Please take a minute to read the previous post to get more background on this information. If you haven't yet taken a couple minutes out of your busy life to stand up in favor of additional MN muskie stocking, you're running out of time. The time for attending a meeting or sending an letter has already passed, but you can still make you voice heard. Please, please, please, send an e-mail to the DNR to support the creation of additional muskie lakes. DO IT THE MOMENT YOU FINISH READING THIS, DON'T WAIT ANOTHER MINUTE.

Send an e-mail to: muskie.comments@state.mn.us

Don't worry about the style and composition of your e-mail, you aren't being graded. The important thing is to be heard. But, you e-mail will be more effective if you follow a few general guidelines and hit a few key points. I suggest the following:

1. Be sure to include your name, address, and phone number. This contact information will give your e-mail far more credibility. Don't worry about being contacted or any other concerns - make sure it's in your e-mail.
2. According to the DNR's own survey information, muskie fishing is the fastest-growing type of fishing in Minnesota. New muskie waters are needed to support this growth.
3. A new muskie lake hasn't been created in a long, long time. By the time the new lakes have a fishable population, it'll already be too little, too late.
4. This is not exclusively a walleye state and the DNR has to manage the fisheries accordingly, without bowing to the tyranny of the majority.
5. New lakes are crucial to protecting the sustainablility of the current lakes. The fishing on the current lakes is getting more and more pressure, especially in the past 5-10 years. Increased pressure on existing lakes diminishes the fishing experience, and worse, increases the wear and tear on the fish from post-release mortality (I hope you release them all, duh!) and such. The MN DNR has created an incomparable muskie fishery that's the envy of the rest of North America. It would be a shame for the DNR to invest 30-40 years of time and money to create this awesome fishery, only to have it crushed by pressure.
6. Be calm and concise. Don't rant.

That's more than enough. DO NOT resume web surfing and cruising the message boards. Stop what you're doing and take two minutes to send an e-mail NOW!!!

(Well, if you were about to call me to book a guided trip on Mille Lacs, that's OK, you can call me right away, then send the e-mail)