Muskies are recognized to wolf down massive 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? Based on a latest Instagram video, it might occur.
The quick 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 gentle plastics and different finesse baits for smallmouth bass.
“I’ve seen bizarre issues earlier than, and I spend lots 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 will 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 after they got here throughout the muskies. He observed a hen standing on one thing floating within the water, so that they pulled over to analyze. 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 massive muskies,” Miguel says. “The most important muskie I’ve ever caught was 49 inches, and the most important fish — the one which was consuming the opposite — was for positive 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 try to pull the 2 fish aside, however it didn’t take lengthy to comprehend they had been goners.
Learn Subsequent: Watch an Angler Pull a 22-inch Snake Out of a 16-inch Bass
“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 after 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 combating one another. Muskies are extraordinarily territorial, in spite of everything, and so they’ll typically assault an intruder that swims onto their turf — even when the fish is as massive or larger than they’re.
Nice Lakes muskies additionally spawn within the spring, usually between mid-April and mid-Might, based on the Wisconsin Division of Pure Assets. Like most different fish species, muskies will act much more aggressively throughout this era as they search out mates and defend their spawning grounds.
