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Originally Posted by flyboy1
Tossed a line this morning from (6-8am) around 2 bridges area on the pompton river side of Passaic. I caught 2 small pike and what looked to be a 30" tiger musky. The area I was fishing had a very shallow slope into the river and as I was reeling the Tiger in it was shallow enough for it to basically start flopping hard before I got it to shore and it viciously shook the lure out. I could see the fish extremely clearly as it was only 3 feet from and it was in fact a tiger musky. I knew they used to stock Tigers in the passaic/pompton back in the day but stopped at some point.. Evidently they are continually breeding naturally or there is still hold overs swimming about.
Ps. I caught the Pike and Tiger on 7'' 3 part segmented crank (Perch colored).
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Tiger musky are hybrids of northern pike and true strain muskellunge and since they are hybrids are incapable of reproduction. Tigers musky also grow much faster than true strains and are believed to only have a life span of 10 years. A tiger that was thrown in "back in the day would either be well over 40 inches or dead. Even true strains muskies cannot reproduce in New Jersey as we don't have the type of shoreline habitat for the eggs to hatch. True strain muskies will "pair up" and go through the motions, but there is zero evidence that they have successfully reproduced. I've heard of tigers coming out of the Passaic, but they're either being mis-ID'ed or are coming from another waterbody and are not the result of past or current stockings.
