D-wayne wrote:
Nice work
Should be fun to play with once the big frost hits and cools down the water.
Personally I find that pike are able to handle a bit of the warm water for a bit but the muskie are not as resilient with warm water.
That is why I hold off on the musky right now, I will be more active come Mid Sept. to December. The people more knowledgeable than myself on musky genetics state that it is safer for the fish if we use cooler waters. One argument being oxygen levels and the other being sudden temp differences. Taking a fish from say 50/55-degree water and trying to release it back into the high 70's-80's. I look at it in an easy way to describe. A lot of us here ice fish, if you are not careful as a person or unlucky and fall through the ice the first thing that happens is cold shock and disorientation of the body and breathing. Some will overcome the situation and get out to survive with a good amount of effort, some will put in the effort and still not make it.
Well for the musky he/her is the same you took away the oxygen and put him /her back into the water that has them at a shocking water temp disadvantage. Some will make it some will not. Three years ago on Pigeon Lake, I spent 2.5 hours helping a Musky to get back into the water hoping things were good. The following day I was in the same cove area and found a musky floating by the shoreline. I can not say for sure that it was the one I released and it did not survive. It sure was close in size, colour and location, enough that I went back to the cottage and did not fish that day.