Photo by J. Michael Kelly

A couple of years ago, St. Lawrence River guide Bob Walters used an underwater camera to record the heart-pounding sights of giant muskellunge following -- and then savagely taking -- a trolled lure. His video footage, which showed more than a dozen muskies in the 40- to 56-inch range, was the hit of several outdoors shows the next winter.

Dedicated anglers and New York Department of Environmental Conservation biologists can share the credit for this amazing fishery. Guides such as Walters, and fanatical fishermen like the members of the Niagara Musky Association, have worked hard to protect and enhance the state's major muskie fisheries including the St. Lawrence and Niagara rivers and Chautauqua Lake. By preaching a strict catch-and-release ethic, muskie devotees have made sure that their favorite fish live long enough to spawn several times and, in the process, grow to gargantuan proportions.

Why do so many veteran muskie guides encourage -- or even require -- their clients to release fish that most anglers would consider the catch of a lifetime? It's not that muskies are bad to eat. Most old-timers rate them on a par with the northern pike that are a staple of Thousand Islands shore lunches. No, catch-and-release has caught on for the simple reason that a big muskellunge is an old muskellunge.

DEC biologists say that those 40- to 50-pound monsters that lure wide-eyed anglers to the Thousand Islands are typically 20 to 25 years old. Even a 48-incher that meets the minimum creel-length requirement on the upper St. Lawrence is a teenager -- and most such "keepers" are females capable of laying several hundred thousand eggs during their annual spring spawning run.

Knowledgeable guides understand that it's not only sound conservation but also good for business to revive and release such fish.

The DEC responded to angler sentiments by raising minimum creel lengths in some notable fishing holes. Although the standard keeper size for muskies in most New York lakes and rivers is a mere 30 inches, a 54-inch minimum is in force on the upper Niagara. Muskies must be at least 48 inches long on the St. Lawrence and 40 inches in Chautauqua Lake before you can legally put them on a stringer.

In addition to flexing its regulatory powers, the DEC serves muskies and muskie anglers through hatchery propagation, population monitoring and specialized research. A state hatchery on Chautauqua Lake produces enough fingerlings to sustain not only that fishing hole, but several smaller fisheries as well.

Another state fish farm, at South Otselic in Chenango County, cranks out hybrid tiger muskies for stocking in dozens of other lakes and streams.

Periodic netting surveys are used to take the pulse of muskie populations in waters throughout the state. And over the last two decades, the DEC has joined with the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry to identify and protect key muskie spawning and nursery habitat in the Thousand Islands region of the St. Lawrence River.

Last summer, state biologists also worked with fish pathologists at Cornell University to determine the cause of a widespread die-off of large St. Lawrence muskies. Ultimately, they concluded that the fish had succumbed to bacterial infections after being weakened by the rigors of spawning, coupled with an abrupt change in water temperature. Although fishing was poorer than usual after the die-off, scientists are optimistic that the Thousand Islands muskie population will make a strong comeback starting this year.