MINNEAPOLIS — People are fascinated by big fish, and the Department of Natural Resources, like other conservation agencies nationwide, keeps a list of "record'' fish caught in Minnesota — a program that requires anglers to tell the truth about the weight and/or length of their catches, a whopper of an expectation.
Now the DNR wants to clean up its nearly century-old big-fish record-keeping system and proposes to recalibrate the way it honors Minnesota's potential wall hangers.
"Are we required to have a record-fish program?'' said Shannon Fisher, DNR fisheries populations monitoring and regulations manager. "No, we are not. We do it because it's a fun thing, and it might get some people excited about fishing who otherwise wouldn't be.''
