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Our club is located in the Iowa Great Lakes region, and we
promote catch and release fishing. We support our local
hatchery, working closely with them to make the quality of
fishing and the quality of our lakes better for
everyone.
Our meetings are held the 3rd Thursday of every month at
7:00 p.m., usually at the Perkins in Milford, Iowa.
All are welcome to attend.
During the first 20 years our chapter has used various
fundraisers in order
to purchase Lunges for stocking. Some methods used were
funds raised from annual tournaments, funds raised from
raffles, and voluntary donations to "adopt" a Muskie. It
was not uncommon for our Board of Directors to purchase
$2500.00 - $4500.00 worth of 9 ½ inch fingerlings per
year. In the early years the fish were stocked in
September/October time frame. However, it was discovered
that 500-750 Spring stocked yearlings would have a very
high survival rate. These needed to be stocked after
coontail and the water grasses became tall enough to allow
for concealment.
Several years ago, a young biologist named Joe Larschied,
was hired at the
Spirit Lake Hatchery. Joe found "Muskie" research to be
very challenging
and began to work with local Muskie fishermen to improve
survival of this
very intimidating fish. The DNR has been very successful
in netting Spring
spawners, stripping, fertilizing, and hatching them for
rearing ponds. What
has made our Iowa Great Lakes Muskie fishery successful,
is the cooperation our chapter has with the biologist and
Donna Muhm, Hatchery Supervisor. Most all fish have been
fin-clipped, branded, or implanted prior to stocking.
The DNR and our chapter are currently working together on
a new "pit-tag" program for fish identification. (More
about this program coming in the future on this web site.)
The Upper Great Plains Chapter has produced national
Muskies, Inc. winners in every category since its
inception in 1978.
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