with a grain of salt and keep enjoying your outings. I am sure you will follow the law.

Thanks again.

[ROB MCINTOSH]

Look guy's don't get me wrong on this one,great fish Gumby that is a fish of a lifetime and hope that it did get your bud hooked, But what has happened is what I was trying to stop this has hit allmost every site in niagara and who knows how many more with over 2000 veiws you know that someone is going to target these fish knowing where they are just yes to get a pic to say hey look at my musky that I caught pretty good A. Well it's to late now and if we here that a 30lb musky was found on shore DEAD then I hope you all then realize what I was trying to prevent. Sure post a pic but maybe the timing was off maybe post it after spawn is over and explain the story then and we would not get fishermen maybe trying to catch these fish because by the time the pic came out the spawn would be over and these fish would be long gone and this 4 page post would not be happening.And we maybe would not read about the DEAD MUSKY not saying that this would happen but if it does I hope you will all feel as bad as I will.I have been in this industry for a while and you would be surprised at the things I have seen. So on this note I hope that I have let you all know what I was trying to stop and hope that we don't read about it. But please if you do come across somthing like this you leave them alone so our kids may have a chance to experiance what we have had the chance to in this great past time we call fishing. Rob Mcintosh (Catfish)

[jwl]

wow lots of contraversy evrywhere, I am new to this site too Rubby Rubby, only been on here for a couple days and trying to become an active participant....actually if you read the one post in question about muskies I put......the place I was talking about was NOT the Niagara or the Niagara region for that matter, if you read the post I said it was on a small body of water in which I am not going to disclose for 1000's of people to see...and the MNR was doing extensive research in regards to fish/volume of water..at the time.. I talked to the researchers out on the lake they said that this body of water was one of the most densely populated areas for fish /volume of water in that part of Ontario...and it was in the best interest of the lake to cull some of the larger fish from it..musky and pike alike...not to ruin the fishery but to make it more healthy for all species and help to rejuvinate the bass and walleye populations, walleye especially cuz size averages where going down...Simply put...too many of the big ones where eating too many of the other fish....think about it..put a preditor in a fish tank and a bunch of other fish..whats gonna be the end result..lol...sooner or later there is just gonna be one fish left..lol..That lake gets so weedy at times the big ones have tons of places to hide....its not gonna loose the trophy fishery that way.in fact it will enhance the fishery all around..same thing as lakes that have too large a population of certain fish be it perch..sunnies..whatever..thats why some lakes have no limit on perch for example and others do.....or why there are different size limits for muskies and such on different bodies of water....anyways ya should have read up on that post a little more Rubby Rubby before ya jumped to conclusions...but thanks for helping me have a reason to write another post so I can reach my 50 and be part of the pike off..lol....and for the record Rubby if ya read this whole post..lol..mine will all go back in the water. I am an avid catch and release angler.....JWL

[Guest BrownBomber]

I know musky don't do well when they are out of the water for a long time but why is that so? You wouldn't expect a top predator to be like that. Any info would be cool.

[Guest IBC]

I know musky don't do well when they are out of the water for a long time but why is that so? You wouldn't expect a top predator to be like that. Any info would be cool.

They are just a very tempermental fish, that for some reason stress out much more than other fish. I do not know the science behind it. I think it part it is because they do not have much stamina when it comes to the fight, I have landed a few, nothing near Gumby's size, but after any more than 5 minutes I had to spend a good portion of time reviving them.