D Dawis

I've seen plenty of otters in the rivers of Minnesota and they don't make much of a dent in the fish population. I'd be more concerned about what your local human populace is putting in the water; water laden with fertilizer, sewage and other forms of pollution wreak havoc with oxygen levels and I'm pretty sure have a much greater deleterious effect on fish populations than small bands of aquatic mammals. Besides, otters aren't strict piscivores, they eat many other prey items; insects, frogs, small rodents, birds, crayfish, clams and mussels to name a few. If you want to keep your rivers healthy, encourage more people to enjoy them as a natural resource with fishing, hiking/river rambling, canoeing and kayaking and there will be a bigger and louder voice to protect them.

I frequently fish from a canoe here in Minnesota. Most fisherman have regular boats, but canoes are fairly common as most of our waters are relatively calm (the notable exception being Lake Superior). Great for holding lots of gear; there are lots of either free or minimal cost campsites and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is almost completely non-motorized so a great place for rest & relaxation (other than the need to paddle for miles sometimes).

Interesting discussion! Here in Minnesota, state fishing laws prohibit the use of treble hooks except on artificial lures (like Rappalas, spoons, etc.) so we have to use single hooks when using live bait (or dead bait for that matter). Circle hooks, snells and J-hooks are most commonly used. While considered a respectable game fish, northern pike are also fairly common in Minnesota waters, and therefore it is not generally frowned on to harvest smaller pike (nicknamed "hammerhandles" or "snakes") for table. During winter ice-fishing can be done with two lines, and alternatively, winter spearfishing for pike (and "under-utilized species") is permissible; a very large hole is cut into the ice and a "decoy" is jigged with one hand to draw in a pike and the spearfisher essentially harpoons it with the other hand. Of course with spearfishing, the point is to catch dinner, not to catch and release. Muskellunge, the other Esox species in Minnesota, are larger and much more rare so the winter spearing of muskies is not permitted. Personally, when practicing catch and release on pikes and muskies, and when using artificial lures with trebles, I bend down the barbs, and if the lure has 3 sets of trebles, I pull out the middle set, but I find the johnson silver minnow (a weedless spoon with only one hook) to be easy to use or a single-hooked spinnerbait (an artificial). For hook removal I use a needle-nose pliers or a forceps and I also bring along a set of heavy gauge wire cutters that can snip through hooks if necessary. I can always buy another hook or lure. When using live bait, I tend to use circle hooks, though I generally don't use live bait for pike and muskies. I have yet to go ice-fishing this year - I hope to get to it before it becomes unsafe and I'd like to get a whitefish and/or a burbot added to my life-list. Luckily, a nice "Alberta Clipper" just flew in down from Canada so we're looking at about -12 C this weekend. Dave

Hi, Muskiebeast - From Canada or the US? I assume you like musky-fishing at least! Dave

My first species was probably bluegill or crappie (small north american fish considered "panfish") and I caught it when I was 8 or 9. Hey, Newt, I did a report in my Biology of Fishes class on the Freshwater Drum! The males have a tendon that rubs on the swimming bladder to make a drumming sound. They have larger than normal otoliths (ear-stones) that were(are) kept for luck. They also have the greatest latitudinal range of a freshwater fish in North America. From Hudson Bay, Canada to the Usumacinta River in Guatemala. Fun to catch and not too picky! 11 lbs is a big one! My biggest so far might be 3-4 lbs, though they can get pretty big up here too (MN state record is 28 lbs, I think). Dave D.

Yes, the walleye is now officially called Sander vitreus The tapetum lucidum, while it may be derived from epidermal cells, coats the inside of the eye, under the cones and rods. The tapetum lucidum has a guanine component in its cells that reflect light back to the cones and rods, much like a curved mirror. This allows them to see in low light and night time conditions. I could use a tapetum lucidum for night time fishing! Dave D

Pretty darn similar to the ones here: Thanks!

Thanks! Dave D

LOL - Yah - yew betcha, I know whatcha meen, dere Newt, but wee MinnesooOHtan's don't talk too fast either, doncha know. But, yep, after deelin' with my eest cooast relayshuns, eh, a week er two, I ken be shuure my verbal meetabohlishm will be running somethin' ungodly fast.

Anyone know the scientific name of the perch many of you guys know and love? Just trying to get an idea of your fish - We have perch in my area, but I know they are different. Perch in my area are formally called yellow perch and in scientific lingo Perca flavescens and is closely related to the walleye/sauger/zander. Our perch are usually small, a 3/4 lb - 1 lb perch being referred to as a "jumbo" perch. Dave D

Your pike is the size of my biggest muskie! I've never caught a pike bigger than 12 lbs. I know what you mean. Anticipation often gets me checking and rechecking my tackle, deciding and redeciding which lures, rods, reels to bring along, and if I'm going on a camping/fishing expedition, I check all the hiking/canoeing gear over and over. On big trips, I can't sleep a wink, waiting for the next full day of travel. Ah, but once in a long while reality exceeds anticipation, and that is true angling bliss. Good luck! Dave D

Thanks Newt! I'd love to travel to and fish NC!! I have my east coast relations in Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Perhaps some day I can make down to NC. Let me know when you're in the neighborhood and maybe we can get together to fish the Mississippi or St. Croix. One of my favorite city spots is just below the Ford Dam(Lock & Dam #1) on the Mississippi. Walleyes, saugers, flatheads, channels, white bass, sheepshead, smallmouth, carp can be found in generous amounts on good days. I usually hitch a ride with one of my fishing buddies as I don't have a real boat (though I have a flat-backed canoe), and there's always room for one more! I live in SE Minneapolis, a stone's throw from where the Franklin Avenue bridge crosses the Mississippi.

