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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | Just curious if anyone has an estimate of the number of people who fish for muskies in the USA and Canada? I keep hearing this is the fastest growing freshwater fishing sport but have yet to hear any numbers. |
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Posts: 32935
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | It is, and the numbers depend on whether you are talking those who once in a while fish muskies, or the 'serious' folks, or both. |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | I guess my take woudl be the person who goes out and buys 5 or more lures specific for fishing muskie a year. For 20 years my tackle box looked like a poor mans muskie box but all those lures were for pike fishing. My tackle boxes now dwarf (as do my lures) my pike fishing gear from years past. |
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Posts: 149
| Can't answer for how other states quantify their numbers, but Wisconsin sends out surveys by mail to a random number of licensed hunters and anglers every so often. They quantify it by using 3 numbers.
- Percent who 'never' fish for a given species.
- Percent who 'sometimes' fish for a given species.
- Percent who 'often or always' fish for a given species.
For Wisconsin and muskies using 2006 data and an assumption of 400,000 licensed anglers:
- 63% (about 252,000) licensed anglers 'never' fish for muskies.
- 26% (about 104,000) licensed anglers 'sometimes' fish for muskies.
- 11% (about 44,000) licensed anglers 'often or always' fish for muskies.
As far as the order of fish species in popularity, they did a mathematical calculation of survey results assigning numbers to those for each species who answered never (1 pt), sometimes (2 pts), often (3 pts) or always (4 pts). Popularity order follows by species along with the mean score on the scale mentioned above:
- Panfish - 2.85
- Any fish (whatever bites) - 2.64
- Walleye - 2.35
- Northernm Pike - 2.10
- LM Bass - 2.03
- SM Bass - 1.95
- Musky - 1.53
- Catfish - 1.47
- Inland Trout - 1.45
- White or Striped Bass - 1.43
- Great Lakes Trout & Salmon - 1.37
- Rough Fish - 1.24
As you can see, musky ranks just barely above catfish, inland trout and white bass in popularity among the states licensed anglers. Musky anglers, and especially those who are serious musky anglers are a very small minority of all licensed anglers and that's one reason why it's extremely difficult to get new legislation passed.
The survey also asked a couple other questions following those about what peoples 'favorite fish to catch' is and 'fish species most often caught'. Answers for muskies to those questions are:
- 4% listed muskies as their 'favorite fish to catch'
- 1% listed muskies as their 'fish species most often caught'
Bottom line is that in reality only about 1 in 10 anglers in Wisconsin 'most frequently persue' muskies, which is about the same number of anglers that 'most frequently persue' inland trout. Walleye are far and away the most popular gamefish in the state with very close to 50% of all anglers 'most frequently persuing' them. |
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Posts: 3158
| so few,, rappala isnt willing to retool to make a muskie size husky jerk,,thats what they told us when we had their reps has speakers at out MI chapter |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | There might be one less (me) if this keeps up. After a long day out yesterday with just a follow and a swipe, I got back to the dock to see a cell phone photo of a mid-40's muskie some guy caught jigging a bass size beetle spin with a rubber worm. Maybe I need to take up bass fishing to catch more muskies? m |
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Posts: 313
Location: On your favorite spot | I know the results of the MN DNR survey on the number of musky fishermen in the state returned a number that was 3-4 times what was expected. Sorry I don't have the hard numbers, heard that second-hand from our MMA rep.
I think the actual number was somewhere over 100k for the state. Maybe someone who knows for sure will read this and clarify.
Need some new waters here! |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | I have those hard numbers.
1990 2% fished muskies
1998 7-8% fished muskies
2007 14% fished muskies
We're going in tomorrow to talk to the DNR about their 20 year program. It will include new waters among other things. Hopefully we can walk out of there with Pokegama in our pocket as well. I'll post and let everyone know. |
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Posts: 32935
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Treats, please do. Twenty year plan? |
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| Good luck Shawn, let us know what happens |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | I have the rough draft if anyone's interested in looking at it. It's still over 20 pages so I can't post it and it still has a few rev's to go. The DNR will be posting it online this winter for public comment. When they do I'll be rallying you guys to get on there and give your feedback. |
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| Marc J - 11/26/2007 7:10 AM
I know the results of the MN DNR survey on the number of musky fishermen in the state returned a number that was 3-4 times what was expected. Sorry I don't have the hard numbers, heard that second-hand from our MMA rep.
I think the actual number was somewhere over 100k for the state. Maybe someone who knows for sure will read this and clarify.
Need some new waters here!
I agree Marc J. The MN lakes are really getting nailed hard. Extreme pressure. Wont be long until it becomes pretty diffucult to catch a few fish. Definetly need some new lakes to try to spread some of the pressure out. |
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Posts: 32935
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Treats,
I can post it as an informational article if you would like. |
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