Muskies have been known to drive men mad. The challenge of understanding their elusive nature and the fish's immense size forms an addictive combination that keeps anglers coming back to their favorite lake, reservoir or river again and again. It's not that we want to, it's just that muskie fishing gets in our blood.

Such an addiction provides the driving force behind the never-ending quest for finding trophy muskies. A big muskie is 40 or more inches of muscle, packed into a mean and contrary predator that only attacks one's offering every blue moon. But what excitement when it does! The magic of those precious moments keep us slinging over-sized plugs day after day. Muskie anglers will tell you, once you catch one, other fish just seem tame.

Muskies are rumored to be one of the most elusive fish in the world, in some cases requiring 10,000 casts to catch a single fish. Such poor catch rates would drive most anglers crazy, but diehard muskie anglers are willing to tough it out. They know that the next moment could reveal the largest fish they'll ever encounter.

Trophies are defined in the eye of each angler and certainly as rare as muskie catches can be, so each should be regarded as a treasure. However, most serious anglers would agree that any fish above 40 inches should be considered a true trophy.

Compared with other fish, muskies live a long time. Muskies can live 20 to 30 years in the far north of Canada, but they don't live quite that long in West Virginia's southern latitude. Muskie bones collected by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) and aged by experts in Canada reveal that it takes Mountain State muskies somewhere between 11 and 16 years to reach 50 inches in our home waters.

Males of this species rarely exceed 40 inches, so it is safe to say any muskie exceeding 40 inches is most likely a female. Indeed, West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky make up the southern tip of North America's muskie range. And make no mistake, southern muskies grow fast!

STOCKED VERSUS NATIVE
West Virginia features miles of waters where muskies reproduce naturally. These streams contain the Ohio River strain of muskellunge, which have existed in our state for perhaps hundreds of years. Many of these streams are excellent muskie fisheries and a few are even turning out lunker specimens. Middle Island Creek, for example, turned out a 50-inch muskie this past year and several other waters contributed 40-inch-plus fish.

However, it's the state's reservoirs that offer the best trophy muskie opportunities. All of our reservoirs and a number of the state's muskie streams are maintained by the DNR's stocking program. These fish are New York-strain fish and are stocked exclusively in waters where native muskies don't exist.