By Louie Stout

Muskies Add Intrigue to St. Joe

You never know what you might catch in the St. Joseph River, a fishery that hosts just about every freshwater fish available to this part of the country.

But there’s one that periodically shows up in surveys that continues to puzzle biologists.

Pure-bred muskies.

Another example of that popped up this year when Dar Deegan and his survey crew. Deegan is the aquatic biologist for St. Joseph and Elkhart counties assigned with the task of monitoring water quality in the river.

Deegan and his crew frequently capture river fish to monitor the health of various species of fish. When you have healthy fish, you have a healthy river.

Anyway, one day while shocking below the Twin Branch dam, they encountered a monster muskie -a 43-inch beauty that was estimated to be around 19 pounds.

Muskies aren’t stocked in the St. Joseph River, and honestly, nowhere near there. Yet, Deegan has come across some dandies while doing river research over the years.

The best guess among he and district fisheries biologist Jed Pearson is that these muskies are escapees making the long journey from Skinner or Long lakes in Noble County into the St. Joe via the Elkhart River watershed. The Indiana DNR stocks Skinner and a few other lakes in Kosciusko and Noble counties.

While no one knows exactly how far that is, suffice it to say the fish are swimming more than 50 miles through meandering ditches, marsh areas and rivers to get here.

“We’ve never encountered any small muskies and most are 35 inches or larger,” Deegan said. “That leads us to believe they aren’t spawning here, but escaping from other waters farther up in the watershed.”

Pearson said he’s found young muskies in outflows and ditches below Skinner Lake and believes that’s likely where they are coming from.

“All fish have a tendency to move up and down the lake or river in which they spawn or are planted,” said Pearson. “And when they’re smaller, they get caught in the flow of the water and carried downstream.”

Another reason Deegan believes they are coming from the Elkhart River is he’s heard of other muskies being hooked below the St. Joe’s Elkhart Dam (Johnson Street Bridge in Elkhart), located just upstream from where the Elkhart empties into the St. Joe.

“I’ve heard anglers are going down there with big baits and targeting muskies, but I honestly believe the population of them in the river is rather small,” Deegan added. “The river has an abundance of forage, like big suckers, shiners and shad, so the ones that get here have plenty to eat.”

We’ve also heard of anglers catching big muskies downriver. In 2013, a bow shooter was arrested for plunking a 42-incher from the High Dive Park in Elkhart.