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Commentary: The recovery of Minnesota’s Rainy Lake fishery started with trusting science

Tom Dougherty, a fourth-generation resort owner on Rainy Lake, says walleye abundance is stable and well above long-term benchmarks on this important lake along the Minnesota-Ontario border. "Large fish are more common than they’ve been in decades, and natural reproduction is strong enough that stocking is unnecessary," he writes. (Stock photo)

If you’ve fished Rainy Lake long enough, you’ve seen both sides of the story.
I am a fourth-generation resort owner on Rainy Lake, and I remember firsthand the decline of the walleye fishery in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Back then, fishing was tough, confidence was low, and many of us wondered what the future would hold for this incredible border lake.

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