An Evaluation of Tiger Muskellunge Introduced into Lake Carl Etling, Oklahoma

Abstract

Tiger Muskellunge (Muskellunge Esox masquinongy x Northern Pike Esox lucius) were stocked into Lake Carl Etling in the northwestern tip of Oklahoma’s panhandle in Cimarron County. This lake sustained a population of Northern Pike from 1966 – 1976, with natural reproduction maintaining the population until 1986. However, after 1986, periods of  drought affecting the lake level and water temperature negatively impacted the Northern Pike population. In 2004, Lake Carl Etling’s surface area was reduced to approximately 4 ha by drought, which negatively affected the sportfish populations. Salt Cedar (Tamarix ramosissima) and other herbaceous vegetation colonized the dry lakebed before rainfall in the summer of 2013 filled Lake Carl Etling to normal elevation. Nongame fish populations became over abundant and Tiger Muskellunge were stocked as biological control and to potentially create a unique trophy fishery. However, through extensive sampling efforts only 1 adult and 76 juveniles (of the 2,656 individuals stocked) were caught. Tiger Muskellunge recruitment was affected by high turbidity and high water temperatures. A combination of increasing turbidity levels and water temperatures, post-stocking, likely resulted in increases in Tiger Muskellunge metabolism. Relative weights (Wr) decreased monthly after stocking in 2016 and 2017, with no fish observed in sampling efforts after July of 2016. These conditions likely required Tiger Muskellunge to forage more frequently. As an ambush predator that depends on sight to forage, they had little foraging success in turbid water, which ultimately led to starvation and death.