Musky season opens tomorrow. State officials are predicting a normal opener, despite the late spring.
Tim Simonson from the DNR Bureau of Fisheries Management says spawning for muskies has generally already happened.
“Yeah one of the reason that we open the season later in May is to allow the fish to spawn. Usually about 50-55 degrees water temperature, they’re peaking.”
The DNR says musky fishing has quadrupled in popularity over the past fifty years. The quality of fishing has also gone up, thanks to catch and release programs and a 40 inch minimum length on most lakes.
“It’s not actually the numbers of fish, the numbers of fish tend to stay the same, we haven’t seen changes over time. But it’s the proportion of larger fish in the population. So the numbers are similar but the fish tend to be bigger on average.”
The DNR estimates that it takes 2 people fishing for 12 hours to catch a musky. It may take twice that long to catch a really big fish.
