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From Muskie first

"I have been fortunate to fish for muskies across the United States and Canada for the past eighteen years. I have pursued them in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Kentucky. I have also fished Lake of the Woods in Ontario regularly. During my musky fishing excursions, I have witnessed non-musky anglers catch muskies and kill them on occasion. They would state "These darn muskies are eating all of my walleyes!" This common fear is caused by the large size and nature of fresh water's largest predator. It is true that muskies will grab an occasional walleye or bass, but they truly prefer soft-rayed species like gizzard shad and suckers. Typically muskies will grab a struggling walleye, sauger or bass because it appears to be a dying or wounded fish, and muskies are creatures of opportunity. This appears to be an easy meal for them and it is why they will grab the fish battling on the end of an angler's line. Numerous studies done by Departments of Natural Resources in states like Wisconsin prove that the favorite forage of muskies are non-game fish species.

Most musky population goals in Wisconsin target a population of 0.30 to 0.50 adult fish per acre. Walleye populations are usually at three or more adult fish per acre. A recent graduate thesis project done in Wisconsin examined the food habitats of Wisconsin Muskellunge (Burrie 1997). Thirty-four musky lakes where sampled over a four year period, with 1,092 muskellunge (eight to forty-six inches in length) examined. Only six walleye (0.9% of the diet items) were found in all the samples. It is far more likely walleye, cannibalizing walleye, has a bigger effect on the walleye population than then minimal amount of walleye eaten by musky." I thoroughly agree with this study and I have always said that an adult musky will eat no more bass, walleye, and sauger than adult bass, walleye, and sauger will eat of their own. All of these species mentioned are predators, and all of them will eat what they can catch, regardless if it means they are eating one of their own. The bottom line here is that a number of scientific studies have shown that muskellunge aren't always the "Bad Guy" they are thought to be on a given body of water. What prompted me to write this piece is because of a scenario that occurred this past summer here at Caesar's Creek Lake, located near Dayton. The ODNR has stocked this popular lake with advanced musky fingerlings since 1998, and the fish are now thriving and have been reported to up to forty-two inches in length. I am certain there are a few bigger ones present. I fished this impoundment a number of times this past season and personally caught a good number of muskies between thirty and thirty-seven inches long. There were some local bass fishermen this past summer who declared war on these newcomers and I saw two muskies floating dead with their throats and gills cut. These local bass anglers fish this lake regularly each week and some of these anglers have the same misconceptions that I mentioned above. They are afraid the muskies will ruin the bass and saugeye populations in the lake, and that is simply not true"

Quoted from a Tom Dietz article.