NMDGF Tiger Muskie Management Summary

We conducted our annual fall survey of Quemado Lake on October 16-17, 2012. We caught and examined 29 fish, less than average due to our truncating the survey by a day. The average size of the fish we caught was 34”. The largest fish was 40” and weighed 20 pounds. Overall condition of the fish was good to excellent with a relative weight of 97 (an “average” fish scores 100). We did not sample any small fish due to poor visibility during our electrofishing survey; we did see a couple of the fingerlings stocked September 28. Our current estimate of population size is still stable, with about 7 tiger muskies per acre. Our objective is to maintain a population between 5 and 10 per acre (typical tiger muskie fisheries a managed at 1 to 5 per acre). The trout fishery appears to be healthy and goldfish appear to be under control.

We conducted our fall survey of Bluewater Lake September 18-19, 2012. We captured 138 tiger muskie during this survey. Average length of the fish we caught was 30”. The largest fish we captured was 46.5” and weighed 25 pounds. Seven fish (5%) were over 40” long, a decrease from 2011. Our condition index on the tiger muskie returned to a level comparable to years prior to 2011, 93 (an “average” fish scores 100). This indicates fair to good health, but can be indicative of a prey shortage. We do not have enough recaptures of marked fish to get an accurate population estimate at this time, but our rough estimate indicates a density of about 30 tiger muskies per acre. This density is higher than we believe is healthy for the fishery and our objective is to reach a density of 5-10 per acre. We believe attrition and angling will allow us to reach this goal. The rainbow trout fishery is suffering due to predation and insufficient stocking. We will increase our efforts to meet rainbow trout stocking goals in 2013.

In 2013 we will continue our regular monitoring of these populations. We will not be stocking tiger muskie in 2013, the next scheduled stocking should be 2014 depending on our density and size distribution measurements in 2013. If you have comments or questions regarding tiger muskie management in New Mexico, feel free to contact me ([email protected]).