Just the other day, I ran into a guy at Gander Mountain looking over the muskie lures. I said "It sure is nice that Indiana is close that we can take advantage of their year round season, since our season doesn't open until the end of April." His response, as I expected, "You can still fish for them right now, you just can't keep them." To make a long story short, I took the time to politely explain that it was indeed ILLEGAL to fish for any species "out of season" and that he would be ticketed if caught muskie fishing.
So as a reminder here are the main season openers:
April 28:
Lower Peninsula
May 15:
Upper Peninsula
June 2:
Lake St Clair, Detroit River, St Clair River
Open all year.
Great Lakes and connecting waters (excluding the St Clair system).
Had a nearly identical conversation two weeks before the season last year at Frank's sport shop in Linwood. I took it as an opportunity to hand out info on the club – it's a good idea for us all to keep some business card-type info in our wallets. Include the website and maybe a personal email for follow up questions if you feel so inclined. Catch and release pre-season fishing is one area that probably only half of the state's fisherman truly understand is illegal.
144
31