I haven't been able to get out of this state lately - these danged 10,000 lakes and their fishies keep getting in the way! My brother keeps on bringing up a Baja California or a Puerto Vallarta vacation... Need to win a lotto or something . Dave D

Great. Now I'm going to have to save up some $$ to go to Australia besides wanting to revisit the UK. Guess food and shelter are overrated anyway.... Nice fish!!! How heavy was that one? Dave D

While I undestand your anger and frustration having some uninformed, misguided guys pestering you about buying a fish, as an Asian American I find this pretty insulting and demeaning, making a gloating, glib reference to asians tossed into the water like catch and release. While I'm sure I would've felt like tossing them in myself if I were in your shoes, I certainly would've tried to restrain myself (and likely succeeded), and I certainly wouldn't have bragged about it, especially in a manner that makes it clear it was asians I was tossing in. I wonder if they were large maori footballers if you would've attempted the same thing. While I will stop short at calling your actions racist (you might have done the same if they were white), they certainly were the actions of a bully, regardless of the ethnicity of the men you tossed in. Your actions in alerting the bailiff were appropriate and should've been enough. Dave D

And sadly it happens more than a year after this article, with no real action having been taken thus far. Same kind of shamefully slow response on this side of the pond concerning Katrina. Dave D

LOL - I'm sure lines aren't the only thing they're wetting! I'll fix yours on the next tally and I'll have to keep an eye out for one of those toys on e-bay! Dave D

Gentlemen - The score thus far: Pike - 6 Perch - 4 Tench - 3 Roach - 1 Mullet - 1 Chub - 1 Bream - 1 Eel - 1 Freshwater shark(?) - 1 (Marginmaster, are you yanking my yankee leg? Or perhaps referring to outside UK freshwater species?) Multispecies/Dependsonseason/Dependsonlocation/yadayada - 7 (Truly, I understand the hesitance to name a favourite - I'm apt myself to give the old reply, "the one at the end of my line" ) For the participating Americans: Largemouth Bass - 1 Muskellunge - 1 Dave D

Interesting note about the zander/walleye similarity: Minnesota's official state fish is the walleye, so that is what most anglers/diners are gaga over most. As a very palatable and abundant species most fisherman will keep their limit to eat if they are small to medium (generally 1 to 4 lbs.). Large ones are typically returned after a picture. Walleye is on the menu on almost every restaurant that serves fish. Funny thing is that a local news crew found out it wasn't always walleye - often the restaurant had replaced it with zander! Restaurants now have to disclose to diner whether the fish they are eating is zander or walleye, not that there is any difference in the taste. For some reason unbeknownst to me, zander is actually cheaper to buy here than walleye, even though (I believe) it's imported! I think it's partly because the folks marketing walleye know if walleye fisherman are willing to drop loads of cash to land just a few of them, they'd be willing to fork over a few more bucks to have them at a restaurant as well. Dave D

I like largemouth too, but you guys can grow 'em down there. Ours top out at about 5-6 pounds, mostly catching in the 2-4 pound range. I like their feistiness and the fact the jump clear out the water on their runs. I have yet to chase flatheads and carp they way I would like to. Dave D

Yes, muskies are related to, and are in general, larger than pike. I, too, am a big fan of pike. Muskies aren't to much different other than that they can be completely silver, or have dark vertical spotting/banding (like a tiger) rather than the yellow spots that pike have. They are also hard to find, but they are definitely worth the effort. They are often referred to as "the fish of 10,000 casts". Dave D

You mean you guys don't do that? Why when we catch and release over here, we squeeeeeeze the fish as hard as we can, and then we take a big bowie knife and put a couple of gouges in it, and to make sure it can't rejoin its school, we roll it in gasoline - then we release it. Why it's the American way, gosh darn it! Dave D (Just adding this postscript given the tenor of some of the prior posts and Newt's timely intervention - this particular note is meant to be funny sarcasm, not insulting sarcasm. While all have our opinions on the subject of migrant fishing, hopefully something constructive/effective can come of it. In the mean time if you're feeling a little upset, why not do what we all do? Go fish! My 2 pence.)

I apologize if this has been already asked, but what is your favorite species of freshwater fish to catch and why? I'd like to learn more about the species in the UK. My favorite here is the mighty muskellunge. Large, toothy and hard to catch. Dave D.

Does your EA have an enforcement branch, or do they rely on the local constabulary?

US anglers (at least in MN) have had issues with new migrants before. Most of the time, education has worked. The Hmong (ethnic group from Laos and Cambodia) arrived in my state in the mid 1980s and came from a tradition of hunting/fishing where there were no rules. A few Hmong fishermen were caught when hauling a 7 gal pail of fish that spilled out onto the parkway - Something like 300+ fish they had taken from the local lake - well over the legal limit of 10 to 15 fish per angler for crappie and sunfish. After the uproar had subsided, our DNR (Dept. of Natural Resources) realized that this could be a problem if it continued. They made a stronger effort to educate the newly arrived Hmong, and now, there are a number of new Hmong officers. While I'm sure there may still be a few transgressions, there are a lot less problems now. More and more Hmong embrace catch and release fishing. Being a 2nd generation yank of Filipino extraction, I have witnessed first hand the fact that immigrants initially bring their old world customs/values, but education (along with strict enforcement) can change habits that are not suited to the new country. A lot of 1st generation Filipinos honestly don't understand the concept of sport fishing - it's a total mystery to them why I would throw back a perfectly tasty morsel, especially when I could legally keep it. I have to explain the concept a little bit, and if I take them fishing, they get it. On a different note, it's a little ironic that here, most American anglers would welcome migrants fishing for carp, as carp are not viewed with the same esteem as they are in Britain (though there are a growing number of carp anglers). Even bowfishing for them is legal. There is no limit to the number of common carp one can keep in Minnesota. Dave D