Kalli Hawkins
WTIP Outdoor News Podcast

Lake Trout Gill Net Survey Lake Superior July 2022

WTIP Outdoor News Podcast hosts Kalli Hawkins and Joe Friedrichs were on Lake Superior in mid-July watching staff from the DNR conduct the juvenile lake trout assessment for 2022.

After nearly being wiped out in the 1950s, the Lake Superior lake trout fishery has bounced back in a big way during the past 70 years.

The decline of lake trout in Lake Superior was caused by overfishing and nonnative sea lamprey. After a decades-long effort to restore lake trout, there are now so many naturally reproducing fish in Minnesota waters on the Big Lake that the DNR no longer stocks hatchery fish.

Featured in this week’s episode are staff from the DNR’s Lake Superior Fisheries Office in Duluth. On board the 31-foot boat that left from the Grand Marais Harbor July 15 are:

— Josh Blankenheim, the large lakes biologist for the DNR

–Chris Palvere, DNR fisheries technician

–Wyatt Hiltner, fisheries intern

They joined the Outdoor News Podcast on this episode, most of which was recorded on Lake Superior near Grand Marais.