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Location: Forest Lake, Mn. | Muskellunge will be released this fall in the Gull Lake chain of lakes near Brainerd and the Fairmont chain of lakes in southern Minnesota as part of an effort to establish new muskie angling opportunities throughout the state.
“We listened to and considered the more than 1,800 public comments we received during the past two years,” said Don Pereira, fisheries section chief for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “We want to thank everyone who helped guide this process.
“Our lakes are Minnesota’s most important natural resource and that’s one reason public participation is so important. The majority of the responses were positive and supportive of diversifying these fisheries in the Gull Lake and Fairmont chain of lakes and expanding opportunities that will benefit these areas recreationally and economically.”
The public input process and local discussions also prompted the DNR to decide not to stock Big Marine Lake in Washington County and to withdraw the proposal to stock the Franklin, Lizzie or Loon lakes in Otter Tail County.
Stocking muskie is part of an effort to respond to a growing interest in muskie fishing. Estimates suggest that a significant proportion of the state’s anglers either already target muskies or want to try muskie fishing.
“Minnesota is the crown jewel for muskie fishing in the United States," said Al Lindner, one of Minnesota's most well-known anglers who also produces educational fishing programs. "Creating more places to catch muskie where it’s biologically appropriate provides more than fishing opportunity for a growing number of younger anglers. It also offers a great economic benefit to resorts and tourism."
Several years ago, the DNR prepared a long-range plan designed to balance interest in expanded muskie fishing opportunities with those opposing muskie management and continued stocking. The compromise reached in this plan called for eight new waters to be stocked with muskie by 2020. Three of those lakes – Roosevelt, Pokegema and the Sauk River Chain – already have been stocked.
Last year, the DNR proposed several new waters for stocking and began asking the public for comments and meeting with angling groups, local governments, lake associations, property owners associations and others. This input was taken into account along with data from angler surveys and biological assessments.
Additional information, including a summary of more than 1,800 comments about the stocking proposals and DNR responses, is available on the DNR’s muskie management page at www.mndnr.gov/muskie.
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Location: Liberty, IN (OKI Tri-State) | Good report FP.... Thanks and best wishes for a safe and memorable season my friend |
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| Sweet deal for everyone! |
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| I wish they would stock big sandy |
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Location: The desert | You guys know this is a year old, right? |
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| I'm blaming fin-addict for bringing it back from the grave |
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| The DNR has done an awesome job creating opportunities for musky fisherman, but almost all of our waters in MN are managed for trophy fish. Don't get me wrong it's awesome having the potential to catch a 50" fish however, it would be nice to have a higher chance of putting fish in the boat. I think if the DNR could introduce some new lakes and managed those lakes for numbers rather than size it could be a good improvement to the states musky program. As a young angler I've been traveling to Wisconsin to fish higher number lakes, so I can learn these fish and grow my knowledges by seeing and catching more fish. Also with the high number of musky anglers in MN it'd relieve some of the insane pressure the metro gets. I've heard the metro can take 60-80 hours of fishing to boat a fish. I recently read a Wisconsin DNR lake study and on that particular lake the average time to boat a fish was 9.5 hours. Long story short some numbers lakes would be nice. |
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Location: The desert | Saul - 7/24/2017 10:54 PM
The DNR has done an awesome job creating opportunities for musky fisherman, but almost all of our waters in MN are managed for trophy fish. Don't get me wrong it's awesome having the potential to catch a 50" fish however, it would be nice to have a higher chance of putting fish in the boat. I think if the DNR could introduce some new lakes and managed those lakes for numbers rather than size it could be a good improvement to the states musky program. As a young angler I've been traveling to Wisconsin to fish higher number lakes, so I can learn these fish and grow my knowledges by seeing and catching more fish. Also with the high number of musky anglers in MN it'd relieve some of the insane pressure the metro gets. I've heard the metro can take 60-80 hours of fishing to boat a fish. I recently read a Wisconsin DNR lake study and on that particular lake the average time to boat a fish was 9.5 hours. Long story short some numbers lakes would be nice.
Sure, that would be nice. But with the issues facing just trying to get lakes stocked, it isn't likely going to happen.
