West Virginia’s anglers tackle freshwater leviathan.
This story was originally published in the August 2015 issue of Wonderful West Virginia magazine. To subscribe, visit wonderfulwv.com.
When the fish struck, the rod didn’t just throb and jerk as it would with bass, trout, and most other gamefish. Instead, the rod bowed deeply as the fish lunged toward the depths of the Gauley River. “Muskie,” yelled former guide Brian Hager of Mountain State Anglers in Lansing. “Hang on,” he ordered. “That thing’s probably over 40 inches. It’s going to take a long time to wear it down.” Arms aching, face fixed in dogged determination, the fisherman did as he was told. And then, suddenly, the line went slack. The muskie was gone, along with the lure. “Muskie,” muttered Hagar shaking his head. “Those teeth sawed clean through the line. Sometimes they break the line, sometimes they cut through it; sometimes they just get off. What a fish.”
“What a fish” is right. A muskie madness is spreading across West Virginia as more and more anglers want to tangle with a gamefish that flaunts the size and shape of a barracuda, the teeth of a piranha, and the constitution of a raging bull at odds with the universe.
To Tangle with Muskies
“West Virginia has some very good muskie fishing opportunities,” says Bret Preston, assistant chief for warm water fisheries at the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR). “Many of those are found on both our large and small rivers.” DNR’s fisheries biologists and hatchery staff have also worked hard over the past decade to improve muskie fishing opportunities in a number of lakes across the state, producing larger fingerlings for stocking and thereby increasing the survival and population of the statewide fishery.
For years muskies were relegated to their native watersheds, but as stocking began and more anglers learned how to catch muskies, interest in them grew. Lila Warren, an assistant fisheries biologist and a muskie specialist, says the fish themselves are also reaching greater sizes. “Muskie fishing has a dedicated following that has been on the rise over the past decade and continues to grow,” she says. “It seems likely that we could see a new record.” Multiple muskies have measured longer than 50 inches in just the past year, up from previous record measurements coming in around 40 inches, she says. The state record for length measures 52.7 inches, and the one for weight tips the scales at 49.75 pounds, giving testament to the fact that these fish are modern day leviathans. Both of these beasts came from Stonecoal Lake in Lewis and Upshur counties.
Despite the surge in interest for this gamefish, folks should understand this is not an easy species to catch. “Muskies are not a fish for beginning anglers,” says Tracy Asbury of West Virginia Outdoor Adventures in White Sulphur Springs. “Generally fishermen will require a boat, heavy duty rods and reels, and large and expensive lures as long as a foot. There’s a reason muskies are called ‘a fish of a thousand casts.’ They’re definitely very difficult to catch.”
Adding to this difficulty, Asbury says, muskies seem to be “binge eaters,” often going for long periods without consuming their natural prey of minnows, suckers, frogs, and any other kind of hapless creature that blunders by—from baby ducks to mice. Then for short periods they binge eat, vacuuming anything they encounter.
Tackle choices are dictated by a muskie’s brute size and strength. Many anglers prefer equipment not generally used for other gamefish in the state—heavy-duty 7-foot rods with braided line or 14-pound-test mono with steel leaders. Even once a muskie is hooked, fought with for several minutes, tired out, and finally brought near a boat, an angler could still lose his catch. “Those teeth can do serious damage, so fishermen can’t land a muskie with their hands like they do a bass,” Asbury says. “They’ll need a net that’s likely nearly 3 feet long and 3 ½ feet across. A muskie thrashing around in a boat can cause a lot of destruction as well. So sometimes, I don’t try to net a muskie. I release it by bringing the fish alongside the boat and then using pliers to remove the lure from a muskie’s mouth.”
Where the Beast Lives
While popular Mountain State fish such as smallmouth bass and trout dwell primarily in or near moving waters, muskies are largely denizens of deep, slow-moving pools. “On the New River, for example, I look for muskies at the end of pools, some distance before the current begins to pick up,” Asbury says. “Add in some submerged trees and big boulders, and you have pretty close to ideal muskie habitat.” Unfortunately, he says, a muskie will tend to swim toward that type of cover when hooked, making catching the fish evermore challenging.
Muskies particularly like to lurk around aquatic vegetation flourishing adjacent to shorelines. High quality waters are the West Fork, Elk, Little Kanawha, Kanawha, New, and Coal rivers as well as Sandy Creek in Roane County. DNR’s Warren says that muskies are native to 40 waters in the Ohio River drainage including the Ohio, the Hughes, the Little Kanawha, and the Elk rivers and their tributaries. These waters see significant contributions to the muskie fishery by natural reproduction. DNR has also introduced muskies into the Kanawha River drainage upstream of Kanawha Falls, the Potomac River drainage, and the Monongahela drainage, as well as associated tributaries in those watersheds and some large reservoirs like Stonewall Jackson, Stonecoal, Burnsville, and Bluestone. Stocking still occurs in some of these waters and their tributaries, and natural reproduction is present in several.
Now, if anglers can only figure out a way to corral these creatures once we have them hooked, then some real progress can be made. “Muskie fishing continues to grow in popularity, and the number of anglers pursuing them is on the rise,” Warren says. “The challenge of catching and landing a muskie is what draws anglers back for more. There is a sense of hope with muskie fishing—there’s always the chance that that 50-inch fish will come from the next cast. It’s just around the corner.”