Teal Lake Marquette county

Topics concerning muskellunge and fisheries research, diseases, stocking and management.
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Mayhem
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Teal Lake Marquette county

Post by Mayhem » Sat Feb 28, 2015 10:25 am

Explanation from the DNR newsletters on why Teal lake was chosen for stocking. Will be interesting to see if small numbers of stocked muskies can control the white sucker problem there. The reasons for stocking lake margrethe were similar.

Teal Lake muskellunge stocking (Negaunee):
The management of Teal Lake's fishery has traditionally focused on balancing the predator/prey
ratio using tools such as sucker removals and walleye stockings. The lake, due to its vicinity to
the population centers of Marquette/Negaunee/Ishpeming, receives heavy fishing pressure when
the angling catch results are good. When fishing is good, anglers quickly crop down the walleye
and perch populations, and white suckers then fill the vacant niche in the fishery. Once the suckers
become numerous the sport fishery collapses, the DNR conducts another sucker removal project
and the walleyes and perch once again become abundant. The boom and bust cycle is repetitive.
It is not sound management to net this lake over and over again to remove suckers, and this
repetitive removal of tons of suckers may actually be reducing the overall productivity of the lake
by removing the nutrients that drive the fishery.
Teal Lake was stocked with 699 Great Lakes strain spotted muskies averaging 8.9 inches in
length on October 13, 2014. Teal Lake is well suited for the establishment of a muskie population
due to a stable abundant white sucker forage base. The muskellunge stocking is a management
experiment and is an effort to more fully utilize the biomass of Teal Lake towards producing sport
fish rather than having the lake’s productivity go towards developing more white suckers. With
Teal Lake's 466 acre size, the 2014 muskellunge stocking of 699 fall fingerlings (1.5/acre) should
not interfere with the existing walleye, perch, and smallmouth bass fishery.
Muskellunge and walleyes coexist in many western UP, northern Wisconsin, and Minnesota
lakes. We are not implying that muskies do not eat walleyes, however they prefer soft rayed fish
(such as suckers), and their diet preferences are diverse enough to allow them to be compatible
in lake systems without eliminating the walleyes. There is a large public interest in seeing more
muskellunge fisheries in Michigan, and with the limited opportunities in Marquette County this is
worth exploring towards the development of a new fishery. The Teal Lake muskellunge management
plan has been discussed with the public at numerous public meetings and has received support
of many anglers.
Michigan DNR Fisheries Division is planning to conduct a fisheries survey of Teal Lake during
June 2015.

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vano397
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Post by vano397 » Sat Feb 28, 2015 11:51 am

I love how the increased desire to have more musky fisheries as a whole is used as justification, or at least in support of putting muskies in a new lake... but when asked about black lake and the antrim chains, the dnr will immediately revert to local interest being ice fishing and spearing, and the "large public interest" is not at all a consideration... Its great to see them use scientifically based management here at least :evil:
“My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things-trout as well as eternal salvation-come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.”

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Chris Musselman
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Post by Chris Musselman » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:15 pm

I love how the increased desire to have more musky fisheries as a whole is used as justification, or at least in support of putting muskies in a new lake... but when asked about black lake and the antrim chains, the dnr will immediately revert to local interest being ice fishing and spearing, and the "large public interest" is not at all a consideration... Its great to see them use scientifically based management here at least Evil or Very Mad
I'm assuming this is a result of different management divisions with different personnel philosophies?

I'm interested to see if that lake really takes off. It would be a fun destination with craig lake down the road.
If I'm not going to catch fish. I might as well not be catching Muskies...

weatherby
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Location: Gratiot county

Post by weatherby » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:20 pm

My dad lives on teal lake so I am excited about the musky being planted there. With that being said the lake only allows electric motors because it supplies the drinking water for the town. Because of that I believe it gets more ice fishing pressure than open water pressure so my worry is people catching them thru the hard water either on tip ups or spearing before they have a chance to eat the suckers and then this will be called a failed experiment . The lake has great diversity to provide cover and food for the musky and would be a fun lake to fish. There is A lot of suckers that pike,walleye and bass cannot deplete so I personally doubt the 699 muskies planted will keep the sucker population that low.so with all this being said my fingers are crossed it works out

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Kingfisher
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Post by Kingfisher » Sun Mar 01, 2015 3:44 pm

With the loss of Kingston Lake up there it is needed. Kingston is dissapearing. Getting smaller every year. Anyone know why?
""WILL FISH FOR FOOD""

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Duke
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Post by Duke » Sun Mar 01, 2015 10:12 pm

Kingston is connected to a relatively small & thin regional groundwater aquifer that is comprised of coarse sand - this makes its level fluctuate more in response to recent precipitation & evaporation than more typical aquifers do. So short answer is it's the weather. It's coming back up now though thanks to cooler & wetter weather. You could almost launch with the truck still touching the ramp last fall. That ramp was definitely installed during an extremely high water period though...

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