Not trying to be a jerk here, but maybe if you didn't drive to WI to fish and learned the waters near you, you'd eventually have more success. Don't get me wrong fishing WI is fun. But I wouldn't get hung up on some goofy stat that it takes 60-80 hours to boat a fish. Learn those waters and cut that time down. |
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| Pointerpride102 - 7/24/2017 11:05 PM
Saul - 7/24/2017 10:54 PM
The DNR has done an awesome job creating opportunities for musky fisherman, but almost all of our waters in MN are managed for trophy fish. Don't get me wrong it's awesome having the potential to catch a 50" fish however, it would be nice to have a higher chance of putting fish in the boat. I think if the DNR could introduce some new lakes and managed those lakes for numbers rather than size it could be a good improvement to the states musky program. As a young angler I've been traveling to Wisconsin to fish higher number lakes, so I can learn these fish and grow my knowledges by seeing and catching more fish. Also with the high number of musky anglers in MN it'd relieve some of the insane pressure the metro gets. I've heard the metro can take 60-80 hours of fishing to boat a fish. I recently read a Wisconsin DNR lake study and on that particular lake the average time to boat a fish was 9.5 hours. Long story short some numbers lakes would be nice.
Sure, that would be nice. But with the issues facing just trying to get lakes stocked, it isn't likely going to happen.
Not trying to be a jerk here, but maybe if you didn't drive to WI to fish and learned the waters near you, you'd eventually have more success. Don't get me wrong fishing WI is fun. But I wouldn't get hung up on some goofy stat that it takes 60-80 hours to boat a fish. Learn those waters and cut that time down
I'm not able to travel to Wisconsin every other night of the week, so I fish metro waters during the week. I've put plenty of time into these lakes to learn them and have caught a number of fish. I completely agree with learning a lake, but what I'm saying is when you learn a higher numbers one can cut down on the time required to boat a fish even more. My main point is that numbers lakes are great for young kids, new anglers, and people who are not so comcerned with having the opportunity to catch a giant every outing. Edited by Saul 7/25/2017 12:35 AM
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| Saul - 7/25/2017 12:22 AM
Pointerpride102 - 7/24/2017 11:05 PM
Saul - 7/24/2017 10:54 PM
The DNR has done an awesome job creating opportunities for musky fisherman, but almost all of our waters in MN are managed for trophy fish. Don't get me wrong it's awesome having the potential to catch a 50" fish however, it would be nice to have a higher chance of putting fish in the boat. I think if the DNR could introduce some new lakes and managed those lakes for numbers rather than size it could be a good improvement to the states musky program. As a young angler I've been traveling to Wisconsin to fish higher number lakes, so I can learn these fish and grow my knowledges by seeing and catching more fish. Also with the high number of musky anglers in MN it'd relieve some of the insane pressure the metro gets. I've heard the metro can take 60-80 hours of fishing to boat a fish. I recently read a Wisconsin DNR lake study and on that particular lake the average time to boat a fish was 9.5 hours. Long story short some numbers lakes would be nice.
Sure, that would be nice. But with the issues facing just trying to get lakes stocked, it isn't likely going to happen.
Not trying to be a jerk here, but maybe if you didn't drive to WI to fish and learned the waters near you, you'd eventually have more success. Don't get me wrong fishing WI is fun. But I wouldn't get hung up on some goofy stat that it takes 60-80 hours to boat a fish. Learn those waters and cut that time down.
I'm not able to travel to Wisconsin every other night of the week, so I fish metro waters during the week. I've put plenty of time into these lakes to learn them and have caught a number of fish. I completely agree with learning a lake, but what I'm saying is when you learn a higher numbers one can cut down on the time required to boat a fish even more. My main point is that numbers lakes are great for young kids, new anglers, and people who are not so comcerned with having the opportunity to catch a giant every outing. Edited by Saul 7/25/2017 12:39 AM
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| 60-80 hours per fish? Where does that number come from???? Wow
I love the stockung i just wish they would stock something more SE..... heck i wosh there were lakes the could stock SE |
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| Muskies have and always will be one of the more elusive freshwater fish. If you are concerned about numbers than either pick up bass fishing or hit Wisconsin like you are doing.
If you've fished MN long enough, you know that the "new" lakes that get stocked are crazy good until the fish get smart.
A buddy and I would average 3 fish an outing on one such lake 15 years ago and they were mostly over 40 inch fish too. Now, its much tougher. I caught 6 fish myself in 3 hours one time and all were over 40". My buddies also managed 1 fish each.
I don't think catching numbers of muskies in WI or if there were similar lakes in MN are even helping you figure out the fish either. Does catching 15 hammerhandle northerns help you figure out how to pattern them? No.
Yes musky fishing can be frustrating. Yes, it often takes a long time to catch one. Yes, many of our lakes have extensive pressure and areas can get crowded. Its just the way it is, its so hard to get new lakes that will not change any time soon.
I think you can learn more about muskies by focusing more on the windows of key activity that by catching numbers of fish on a body of water with high density.
