As for the effect on the health of the Musky fishery from removing 936,840 forage minnows when no Musky are being harvested, the negative impact is obvious. Now you have more Musky chasing a diminished food source. Without sufficient food no animal or human will achieve their genetic potential…in this case it’s the Musky achieving a trophy size. (Sort of makes increased size limits for Musky a joke, doesn’t it?) The problem gets even worse when you artificially increase the number of Musky through stocking which puts more pressure on the forage base. Given the amount of forage taken from these Musky lakes and the 100% release of Musky and the continued stocking of Musky, it is NOT hard to recognize that the health of the fishery will soon reach a tipping point that plunges the fishery into imbalance. Mr. Underwood also pointed out that because of VHS the DNR now buys its minnows from commercial outlets. This has had an impact on the ability of the DNR to continue hatchery operations. The current 2013-2015 DNR budget indicates that 3 hatcheries have already been closed and projects that more will have to be closed. I have only focused on two counties. I am confident that hatcheries in other counties, like Sawyer and Price have also harvested forage to support their hatchery operations. So is there a solution to head off the inevitable decline and eventual collapse of Wisconsin Musky fisheries?
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