Climate change impacts on North Shore river and stream fishing

Fishing and time are two things that don’t often go hand in hand. Many anglers complain there simply isn’t enough time to go fishing, while others wail when it takes too long for a fish to strike.

That being the case, for fisheries biologists along the Baptism River in northeastern Minnesota, time is now wrapped up in something more important than coming home with a stringer of fish. What’s on their minds with regard to time is climate change.

North Shore rivers and streams from the Knife to the Pigeon are all susceptible to impacts from climate change.   However, certain rivers – at the least in the context of anglers being able to find fish in them - are at a greater risk than others.

In this installment of the WTIP project focusing on climate change and its impact on North Shore Fisheries, we hear from Steve Persons, the Grand Marais area fisheries supervisor for the DNR; his counterpart at the DNR office in Finland, Dean Paron; and the DNR’s Lake Superior Area Fisheries Supervisor, Cory Goldsworthy.