Dead muskys

[larkmark]

Someone told me there are over 100 dead muskys in river at Ft. Hunter. Apparently freshly stocked a day or so ago. Assume state stocked them. Knowing the cost of raising a musky this is a lot of money wasted. Wonder what went wrong?

 

[Dave_W]

Dang, that's really unfortunate.

I've not heard of muskie fingerlings or yearlings typically dying from temperature or some other adjustment failure. . . and one would think that the hatchery personnel would be testing the water to see if it meets release criteria. Nevertheless, it's not unusual for there to be some mortality after a stocking event. Are you confident in the claim it's over a hundred fish? Sometimes these sorts of stories get exaggerated.

Anyway, let us know if you hear anymore information about this.

 

[larkmark]

I saw a few photos and it looked like a lot of dead ones. I'm sure there will be info on this somewhere online soon. I did see a Facebook post on one of the fishing sites saying the fish comm was stocking this week.

 

[Mike]

Concerning water temps and timing of stocking from the 2017 update of the PFBC Muskellunge Management Plan on the PFBC web site….

To prevent mortality from thermal stress, tiger muskellunge will be stocked no later than the third week of May and at water temperatures < 75oF (Inskip 1982). Muskellunge will be stocked no later than the second week of June and at water temperatures < 80oF (Cook and Solomon 1987). In general, this will require stocking waters south of Interstate 80 first.

 

[larkmark]

I saw a news article that showed them stocking musky there this week.

Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
23h ·
Hundreds of yearling Muskellunges were raised at the Linesville SFH in Crawford County and transferred to Huntsdale SFH in Cumberland County, where they were stocked into the Susquehanna River (Fort Hunter area) by Fish Culturists Eric Stosius and Alexandra Singer on July 12.



Just yesterday I got the message about the dead ones. Assuming I wasn't being pranked. Can anyone else confirm this happening?

 

[jifigz]

Mike's last post makes claim that these fish would not have been stocked by the PFBC....... Does it not?

So some sort of musky club that perhaps needs to work on their handling techniques and procedures.

 

[HopBack]

They were stocked last week, I saw the post that the pfbc put out just like lark said.

 

[jifigz]

Huh. That sucks.

 

[Mike]

jifigz,
I wasn’t trying to say that they were not stocked by the PFBC. Rather, I was comparing the timing of this stocking if it was a PFBC stocking to what their own guidance says in order to avoid stocking mortality.

 

[RLeep2]

>>Someone told me there are over 100 dead muskys in river at Ft. Hunter. Apparently freshly stocked a day or so ago. Assume state stocked them. Knowing the cost of raising a musky this is a lot of money wasted. Wonder what went wrong?>>

I'm going to hazard a guess that as these things tend to go, this event wasn't all that expensive of a blunder. In 2011, according to the Commission's Musky Plan, they had about $4.75 invested in each fingerling raised to stockable size. 10 years later, let's say that cost has risen to $7.00/fish and that's probably a little high.

If 150 musky fingerlings were lost, that's a $1,050 flub. Not that much...

 

[Dave_W]

RLeep2 wrote:

If 150 musky fingerlings were lost, that's a $1,050 flub. Not that much...

My guess is the actual dollar loss is probably higher than that.

The PFBC mainly stocks yearlings these days and they are twice the size and age of the old fingerlings. Still not a catastrophe to be sure, but a lot more expensive than trout and certainly a reason for the PFBC to do some double checking and careful analysis/review (if this claim of 100 dead muskies is accurate).

 

[jifigz]

I went back and found the PFBC Facebook post, so it is definitely accurate. The comments were actually funny and quite pathetic (regarding the stocking, not the deaths of the fish.)

Still I wonder why if the PFBC has the guideline in place of when the best time to stock muskellunge then why they broke their own guidance and didn't follow it. Maybe they needed hatchery space for other stuff at the time? So they stocked em and hoped for the best? I don't know, makes me wonder, though

 

[FarmerDave]

They could have had an issue at one of the hatcheries that forced them to release them at an inopportune time. It wouldn't be the first time. If the choice is let them die or stock them and hope for the best...