Muskellunge

Identification and biology

Esox masquinongy is long-bodied with a duck-bill snout, a large mouth armed with canine teeth, and dark spots, bars or blotches on a light silver to green background. The quickest way to separate it from a northern pike is under the jaw: muskies have six or more sensory pores along each side of the lower jaw (USGS lists 6 to 9, Michigan DNR 6 to 10), pike five or fewer, and muskie tail lobes are more pointed. The tiger muskie, a pike and muskie hybrid, shows dark stripes on a light background. The native range covers the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes and the Mississippi basin from Quebec to southeastern Manitoba, reaching south through the Appalachians (USGS), and stocking has carried the species well outside it.

Spawning and diet

Muskies spawn in spring after the ice goes out, later than northern pike, scattering eggs over shallow vegetation with no parental care. Wisconsin DNR places the spawn between mid-April and mid-May, at water of 49 to 60°F with an optimum near 55°F, and notes that adults return to the same spawning grounds year after year. They eat mostly fish, from suckers and minnows to perch and sunfish; Michigan DNR adds that large muskies have taken small rodents, muskrats and waterfowl. They can withstand water up to about 90°F, and in peak summer heat move to slightly deeper, cooler water near a drop-off or other structure.

Where the fisheries are

Wisconsin made the muskellunge its state fish in 1955. Its muskies are most widespread in the Chippewa, Flambeau, St. Croix, Black and Wisconsin river systems, and central and southern populations exist through stocking. In Michigan, natural populations are mostly in the western Upper Peninsula, while the Great Lakes fishery centers on Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, which the state DNR describes as world-class, with a charter fleet that trolls and a growing number of small-boat anglers who cast or jig. Farther south, USGS records Missouri stocking reservoirs with muskies from 1966.

How muskies are caught

Agency advice is consistent: big lures, often moved fast. Wisconsin DNR names large plugs, spoons and bucktails, or a live fish of 10 to 12 inches, and says daytime usually fishes best. Michigan DNR describes casting or trolling large plugs, spoons and spinners behind a wire leader at a fast rate, or fishing large suckers as bait. Many casters also finish each retrieve with a figure-eight beside the boat to give a following fish one more chance; that habit comes from anglers rather than from any agency.

Releasing a muskie

Wisconsin DNR reports that catch-and-release is almost universal among its muskie anglers and that delayed hooking mortality is low, under 5 percent, and linked to water temperature, with cold spring water giving the lowest losses. Summer fish are therefore the ones to handle fastest: keep the fish in the water, have long-nose pliers and cutters ready before the first cast, and carry a net big enough for the fish you are after.

Temperature range

Tackle setups

Playbook by water temperature

Month by month

Best waters for muskellunge

85 waters we report on where this species is one of the main fish, each with a daily report.

Common questions