Muskies are recognized to wolf down large meals. They’ll eat snakes and geese and even muskrats, to not point out all of the fish species they’re recognized to focus on. However a 4-foot muskie consuming one other 4-foot muskie? In response to a current Instagram video, it will possibly occur.
The brief video clip reveals two lifeless muskies floating on the floor, with one of many fish lodged within the different fish’s gullet. It was shared Wednesday by greatlakes_finesse, a lure producer that makes a speciality of tender plastics and different finesse baits for smallmouth bass.
“I’ve seen bizarre issues earlier than, and I spend plenty of time on the water, however nothing like this,” says Nice Lakes Finesse model supervisor Dan Miguel, who recorded the video on Might 9 and could be heard speaking within the background.
Miguel tells Outside Life that he and a buddy had been wrapping up their day chasing smallies on Lake Ontario once they got here throughout the muskies. He observed a fowl standing on one thing floating within the water, in order that they pulled over to research. The 2 fish had been already stomach up by that time.
A event bass fisherman, Miguel doesn’t often goal “the fish of 10,000 casts.” He says he’s caught loads of pike in that space, however these had been the primary muskies he’d personally seen on the lake. They weren’t small fish, both.
“I imply, these had been legitimately large muskies,” Miguel says. “The largest muskie I’ve ever caught was 49 inches, and the largest fish — the one which was consuming the opposite — was for certain larger than that. I’d say within the 52-inch vary. And the opposite one was shut.”
He explains that his first intuition was to attempt to pull the 2 fish aside, nevertheless it didn’t take lengthy to appreciate they had been goners.
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“As quickly as I touched the fish, I may inform the massive one had been lifeless for awhile,” Miguel says. “The underside one’s gills had been additionally pinned shut, and its fins didn’t even budge once I touched it. No indicators of life in any respect.”
He can solely speculate as to how the muskies ended up like that, however Miguel doubts that one of many fish realistically thought it may eat and swallow the opposite. He thinks it’s extra seemingly that the 2 fish had been preventing one another. Muskies are extremely territorial, in spite of everything, and so they’ll typically assault an intruder that swims onto their turf — even when the fish is as large or larger than they’re.
Nice Lakes muskies additionally spawn within the spring, sometimes between mid-April and mid-Might, based on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Like most different fish species, muskies will act much more aggressively throughout this era as they search out mates and defend their spawning grounds.
