Fishing
Success of “Catch & Release”
By Karen Nadder Lago
Apr 20, 2006, 15:05

Success of “Catch & Release” Program lures anglers to 1000 Islands

The catch of a forty pound muskie is no longer a rare River event. According to local fishing guide Captain Clay, since the inception of a catch and release program eighteen years ago by Save the River, muskie fishing, “is 300% better than it was in the 70s and 80s. Landing a 40-50 pound muskie happens almost weekly…and between 10 and 15 fish in the 54 to 55-inch range are being caught each season.”

“Catch and Release” has become a routine practice on the St. Lawrence partly because of years of research carried out by scientists at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Thousand Islands Biological Station (TIBS) the efforts of Save The River, and fishing guides up and down the River who support the program.

Before the ESF research, the taking of female muskie during her reproductive years was common. Until the 1960s, regulations governing muskie fishing were extremely liberal, contributing, along with habitat destruction, to a declining muskie population. There was no creel limit on muskies and the legal size was 24 inches. With research came the understanding that female muskies begin spawning at five or six years of age, when they are approximately 34-38 inches.  Today the legal size limit is 48 inches, protecting fish from being harvested before they have had many years to spawn, and, coupled with the success of the catch and release program, the muskie population is on the rebound.

In 1987, Save The River in conjunction with the Ande Monofilament, a fishing supply company from West Palm Beach, Fla., began a program to encourage the safe release of legal-sized muskellunge. The ‘bait’ attracting muskie anglers to the program is a signed, limited edition print of a muskellunge by local artist Michael Ringer. Since the program began, Ringer has donated two editions of 500 prints. In the Summer of 2005, he donated a third print. Ringer’s first print showed a muskie closing in on a perch, the second print depicted a muskie hitting on a Clayton Skinner Spoon. The latest print, entitled, “The Strike” has a muskie about to take a Radtke Pike Minnow, a popular lure created and produced by Alexandria Bay resident, Gale Radtke.  

A secondary goal of the catch and release program is the accumulation of further information from muskie anglers which will be used in ongoing studies conducted by SUNY-ESF and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).  Dr. John Farrell, Director of the Muskellunge Research Program at ESF, leads the cooperative research effort aimed at locating and protecting muskellunge spawning and nursery habitat and improving management to protect the species and the fishery.  Farrell states, “the unique Great Lakes muskellunge genetic strain consistently produces some of the largest muskies caught anywhere. Release of adult muskellunge not only provides an opportunity for someone else to catch that fish, but also promotes recruitment of young to the population.”  Studies have shown an increase of over 3 inches in the average size of muskies and some impressive reproductive success in recent years.

“Undoubtedly, the growth of this program hinges on our wonderful incentive award, the exclusive Michael Ringer print, and the support of the River’s fishing guides, as well as on the knowledge that the future of muskie fishing relies on responsible stewardship,” reports Stephanie Weiss, Save The River Executive Director.

A Muskellunge Release Affidavit is required in order to obtain the Michael Ringer print and is available from fishing guides, bait stores and at the Save The River office (409 Riverside Drive, Clayton, NY 13624, 315-686-2010, www.savetheriver.org).

“Muskie fishing has been nothing but better since the release program started,” says Captain Clay. “Nobody’s killing muskies anymore. No one takes a muskie to eat.”

Many of the fish stories told since the late 1980s end with a satisfied angler carefully releasing his catch back into the River. It is the one they let get away.

(The Author, Karen Nadder Lago is Assistant Director of Save The River, located in Clayton, NY)

(A version of this article was previously published in the June 1, 2005 edition of the “Thousand Islands Sun.” Reprinted here with author’s permission.)