## 2 Materials and Methods
Prior to surgery, surgical tools and the transmitter were disinfected in a chlorhexidine solution (2% Chlorhexidine Gluconate), and fish were placed ventral side up on a homemade surgery cradle (sponge mounted on plastic tote [33]. A scalpel was used to make an initial incision (approximately 25 mm in length) anterior to the pelvic girdle. Then, an exit hole for the transmitter whip antenna was created by inserting a 16-gauge hypodermic needle into the incision and exiting anterior to the anus. The whip antenna was threaded through the 16-gauge hypodermic needle, and the tag was carefully inserted into the fish [33]. Nylon monofilament sutures (Scientify Global, Danbury, CT, USA) were used to close the incision (2 sutures per incision). The incision was sprayed with iodine prior to the fish being placed into covered indoor concrete raceways (4.8 m \(\times\) 1.3 m \(\times\) 1.0 m). On 19 May 2023, radio-tagged yearling Muskellunge scheduled to be stocked at either Spirit Lake (\(n=15\)) or Lake Cornelia (\(n=10\)) were loaded onto separate hatchery transportation trucks with untagged conspecifics. For Lake Cornelia, 265 yearling Muskellunge were transported approximately 183 km to a boat ramp where they were retted from the hatchery truck and released into the lake at the shore. At Spirit Lake, 439 yearling Muskellunge were transported 8.7 km to a boat ramp where they were then off-loaded from the transportation truck to a boat containing a large holding tank. Fish were then transported by boat where they were distributed haphazardly while slowly navigating a 0.5 km stretch of shoreline approximately 100 m from shore (Figure 1). Radiotelemetry and survival--At Spirit Lake, telemetry began the day after stocking and was continued daily for 5 days. At Lake Cornelia, telemetry was conducted on the second and sixth days poststocking. After the first week poststocking, telemetry was conducted on a weekly basis until all fish had been located or the entire lake had been searched. At Spirit Lake, it was impractical to search the entire lake basin each week for missing fish due to the size of the lake. Thus, weekly tracking was limited to the north shore and northeast basin (near fish stocking location) and occasionally the entire littoral (\(\leq\)5.5 m water depth) periphery of the lake. Muskellunge tracking consisted of using an Advanced Telemetry Systems Model R4000 receiver connected to a three-element folding Yagi antenna that was affixed to a 4.3 m aluminum rod. The rod was placed in a custom-made stand within the boat which elevated the Yagi antenna and allowed the worker to efficiently scan for radio frequencies while traversing the lake. More specifically, the worker set the receiver to user-specific volume and gain (either maximum volume and gain or set at a lower level to avoid interference) to scan for each tag frequency. Each tag frequency was scanned for two seconds before advancing to the next tag frequency. Tracking first consisted of slowly (<16 kph) scanning the perimeter of the lake (antenna pointed to shore, approximately 100 m from shore) until a fish was detected. If a fish was not detected in nearshore habitats during a tracking event, transects (typically 100-150 m apart aided via the use of a LowranceTM Gen 2 HDS-7 unit; Navico corp., Tulsa, OK, USA) were run in open water habitats and along the periphery (approximately 100 m from shore) of the lake with the antenna pointed towards offshore habitats. After detection, the direction of the tagged fish was determined by rotating the antenna until the signal was maximized. As the worker approached the tagged fish, the gain and volume were slowly reduced until the fish signal was faint. Then, a hand-held three-element folding Yagi antenna was used to pinpoint the location of the fish by reducing the receiver gain to the lowest achievable setting, while maintaining strong signal strength. Fish locations were recorded at these locations with a handheld Garmin GPSMAP 78 SC (Garmin Ltd., Olathe, KS, USA).