how has the fishing been on harriet? any depths? lure presentations?

Wish I could tell you...was skunked last time out

Zelmsdawg

Fished it Sunday for a few hours. Shallow, deep, deeper,outside weedline, inside weedline..........Nothing.

Considering the sucker fishing pressure...those muskies i'd wager are over educated or dead.

There were definitely way more sucker fishermen than I've ever seen in years past. Probably 40 or so between Calhoun and Harriet. Wonder how many of them even know about quickstrike rigs

I fished off the Calhoun dock on the east side once and from what I saw most of the rigs were single hooks on light set ups. It gives me the creps to think of how long they're letting the fish take them. Plus I saw a guy walking on the path with a 40ish ski slung over his shoulder and one of the guys was telling me about the "big muskie he got last week" (never mind the season was closed that week).

There's a couple regulars that are out there a lot and they're really nice guys, I talked with them a little about QS's and leaving the fish in the water to unhook etc.

I was happy to see Moores bait now carries QS rigs so hopefully the trend is moving that way for the local sucker fisherman. If you're ever in the area swing down to the dock and chat with the guys, respectful education about safe handeling goes a lot farther than angry words.

thinkin about hitting harriet this weekend. who knows mabey ill catch something. cant hurt to give it a try.

i've found quite a few floaters in harriet/calhoun. such a bummer. Last time i was out on Harriet there was a tandem kayak with two guys throwing muskie lures on medium action spinning rods. Ridiculous.

So what is the big deal on the sucker fishing? Ill admit it, i do it. I cant afford to drop the money on all of the musky lures and so forth being a college student. So does that mean i shouldnt fish for them? I fish both lakes regularly and over the entire summer i saw 1 musky that got throat hooked. Did it die? Probably and its sad to see. But how do you know those floaters you see are from sucker fisherman? Couldnt they just have well have been casting and kept the fish out of the water way to long? I do use QS rigs and have given quite a few of others i have had to people using single hooks. But if they want to fish with single hooks so be it. They have just as much right to the fish out there as anyone else. They just may need a little bit of guidance to get them on the right track.

I'd say too much pressure all around. The muskies were first stocked in Harriet in the late 70's. But I don't remember seeing too many hardcore muskie anglers on the lake until about 10 years ago. Now you can count on seeing at least 4-5 muskie boats a day out there in the Fall. Then the sucker guys started fishing it hard 5-6 years ago & they really put their time in. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. Every year I see more people lined up on the rock wall. The fish are definately pressured & educated.

Not a good sampling of data to make a sound conclusion from, sorry. 1 person out of thousands, literally.

It's somewhat painful to read/hear about how selfish some people are. We're dealing with an apex predator here, low density. If you look at the stocking records and made a poor assumption that all the fish stocked survived, that's still such a small number of fish in ANY of these lakes, we're recycling them intensely. Then you look at the sucker guys, many of whom keep or kill their catches because "they have just as much right as anyone else". (and yes i realize that lure fisherman can keep/kill fish as well but it's not as high of a risk, also that not all sucker fisherman keep etc)

It's a terrible mindset to carry that it's "your right" to keep/kill an apex species. Just because it is, doesn't mean it's a smart approach to take. If you enjoyed the hunt of that fish and kept it, that's making a significant impact on the ability of yourself and others to repeat that experience. Considering the time it takes for that fish to grow and get replaced in a system, why chance it?

Take some of the view points across this thread and now apply them to THOUSANDS of people who just want to catch "their" big muskie for whatever reason. It is the responsibility of few who think beyond an instant that can affect the outcome for many.

Pressured and Educated - as they are everywhere else. I think some lakes are just crappy and IMO Harriet is one of them, at least relative to some of the other metro gems.

Oh, I forgot to say I also saw 2 nice floaters on shore about a cast or 2 off the southwest pier last time out. I know not all dead fish are due to sucker fisherman and yes casters can kill them too but irregardless of who or how, there have been a lot of dead fish the last year or 2 on harriet and calhoun. Makes me sad

Zelmsdawg

Nothing is wrong with it, I do it too. When done properly (closely watched quick strike rig with a fast hook set) it is actually one of the safest ways to hook a muskie. Unfortuenetly a lot of guys that do it on Calhoun and Harriet use a single hook, let the fish take it for a long time, don't have a net or proper release tools, and don't closely watch the line.

I agree with you that some people using artificials could use more education on the subject of catch and realease too, but I think it's more common with guys using bobber rigs and that's the kind of what this topic became about.

It sounds like you are not in this catagory Dan and are doing all the right things.

Never had a problem with gut hooking on a QS rig sucker. And I fish WI where most of the time I'm not even paying attention to the sucker rod (freespool + tightened clutch + clicker does the trick). Nothing like dropping your casting rod to rush to pick up the sucker rod only to find out it got hung up on some weeds :P