River Musky Migrations

[Red Childress]

The Elk River (WV) musky tagging study is highlighted in this article.

Lowbidder sent me this link a few days ago.

http://wvgazette.com/Outdoors/201007240366

[lowbidder]

No wonder the river fish rarely get to be "gut busters".

I watched a video yesterday about a similar study done on the buckhannon which resulted in the fish hardly moving at all. Apparently the difference has a lot to do with the migration of forage and density of structure. The buckhannon has much more submerged wood than the Elk. Maybe that has something to do with the difference.

A similar study was done on the New River by a VT grad student, but I don't think it is published on the Internet. You can get it by calling the Virginia DNR. I will post the links if I can find them again.

We could learn so much and I'm sure there would be many willing volunteers to help with a tagging program.

Mike

[lowbidder]

Here is some info on the New River study
http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/waterbodies/display.asp?id=163&section=fishing
http://virginiamusky.com/news/new-river-musky-management-history/

Here are some links with info about the buckhannon river study and how the WV DNR conducts their tagging efforts.
http://www.wvdnr.gov/wildlife/magazine/Archive/08winter/Vol8No3wvMusky.pdf
http://www.wvdnr.gov/wildlife/magazine/Archive/03Spring/Fishing_For_Facts.shtm
Videos... cool!
http://www.wvdnr.gov/hunting/wildlifetv%20-%20Aug03.shtm

[RapRunR]

Watched these a while back. Very interesting. Never thought they'd move so far !!! Thx !!