Tigers In The Lake

Fishing

Tiger muskies are gaining girth and popularity in area lakes.

The sterile crosses of muskellunge and northern pike have been stocked in six North Idaho lakes since 1989 and more recently in Spokane County’s Newman Lake.

Dennis Hicks of Post Falls holds the Idaho record for tiger muskies with a 17-pound, 4-ouncer he caught in Hauser Lake on June 26.

Hicks, incidentally, also caught the current 38-pound, 9-ounce state record for northern pike.

His record tiger muskie was 39 inches long. The previous record, which was caught from Hauser Lake last year, was 38-1/4 inches long, but less beefy, considering it weighed 5 pounds less than Hicks’ record.

Tiger muskies must be at least 30 inches long in order to be kept in Idaho. The minimum length in Washington is 36 inches.

Ned Horner, Idaho Fish and Game Department regional fisheries manager, said fishing can be pretty good at Hauser, by tiger muskie standards.

“I spent three days fishing for them and landed five fish,” he said.

In addition to Hauser, Idaho has stocked tiger muskies in Shepherd, Blue (near Priest River), Freeman and Dawson lakes.

The toothy predators are stocked sparsely to avoid impacting other fisheries, Horner said. The fish were stocked in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993. Lately they have been stocked at a rate of about one fish per acre, which means about 600 tiger muskies for Hauser Lake.

No tiger muskies were available for stocking this year, Horner said.

, DataTimes