“Toothy predators’’ on the Chicago lakefront doubled down for me last week.
Northern pike and muskies.
First Marcus Benesch, who sends fishing reports for the Des Plaines River, had an aside about guys fishing smallmouth bass on the lakefront, “A buddy of mine hooked into a uppers 30s [inches] musky at Burnham Harbor, with no way of landing it, it bit off at the wall.
“A lot of guys started chit chatting and it turns out there has been a pair of muskies that have been spotted a few times in the shallows at Burnham. What’s going on? Some secret stocking or just rogue urban muskies?’’
Fair questions. (Plus I like the phrase, “rogue urban muskies.’’)
On Friday, noted smallmouth fisherman, jig-maker and skateboarder Ryan Whitacre, texted, “Just counted [seven] decent-sized pike at [a lakefront harbor]. What the hell!!!?’’
I am leery of the pike being pounded so I did not list the particular harbor.
Then Whitacre added, “Make that [nine]’’ and sent a photo of a thick pike that went 40+ inches in the water. Years ago, I tracked reports of big pike on the lakefront, but stopped when they reached 39 1/2 inches.
When I reached out to Philip Willink, senior research biologist for the Shedd Aquarium, he relayed an interesting story from Burnham.
“Are you sure they are muskies?,’’ he wondered. “Last week, I saw a bunch of a pike there. It seem to be getting more common. We know there are pike around.’’
He even saw one that he thought was a muskie. But he had a pair of binoculars along and was able to confirm that it was a northern pike.
He said for some reason the pike in the harbors are marked in such a way as when seen from above people see lines or stripes and think they see a muskie.
“All you really see is the back,’’ he said. “Some of these pike look a lot like muskie.’’
Not that he rules out the possibility of muskie on the lakefront.
“There could be muskie out there, they had stocked them in Wolf Lake,’’ he noted.
Vic Santucci, Lake Michigan Program head for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, emailed, “I haven’t heard or seen anything about muskie in Burnham recently. We do get periodic reports of muskie in Illinois’ Lake Michigan waters from time to time, but I have yet to see one.’’
As to pike in the harbors, he emailed, “We have not seen any big changes in terms of northern pike in the harbors. Northern pike are definitely present in the harbors that we sample and we do occasionally catch a good-sized one (>35 inches) during harbor electrofishing surveys. No indication of substantial changes or trends in numbers or sizes from our efforts. Very few pike are reported in the [Illinois Natural History Survey] creel survey reports, as well.
“That said, northern pike do appear to be more abundant in recent years compared to past decades. Since IDNR does not stock pike in Lake Michigan, higher abundance these days may be due to increases in water clarity and aquatic vegetation abundance along the shoreline benefiting natural pike reproduction. Nine pike in one harbor sounds like a good sign for anglers that like to catch the toothy predators.’’
My gut says Santucci’s second paragraph goes to the heart of the changes on Lake Michigan and pike, and that eventually data will bear that out.
DOVES:Online applications for resident Illinois hunters opens Friday for Illinois free dove hunting permits at select sites. Click here for more info and to apply.
STRAY CAST: Charlie Potter’s excuse making for Gov Bruce Rauner and the IDNR is as nonsensical as a poacher’s bitching about Illinois deer management.
