Ft Patricky Henry Lake musky?

[Wooden Arrow]

anyone know why this fishery was abandoned? i only landed one all the time i spent trying for them. but you could see them virtually every warm day in mid summer, lounging around on the surface (like the carp they hung out with) around Duck Island. see them, yes. get them to hit? i always expected for a few to show up below the dam. every other species of fish released in Patrick Henry ended down in the river too, why not musky? dang river is full of suckers, musky should flourish in there.

 

[Kevin Snook]

Back in the 80s when I hung around the BassN Shop there was an old gentleman that talked of catching musky on Patrick Henry in the spring with a lure he made.. He brought it in one day-was basically a piece of hoe handle with a hole through it that he had wire to a big treble hook and a squirrel hide on it.
Said he fished the bluffs and I reckon the muskies like to eat young squirrels..

Personally I've only seen one and it was down at the dam

 

[Wooden Arrow]

Back in the 80s when I hung around the BassN Shop there was an old gentleman that talked of catching musky on Patrick Henry in the spring with a lure he made.. He brought it in one day-was basically a piece of hoe handle with a hole through it that he had wire to a big treble hook and a squirrel hide on it.
Said he fished the bluffs and I reckon the muskies like to eat young squirrels..

Personally I've only seen one and it was down at the dam

hooked and lost several there in the late summer/early fall when shad were schooling on surface. they seemed to like a big Mepps with squirrel tail. got to see something eat a grebe there too...

 

[EastTNHunter]

They call it the fish of a thousand casts for a reason.

From what I understand (and I could be wrong in my understanding), biologically speaking we are further south than the Muskie's natural range, and they don't have a high recruitment rate even within their native territory. Any Muskie this far south takes a lot of effort to raise, release, and keep alive within their fishery.

 

[XCR-2]

anyone know why this fishery was abandoned? i only landed one all the time i spent trying for them. but you could see them virtually every warm day in mid summer, lounging around on the surface (like the carp they hung out with) around Duck Island. see them, yes. get them to hit? i always expected for a few to show up below the dam. every other species of fish released in Patrick Henry ended down in the river too, why not musky? dang river is full of suckers, musky should flourish in there.

Dems garzz

 

[Wooden Arrow]

nope, they were not gar. saw a couple caught, and one imbecile shot one with a fish arrow thinking it was a carp. (i doubt he really thought that) musky are native this far south, and used to be (relatively) common in some streams in middle Tn. TWRA has been trying to bring them back in certain streams on the plateau. old-timers out there called them "jackfish"... don't know if the stream strain actually went extinct or not. hard to get good solid info on this from TWRA or anywhere else. very closed-mouth...