# East Fork Muskies



## cincinnati

A co-worker regularly fishes East Fork for crappie & bass. Last week, while in the bait shop, he was told that 3' muskies are showing up everywhere & that there was a 51" caught the week before. Can anyone confirm this?


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## Legend killer

Yeah, I started the rumors. Very gullible guy at the bait shop.


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## Fish With Teeth

East Fork has been stocked for a few years now.


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## Earthworms

Weak catch rates, they didn't do well. State needs to stop,with that lake


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## crittergitter

Earthworms said:


> Weak catch rates, they didn't do well. State needs to stop,with that lake


Is it weak catch rates or little to no angling effort for them? Seems to me there isn't much effort. I don't know why that is. If I lived near that lake I would be targeting it hard. 

Though, if nobody is pursuing them, there might be a better lake in an area with more musky fishermen to put them in. I wonder how they would do in Hoover?


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## Legend killer

People had very confused faces when I would troll by them in the spring.


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## crittergitter

Legend killer said:


> People had very confused faces when I would troll by them in the spring.


Hey, I know you are a good musky angler. So, you put in some hours and it hasn't paid off? That's disheartening. I thought they would do really well in there.


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## trt740

cincinnati said:


> A co-worker regularly fishes East Fork for crappie & bass. Last week, while in the bait shop, he was told that 3' muskies are showing up everywhere & that there was a 51" caught the week before. Can anyone confirm this?





cincinnati said:


> A co-worker regularly fishes East Fork for crappie & bass. Last week, while in the bait shop, he was told that 3' muskies are showing up everywhere & that there was a 51" caught the week before. Can anyone confirm this?



My son hooked a gigantic Muskie near Twin Bridges road at East Fork lake today while fishing for Bass. He was using a bait caster, 12 pound test and a large crank bait. The fish was easily 3 feet long and over 20 possibly 30 pounds. He got it to his kayak and it dove hard snapping his line. He had his drag set tight to winch bass out of the trees. I had zero Idea there were Muskie present in the lake. He was stunned. The fish was light brown on the back and white bellied. I have seen numerous Muskie caught in Canada so I am very familiar with them. This was a monster and I can tell you they are present in the lake. I saw one up close. My son wishes he had not change out his braided line or it would have been on. He missed a once in a life time fish.


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## burnsj5

If he keeps bass fishing out there I wouldn't be surprised if he tangles with another one. Can give him some hope that he may have an opportunity at another muskie, maybe even bigger than the one he lost.


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## trt740

burnsj5 said:


> If he keeps bass fishing out there I wouldn't be surprised if he tangles with another one. Can give him some hope that he may have an opportunity at another muskie, maybe even bigger than the one he lost.


Went back with my son, again bass fishing but this time I hooked a near 50 inch Muskie( estimate might be bigger) on a crappie crank bait. He looked 30 plus pounds( again might be bigger). Fought him for 25 minutes on 8 pound test line and a spinning rod. I had him exhausted but had no net. Worked our way to the bank, got off the Kayak to land him in the shallow water and stepped in muck sand and began sinking (quick sand like). After not being able to enter the water to land him and 10 more minutes of fighting him he chewed through my line. I have it all on video. Included a bad screen shot from the video below. For reference my Kayak is 12 feet long and he's near half the length of the Kayak. I was told by several people at the dock they are catching fingerling Muskie and catching lots of the larger ones, so they must be multiplying naturally in the lake. I can confirm there are large Muskie in east fork since we hooked two giants in two trips.

View attachment 468975


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## burnsj5

Glad you guys got a little redemption. Any fingerling or smaller sizes are probably from the 100 of thousands of fry stocked over the years. The bigger ones are from the 20,000 plus once stocked before the state abandoned it. Maybe I'll give it a try again myself out there. Thanks for sharing.


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## flyinghappy

It's interesting, the state stops stocking them and now this year I have heard a ton of reports of guys catching them. More this year than any since moving here in 2015. Kinda crazy.


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## rickerd

Cool picture there and good stories.
Just to keep this going, I'd say that is a 42 inch fish. I'd love to do battle with one day. 
Rickerd


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## trt740

accidentally deleted


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## burnsj5

They stock advanced fingerlings and small fry. Those tiny fry would now look like "baby" muskie that guys are catching now I'm guessing.


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## tim sapara

trt740 said:


> I think he might be longer look at my kayak its 12 feet , and when I had him laying next to me in the water he reached near my knees at the seat( however, we will never know). Also people are catching fingerling Muskie and they stopped stocking 4 years ago so how is that possible? I know two people who caught less than a year old fish. I literally tried everything, but trying to grab him would have flip my Kayak. If only the shore were rock or a net was present he was mine. I touched him several times and was going to lift him by the tail and crank bait with pliers but was worried I might kill him or the hooks would straighten. I was going to release him anyway. I just wanted to lift him, weight him, a photo holding him and most importantly remove the hooks. Darn it! net incoming. I hope he survives. (Thanks for the posts) 42 inches is no slouch either lol!!!!


Yeah 40's caught many. Nice fish!!! Musky fishing = Net!!


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## MuskyFan

Any fingerlings caught would be due to natural reproduction. The last year they stocked East Fork was 2016. They abandoned stocking there due to the fish going over the spillway. Good to see they are still there. May give me a break from CC.


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## trekker

trt740 said:


> Went back with my son, again bass fishing but this time I hooked a near 50 inch Muskie( estimate might be bigger) on a crappie crank bait. He looked 30 plus pounds( again might be bigger). Fought him for 25 minutes on 8 pound test line and a spinning rod. I had him exhausted but had no net. Worked our way to the bank, got off the Kayak to land him in the shallow water and stepped in muck sand and began sinking (quick sand like). After not being able to enter the water to land him and 10 more minutes of fighting him he chewed through my line. I have it all on video. Included a bad screen shot from the video below. For reference my Kayak is 12 feet long and he's near half the length of the Kayak. I was told by several people at the dock they are catching fingerling Muskie and catching lots of the larger ones, so they must be multiplying naturally in the lake. I can confirm there are large Muskie in east fork since we hooked two giants in two trips.
> 
> View attachment 468975


Are you suggesting this fish is almost 6' long?


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## Bass knuckles

That’s a nice looking fish, looks like high 30’s to low 40’s to me but hard to tell from pic... nice fish anyways!


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## K gonefishin

Ohio stocks 8-12 inch musky or what they call advanced fingerlings, far higher rate of survival.


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