Chautauqua Muskallunge 



Chautauqua Muskallunge 

 Esox ohiensis Kirtland 



The muskallunge of Chautauqua Lake and the Ohio basin 

 differs greatly in appearance from that of the Great Lakes. As 

 the 2 forms are not known to intergrade and as their habitats 

 are entirely distinct, they are best regarded as distinct species. 

 The Chautauqua muskallunge is known chiefly from Chautauqua 

 Lake, though specimens have been reported from a few other 

 places in the Ohio Valley, viz: the Mahoning River, the Ohio at 

 Evansville, and Conneaut Lake. In the early part of the last 

 century when Rafinesque wrote about the fishes of the Ohio 

 River, the muskallunge was apparently more frequently seen in 

 that river than now. 



In Chautauqua Lake it is by all odds the most important 

 fish, whether considered from the standpoint of the commercial 

 fisherman or that of the angler. For more than 10 years the State of 

 New York has been propagating this species with notable success, 

 the total number of fry hatched from 189010 1898 being 18,325,000. 

 These fry have been planted chiefly in Chautauqua Lake, but large 

 and frequent plants have been made in other waters of New York. 

 Many have been put in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, and 

 now the angler among the Thousand Islands may expect to find there 

 not only the Great Lakes muskallunge but this species as well. 



As a game-fish the Chautauqua muskallunge occupies a high rank, 

 due, doubtless, more to its immense size than to actual fighting 

 power. It is usually taken by trolling either with the spoon or 

 a good-sized minnow. In September the spoon is used; later the 

 minnow becomes more popular. 



Writing of this species in 1818 Rafinesque said: "It is one 

 of the best fishes in the Ohio; its flesh is very delicate and divides 

 easily, as in salmon, into large plates as white as snow. It is 

 called salmon pike, white pike, white jack, or white pickerel, 

 and Picareau blanc by the Missourians. It reaches a length of 

 5 feet." Dr. Kirtland says that "epicures consider it one of the 

 best fishes of the West," and another affirms that "as a food-fish 

 there is nothing superior to it. It ranks with the salmon and 

 speckled trout, and surpasses the black and striped bass. The 

 meat is almost as white as snow, fine-grained, nicely laminated, 



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