I remember buddies bragging about catching 5 muskies in a day in Wisconsin. yeah, biggest was 32". That isn't why I chase muskies. |
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| T3clay - 7/25/2017 2:33 AM
60-80 hours per fish? Where does that number come from???? Wow
I love the stockung i just wish they would stock something more SE..... heck i wosh there were lakes the could stock SE
Saw the stat on the forum lol |
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| Captain - 7/25/2017 9:56 AM
Muskies have and always will be one of the more elusive freshwater fish. If you are concerned about numbers than either pick up bass fishing or hit Wisconsin like you are doing.
If you've fished MN long enough, you know that the "new" lakes that get stocked are crazy good until the fish get smart.
A buddy and I would average 3 fish an outing on one such lake 15 years ago and they were mostly over 40 inch fish too. Now, its much tougher. I caught 6 fish myself in 3 hours one time and all were over 40". My buddies also managed 1 fish each.
I don't think catching numbers of muskies in WI or if there were similar lakes in MN are even helping you figure out the fish either. Does catching 15 hammerhandle northerns help you figure out how to pattern them? No.
Yes musky fishing can be frustrating. Yes, it often takes a long time to catch one. Yes, many of our lakes have extensive pressure and areas can get crowded. Its just the way it is, its so hard to get new lakes that will not change any time soon.
I think you can learn more about muskies by focusing more on the windows of key activity that by catching numbers of fish on a body of water with high density.
I remember buddies bragging about catching 5 muskies in a day in Wisconsin. yeah, biggest was 32". That isn't why I chase muskies.
You completely contradicted yourself; "I don't think catching numbers of muskies in WI or if there were similar lakes in MN are even helping you figure out the fish either"
"I think you can learn more about muskies by focusing more on the windows of key activity that by catching numbers of fish on a body of water with high density."
By catching more fish one can learn a lot about feeding windows, structure they are on, time of day, sunny, or cloudy.. the list of variables goes on and on. Every fish teaches you something. And like I said earlier, I think the DNR has done a great job but i also think a few more higher density lakes would be a good addition. BTW fifteen years ago there wasn't near the amount of pressure.. I would say its a good comparison to fishing a stocked Wisconsin lake present day. |
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| There was an action lake or MN dnr pond they gave up on in central MN,,we got 32 in one day,,biggest 37,,,we were making behind the back casts over our shoulder s just for fun,,it got old never went back.
Minnesota DNR has always maintained it is managed has a "trophy Fisherie",,, we would like to see more fish stocked in Mile Lacs but still huge world class ones being caught so they are accomplishing their goal in their view.
Tiger lakes were intended to be the action lakes but their not stocked at the rate hoped for, This is probably your best option to try and push on and open the tiger lakes same time has pike opener.
Edited by happy hooker 7/26/2017 6:15 AM
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| Saul - 7/25/2017 9:58 PM
You completely contradicted yourself; "I don't think catching numbers of muskies in WI or if there were similar lakes in MN are even helping you figure out the fish either"
"I think you can learn more about muskies by focusing more on the windows of key activity that by catching numbers of fish on a body of water with high density."
By catching more fish one can learn a lot about feeding windows, structure they are on, time of day, sunny, or cloudy.. the list of variables goes on and on. Every fish teaches you something. And like I said earlier, I think the DNR has done a great job but i also think a few more higher density lakes would be a good addition. BTW fifteen years ago there wasn't near the amount of pressure.. I would say its a good comparison to fishing a stocked Wisconsin lake present day. That is not a contradiction it is fact. You can figure out the windows without even being on the water. Moon phase, rise, set, overhead, underfoot, sunrise/set. Etc. There are tables of data you can look at and its proven that muskies and other wild game tend to be more active around those times. Weather-related trends too, storms, etc. The Harvest moon phase and impending Tullibee/cisco spawn. Get magazines and read, the information has already been gathered. You don't have to be on the water fishing 30" muskies to figure that out. You don't learn by catching tons of fish on a high density water, well, I guess you could learn better handling techniques, but a small fish on a high density lake is nothing like the ghosts that spend all summer over open water and never see a lure.
I completely disagree with you about pressure 15 years ago. Back then it would be bumper boats on Mille Lacs on the sand early in the year, the last several years it has been a handful. Same goes for many of the smaller lakes I fish. Public accesses that used to be packed by 7AM on Saturday morning still have spots left now. There may be more pressure in the Metro area, not sure, I don't fish there, but where I do fish there is a fraction of the pressure there was 5, 10 or 15 years ago. |
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| I think seeing more fish definitely helps a beginning angler learn to read them better. |
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