expected. Indeed, the average size of mature musky has actually declined. Bone Lake is right on the cusp of having too may fish chasing too little forage. As another example, lets take one of the Wisconsin lakes where a 50 inch limit has been imposed for no other reason than to attempt to create a "Trophy Fishery". Lac Courte Oreilles is identified by the DNR as a Class "B" lake. That means that the lake is not capable of sustaining a completely viable Musky population without some stocking intervention. The pyramid chart shown here demonstrates a normal profile for a fishery and, for the purposes of this discussion, we will assume that Lac Courte Oreilles was balanced in this manner prior to the 50 inch size limit. The Musky at the top of the pyramid represent a population of top line predator that is small enough so as not to put undue stress upon the other resources of the fishery. The population of the mid-level predators is larger than the Musky population but not so big as to overtax the forage base that occupies the lowest level of the fishery pyramid. As long as this fishery maintains a relative balance between
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