MN vs WI

Hey boys and girls,

Got into a pretty healthy debate the other night with one of my fishing pals about the fishing in MN vs WI. This debate included all species...not just MUSKY, but walleyes-bass-pike-pannies....anything that bites in freshwater.

I love fishing WI, and lately (3 or 4 years) have fished it probably 3/4 of the time in a given fishing year. That being said I have only fished a small area of the state: hayward-spooner-rice lake-cable-minong. I have lived in MN my whole life, and have fished a much larger area over here.

Is it a toss-up? MY opinion is the DNR in MN seems to be more active with stocking, regulating, and maintaining fisheries..and with the BWCA-MN gets a slightly higher grade from me. Let me hear some opinions please.

For some reason people look at this like their favorite football or baseball team...fans are fanatics, which are over emotional, don't listen to reason, and will stand by their beliefs regardless...

If you take emotion out of it and look at it from a non-biased point of view, I would say MN has higher stocking rates which would lead to more fish being caught...more 50+ inch muskies are caught in MN than WI each year, but the WI strain is a much thicker, heavier strain of muskie...

Would I love to fish in MN and catch a 50+...hell yea!

Do i love fishing in WI on the chip where a 50"+ would be 35lbs + you know it...

so is one place better than the other...no, just different locations in the US to fish, and as long as you are fishing, does it even matter...

I have never fished MN, so I can only speak from experience. Wisconsin has some beautiful lakes, and I enjoying fishing the Hayward area. From what I have read, MN has the upper hand on stocking, management, and fish caught. Die Hards from WI might argue that. Not being from Wisconsin, I can look at it objectively, without emotion :-) With that said, I would love the chance to fish MN.

I like both, that's why I fish WI/MN boundary waters. :)

I live in MN and drive right by an awful lot of "good" water in order to fish the Chip. I do believe that MN does a good job with stocking programs and general fisheries management but they have made some huge errors over the years like any other DNR. I don't fish in MN very often because it's always so crowded, for any species!

I think it is difficult to assess one vs. the other. One of the things that MN has going for it are the huge bodies of water that WI only has a few of, including the Chip. You think about just Mille Lacs, Vermillion, Leech, Winni, etc. Not sure of my figures, but ML is 130,000 acres, Vermillion, Leech and Winni in the 30-40,000 acres (I think). You could take the Chip and Turtle Flambeau and still be looking for lakes to help fill up the other half of the lake.

WI has 200-300 muskie lakes or more and if I am correct, even with all the stocking only 80 musky lakes.

I finally got a chance to fish over there and picked a hard time for the 'eyes on ML. We fished skies and moved fish, but didn't hook any. The great SMB fishery actually kept us sane from the fish catching perspective. We are going back again this summer during the same time frame. Hopefully some of the large crop of perch have been thinned, so that the fish are a little more cooperative. Good luck and be safe out there!!!

I guess in the end, I love fishing anywhere, I am lucky to live where I do, WI is just closer.

Mark
Minocqua, WI

Leech is actually around 100k acres.

I'm not sure how many musky waters MN has, although I've been trying to piece together a list on my own. WI is close to 800 with enough small ones to avoid the crowds.

I agree 100% with Snizz. I like both states but really love to get back to the Chip after a few days of combat fishing in Minnesota.

As for stocking, Minnesota has far less lakes than Wisconsin so they are able to overstock the few they have. We have natural reproduction on the Chip but some of the other lakes in Hayward suffer from the lack of stocking. Round lake is a perfect example. Our DNR in WI also doesn't have the power to make drastic changes like the MN DNR.

From knowing most of the guides over in Minnesota I see a much more aggressive attitude over time that develops in them. Some are extremely frustrated with what happens over in MN while most lakes in Wisconsin have little pressure so it's a more laid back approach here.