30 March 2024
Minnesota has just over 100 lakes and rivers considered prime for muskie fishing, and the state Department of Natural Resources wants your input on how to manage them.
This week, the DNR started a yearlong process as fisheries staff rewrite the statewide muskie management plan for the next 15 years.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries biologist Dan Wilfond holds a big female muskie captured during test netting on Island Lake Reservoir north of Duluth, Minn. In March 2024, the DNR started a yearlong process as fisheries staff rewrite the statewide muskie management plan for the next 15 years. As part of reworking the management plan, the DNR is seeking input from anglers. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)
By many accounts, muskie angling in the North Star State is good, including the fact that state records for both kept fish and catch-and-release fish were caught in recent years. (Both from Mille Lacs Lake.)
But the DNR knows that not everyone is satisfied with the current state of muskie angling here, so they’re asking anglers to take an online survey to start the planning effort. The agency also has reached out to meet with angling groups like Muskies Inc. and the Minnesota Muskie Alliance.
“Do people want more fish? Do they want to catch five fish a day? Or would they rather have fewer but bigger muskies? We are asking for that input right now, on a statewide basis,” Leslie George, the Northeast Region fisheries manager leading the effort for the DNR, told the News Tribune. “This is about the next 15 years of muskie management. … Take the survey and tell us what you think.”
The process isn’t about specific lake or river regulations or goals; those are set in individual lake plans. Instead, the management plan is the DNR’s guiding philosophy on how to manage muskies statewide.
Keith Okeson, past president of the Lake Superior Chapter of Muskies Inc., said the DNR is already five years overdue in rewriting the plan. Since the last plan was written, Okeson noted, muskie angling pressure has greatly increased while stocking has declined.
“We had a world-class muskie fishery in Minnesota until about five years or so ago, and since then, it’s gone downhill, mainly because they aren’t stocking enough,” said Okeson of Moose Lake.
Okeson cited Mille Lacs as an example.
“The fishing pressure there went way up, the stocking went down, and all we see now are the big, trophy fish, the 55-inchers,” he said. “We need to see more year classes coming up through the system, not just in Mille Lacs but all the lakes.”
George said the DNR has been gathering more and different types of data in recent years that can help guide the muskie plan.
“We know more now about what lakes are producing well and what lakes maybe are under-producing,” she said.
While the last muskie plan also included northern pike, the new plan will be on muskies only, George said. Pike have been well accounted for in recent, region-specific changes in management efforts, such as length regulations.
“We’ll let those changes settle in for a few years and then take another look at pike down the road,” she said.
Changes in muskie management could include more stocking, and stocking bigger fish that are more likely to survive, George said.
Of the 102 lakes managed for muskies — that’s just 2% of the state’s fishing lakes — about 60 are stocked. The remaining lakes have self-sustaining populations. In the past, the DNR has stocked 10- to 12-inch muskies. But research shows many of them get eaten by bigger fish and that waiting another year, to release 15- to 20-inch muskies instead, might produce better results.
So far, the DNR has no plans to introduce muskies to waters where they don’t currently swim, George said, but that could change with public input.
“The focus is how to make the lakes we have better, provide a better angling experience,” she said.
A 2018 statewide angler survey found about 11% of Minnesota anglers pursue muskies at least one day each year, and that’s more than 100,000 people. Okeson said he believes the number is even higher now, and anglers use the latest sonar technology to find muskies easier.
Allen Brandt, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries specialist, Jason Kahler of the Lake Superior Chapter of Muskies Inc., and Alisha Hallam, assistant DNR area fisheries supervisor, remove fish caught in a test net on the St. Louis River Estuary during a muskie research effort in 2023. In March 2024, the DNR started a yearlong process as fisheries staff rewrite the statewide muskie management plan for the next 15 years. As part of reworking the management plan, the DNR is seeking input from anglers. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)
“We have a lot more muskie fishermen than we did 10 years ago, and they are getting a lot better at catching them,” he said.
A webinar about the muskie plan update process is planned for this fall, and the public will be able to review and provide input on a draft plan by next winter.
Muskies are a large, popular predator fish native to Minnesota. The Minnesota DNR manages muskies by stocking them into waters, setting harvest and season regulations, population monitoring and research as well as providing outreach and education about muskies.
As part of the plan update, the DNR is considering ways to enhance muskie stocking in lakes that already have muskies, how to ensure that hatcheries can produce enough quality-sized muskies to meet stocking needs in these lakes, and options for improving public education surrounding muskie biology, ecology and management.
Don’t blame muskies
Muskies are often blamed for eating other popular but smaller game species. But recent Minnesota DNR science on muskie diets shows that, on a population level, pike and bass consume much more food than muskies in the lakes where they are both present.
The research found that muskies consumed a wide range of prey, but the primary makeup of muskie diets are yellow perch, white sucker, bullheads, invertebrates and northern pike. Cisco can also be important in those lakes where their populations are abundant. Walleye are not an important component of muskie diets.
Some big fish
Minnesota’s largest kept muskie was caught in 2021 and was 56 inches long and weighed 54 pounds. The largest catch-and-release category fish was caught in 2022 and was 58.25 inches long and estimated to weigh 65 pounds. Both came from Mille Lacs Lake.
Take the survey
To learn more about muskies in Minnesota, go to dnr.state.mn.us/fish/muskellunge/index.html.
To take the DNR muskie survey, scroll to the bottom of that page and click on “Tell us what you think.”
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