HABITAT

Distribution

The range of the muskie is quite small compared to most other species. Essentially, it is limited to the waters of eastern North America. But today most of the world's best muskie fishing is in the province of Ontario.

In Canada, muskies occur in lakes and rivers from southern Quebec west along the St. Lawrence and throughout most of the Great Lakes drainage areas north to the Manitoulin area in the North Channel area of Lake Huron. They disappear along the Superior shore and do not take up again until the Dryden - Kenora area of northwestern Ontario. From Dryden they occur in many lakes and rivers westward through the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake regions.

In the United States the muskie occurs naturally in those states bordering the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes and in the head-water region of the Mississippi. The states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania all have long histories as muskie producers. Through stocking programs, Americans have extended the muskies' range to include the Dakotas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

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