Habitat

Researchers learn what types of woody cover muskies prefer.

- Jordan Weeks

I Recently queried social media to ask for topics to discuss in this forum. The responses were somewhat surprising in a good way.Well, mostly anyway. To be honest, i was a bit disappointed at the number of suggestions that have already been covered in the pages of this magazine, which means those guys don’t subscribe. Sigh.

Some of the great ideas mentioned include: diurnal fish location; timing impacts of stocking (is there potential after ice-up); musky vision; river movement; forage; exotic crayfish impacts; length of the spawning period; preferred vegetation; effects of VHS (viral hemorrhagic septicemia); how stocking number may affect growth, condition, and other fish; effects of barometric pressure; and the topic of this article — habitat preference.

What a great topic! How much habitat is necessary? What type of habitat is the best? And the million dollar question — what types do muskellunge prefer? I did some digging and found a really cool study performed at an illinois reservoir by curtis Wagner, michael Weber and david Wahl. They aimed at quantifying the relationship between woody habitat complexity and muskellunge preference for said habitat.