About Muskies
Muskellunge – commonly known as muskies – are the largest species in the Esocidae family group. Esocidae is the pike family and contains all pike, pickerel, and mudminnows. Muskies are on average 28 to 48 inches long and typically weigh 15 to 36 pounds. However, much larger specimens are not uncommon and are prized by sport fishermen. They are usually silver, brown, or green and sometimes have dark vertical stripes or spots on their flanks. Muskies have a particularly similar appearance to the northern pike, which sometimes leads to confusion between the two. Despite this, one of the easiest ways to distinguish the two is their color. This is because muskies have dark markings over light bodies, which is the opposite of pike. Muskies are widespread across North America and live in freshwater lakes and rivers. They prefer clear water and tend to live amongst the weed edges and rocks. Muskies thrive in water that has different depth levels. This means that they can have two different ranges within their home territory – a deep one and a shallow one. During the summer, their shallow range tends to be warmer as the water has heated up. Muskies are ambush predators and hunt with a devastating burst of speed. They are known for eating virtually anything that they come across. Like pikes, muskies are known for their ferocious mannerisms and are frequently described as being “the freshwater equivalent to the great white shark”. There are even reports of muskies attacking people and pets. Muskies can eat prey up to two-thirds of their own body length which are all grabbed and swallowed head first. They are apex predators that eat ducks, rodents, and frogs.
From Something so Small
Incredibly, for a fish that ends up so large, muskies begin life as tiny hatchlings. Muskies spawn in the spring in water that is around 12°C. They also usually spawn in areas that are less than 3 feet deep and have rocky or sandy bottoms so that the eggs don’t sink into the mud. Females lay anything from 20,000 to 200,000 eggs, depending on her size, after which she completely abandons them. Predators of eggs include insects and crayfish. Upon hatching, the newly born muskies are tiny and are still vulnerable to predators. Once they have fully developed mouths, they begin to feed on zooplankton before moving on to small fish. However, muskies grow quickly, and by the time they reach their first winter, the juveniles are around 12 inches long. So, how big is the biggest muskie ever caught?
The Largest Muskie ever Caught
The largest muskie ever caught weighed 69 pounds 15 ounces. This immense fish was caught in 1957 in the St Lawrence River by Arthur Lawson. However, there is a great amount of controversy over whether the fish was actually the size he claimed it to be. Although Lawson officially held the world record for twenty years, photographs of the fish have been examined in more recent times. These examinations have led to suggestions that the size of the fish could well have been exaggerated. This has eventually led to Lawson and his fish being stripped of the title as the world record holder of the biggest muskie ever caught. However, it’s not as simple as reinstating the previous title holder as that catch itself is also the subject of similar controversy! This muskie weighed 69 pounds 11 ounces, meaning that if correct Lawson’s record catch is 4 ounces heavier. However, this fish was caught in Chippewa Flowage, Wisconsin in October 1949 by Louis Spray. Spray himself was a colorful character who had a reputation as a bootlegger. This – along with the lack of photographs of him holding the fish – led to questions being raised about the validity of his catch. Therefore, officially the largest muskie ever caught goes back even further, although this time only to July 1949. This time the muskie weighed 67 pounds 8 ounces and measured 60.25 inches long. It was caught by Cal Johnson in a lake near Hayward, Wisconsin. Johnson was a well-known angler and a writer for various fishing magazines, and several people witnessed the catch and weighing of the fish. This catch, at least isn’t the subject of any controversy, although no one will ever know whether it is the biggest muskie ever caught.
How do Muskies Compare?
We’ve already mentioned that muskies are the largest fish in the pike family, but just how much bigger are they, and how do they compare against other freshwater fish? Well, most pikes are 16 to 22 inches long. However, the longest is 59 inches, and the heaviest is around 63 pounds. This means that muskies are significantly heavier than them, although the longest pikes are a similar length to the longest muskies. The longest pickerels are around 54 inches long and the heaviest 46 pounds, again meaning that muskies are easily the larger fish. However, when it comes to the largest freshwater fish, muskies are much, much smaller. The largest of the freshwater fish are beluga sturgeons which can reach a maximum length of 23ft 7in. They can also weigh up to an immense 3,463 pounds! The largest freshwater fish in North America is also a sturgeon – although this time the white sturgeon. White sturgeons can reach 20 feet long and weigh up to 1,800 pounds, again dwarfing muskies.
