Muskrat Feb 3

[Crunchy]

Got back from Muskrat today.

Had a god day of jumbo perch! I only kept a dozen in the 10-12inch range. Lots of em. Must have throw back 40 or 50. Some had a bad case fo the worms, but those easily stood out from the rest and I threw em back. The ones I kept were perfect (ate em for dinner already).

Also got a few pike, nothing special.

Lake is good to drive on. Was out there in my car, lots of other trucks as well. Ice ranged from 12-20inches (manual auger giving me a good workout).

I hope to head back and try for trout soon, there were dozens of fishing parties out on the drop-off fishing smelts or trout.

[joco]

WOW

NICE PERCH...

must been a tatsy little supper you got there...mmmm

thanks for sharing..

might go take a look at that lake soon..



joco

[ratsotail]

Crunchy,

Thanks for the report as I've been looking to fish in that direction recently. It's such a long lake it's nice to know you can drive around and cover some water. I fished this lake last year and really thought I found a lake that compared to Simcoe for size and numbers of Perch....only to be severely disappointed to find lots of the dreaded yellow worms in them. I'm not sure if location has anything to do with how many worms are in the fish, but I was fishing the far West side close to where the Muskrat River comes in. Were you closer to Cobden or mid-lake and did you catch anything besides Perch?

Nice going and thanks again for the report!

ratsotail

[Fishquest]

Nice fish, hope you enjoyed the meal.

[Fishquest]

Nice fish, I hope you enjoyed the meal.

[Crunchy]

I followed Waterview rd down to the lake and drove on. I guess thats about the middle of the lake, or close to it. I was fishing near all the hunts, in about 10 feet of water., couple hundred feet from shore. Also tried the otehr side of the lake, but got nothing, and the wind picked up so we changed spots.

Alot of the perch did have worms, you can see them through the skin near the tail. I threw those back. The ones I kept were pretty much free of those nasty buggers, the few that were there were easily removed with the tip of my knife.

Also caught a few pike, 3 or 4 lbs. Not a pike kinda guy, so threw em back.

We had 4 holes drilled, all within about 50 feet of each other, only 2 holes ever produced perch. If you don't find em, just move on and you will.

[Bondo]

Nice job Crunchy. I hope to hit Muskrat before the ice is off.

[OBD]

Nice report, that is a NICE PERCH!!

[SALMON]

if you want a good feed..go for the smelt. They are the largest in the province reaching 12"

[moirariverbandit]

Where can you catch smelt in the Quinte Area?

[pikeman]

As anyone tried to access Muskrat from the public boat launch. Will be heading up there Feb 17. Also can we confirm the ice thickness.

[bucketmouth]

Pikeman, you can drive right on at the Cobden launch. Can't help ya with current ice thickness though, sorry.

[almontefisher]

Hey crunchy...Does that tape measure show 12 cm....lol...no really nice catch you got. I have drove past that lake for years and never once fished it. What else is in it???

[wolfe]

Crunchy,

Must have been lots of good action and fun. Thx for the report. I've never fished Muskrat either.

Curious: does anyone know why some lakes seem more susceptible to higher incidences of worm-infested fish? How is the parasite transfered?

W.

[mosquito]

The parasite is transferred through snails which are part of perch food. The bigger the fraction of snails in the perch food, the worth the infection. Occasionally one can find this type of parasite in bass and walleye too.