Column: Popularity of winter angling places pressure on productive walleye lakes
The hundreds of thousands of avid anglers who drive onto Minnesota lakes in winter are one reason fishing-license sales here have remained relatively stable, or even increased, while license sales in many other states have declined.
Written By:
Dennis Anderson / Star Tribune | 7:00 pm, Jan. 13, 2021 ×
Last winter Mille Lacs registered more than 3 million angler hours of pressure, a record, according to Department of Natural Resources estimates. Brian Anderson / Star Tribune / TNS
MINNEAPOLIS (Tribune News Service) At 11 p.m. on a recent Saturday, Lindy Frasl put the finishing touches on the third ice-fishing wheelhouse he has built. At 20 feet, this one was bigger than the other two, but similarly outfitted, with four bunks, a TV, bathroom and small kitchen.
Benjamin Knutson, owner of Minnesota Angling Adventures Guide Service based out of the Twin Cities, was fishing Mille Lacs in frigid temperatures on Nov. 25 with a friend when he had a ânearly inconceivableâ double muskie catch.
Knutson, 28, was casting Bull Dawg rubber muskie lures from his 20-foot boat at a time of year when muskies are gorging on schooling tullibee.
Then Knutsonâs rod bent double, and he knew right away it was âthe oneâ he was hunting for.
The muskie he pulled from the lake measured 56.5 inches and weighed an estimated 51 pounds. But that isnât the end of the story.
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