Ontario-Great Lakes Area Fact Sheets

Muskellunge

General Description

The muskellunge is Canada’s largest freshwater fish next to sturgeons. It is a member of the pike family of fishes and has the following characteristics:

• a long, moderately laterally compressed body;
• a long head and snout and a large mouth;
• the dorsal and anal fins are located at the end of the body near the tail;
• the body colour scheme is generally dark markings on a light background: the back, head and upper sides are iridescent green-gold to light brown;
• the sides range from green, green-gold to brownish, to grey or silvery. Often in the silvery specimens there are no dark markings, whereas in the others the brown to black markings on the sides may be present as spots, vertical bars, blotches or combinations of these;
• the head is marked with spots or by several dark bars radiating from the eyes; the underside and under the head is cream to milk-white with small brown to grey spots or blotches; and
• the fins are greenish or buff to red-brown with dark blotches, which are more prominent on the unpaired fins.

Distribution

The muskellunge is found in the fresh waters of eastern North America. In Canada, the muskellunge occurs in rivers and lakes from the Saint John River system in New Brunswick, through southern Quebec, the St. Lawrence and its north and south tributaries, throughout the lower Great Lakes and in Manitoba.

Habitat and Life History

The preferred habitat of the muskellunge is warm, heavily vegetated lakes, stumpy, weedy bays, and slow, heavily vegetated rivers. Other than at spawning time, muskellunge are solitary, sedentary animals lurking in the vegetation or near stumps. It is rarely found far from the protection of growths of emergent and sub-emergent plants such as waterlilies, pickerel weed, arrow leaf, coontail, cattail, and pondweed, or areas of downed timber and stumps. The muskellunge spawns in the spring immediately after the ice melts. Spawning takes place in water 38 - 50 cm (15 - 20 inches) deep in heavily vegetated, flooded areas. During spawning, eggs are scattered at random and attach to the vegetation. The eggs hatch in approximately 8 - 14 days and the young remain dormant in the vegetation for about 10 days, at which time they become active and begin feeding. The growth rate is rapid in the first few years and varies depending on the availability of food. Typically, adult muskellunge move little, other than to dart swiftly after prey, and very large individuals are often found in less vegetated water to a depth of 15 metres (50 feet).

Food Habits

Young muskellunge feed on larger zooplankton until they reach about 38 mm (1.5 inches) in length, when fish becomes their main diet. Fishes, such as perches, suckers, larger minnow species, mooneyes, catfishes and sunfishes, form the largest part of their diet.

Economic Importance

The muskellunge is both a commercial fish and a popular sport fish. For anglers today, there are protective regulations regarding the size and number of the catch.

Fishing Facts

The muskellunge and the northern pike often hybridize in nature producing a shorter, more robust fish with pronounced markings, which is referred to as the “tiger muskellunge”

Further Information

For further information, please contact your local DFO office: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans-habitat/habitat/aboutus-apropos/regions/arctic-arctique_e.asp?#1