DULUTH, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Lake Superior fisheries team got some good news when they were out trawling on the big lake in October: The number of small cisco — commonly called herring by folks along the North Shore — were way up.
"It was a very welcome sight for us. We haven't had even a decent year class since 2014-15," said Cory Goldsworthy, the DNR's Lake Superior fisheries manager. "And you have to go back to the 80s to have a really great year for them."
The DNR crew landed 115 of the small, young cisco this year where none had been netted in any of the past four assessments. Just two were netted in 2016 and 43 in 2015, which coincides with that last decent year class for cisco.
