Anglers skyrocket during pandemic BY DAN DETERMAN
The COVID-19 pandemic saw a decrease in a number of things - from travel to home loan costs to available toilet paper - but one aspect of life in the Land of 10,000 Lakes that actually increased in the past year was lake activity, particularly fishing. In 2020, the number of new anglers in Minnesota increased by 43% from the previous year. The number of reactivated anglers - those who had purchased licenses in the past but not in 2019 - increased by 32%. Jenifer Wical, strategic business analyst in the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Fish and Wildlife Division, said the pandemic and the shelter-in-place orders associated with it were very much the reasons for this increase. “People didn’t have the same schedules they had before,” Wical said. “They were working from home so they had more flexibility. Kids didn’t have sports going on so they had more time to actually have staycations - going to their cabin or whatever it was.” Wical said a number of the new anglers were 16-year-olds purchasing licenses for the first time, but a deluge of people with newly flexible schedules took advantage of their time to hit the lakes.
Boats are out in force on Gull Lake during the 2021 Minnesota walleye and northern pike fishing opener. TOP: An angler casts a line on Gull Lake near Bar Harbor in Lake Shore this spring. Photos by Nancy Vogt
34 | 2021 LOVE OF THE LAKES
Custom Slaughtering & Processing Farm Animals • Wild Game Homemade Sausage & Jerkies • Smoking Monday-Saturday 8am - 5pm For After Hours & Emergency Butchering Call Dave & Jan Schmid 218-947-4960 or 218-820-3702
218-947-4220
www.backuslocker.com
