Master Angler Program

[hanson]

I'm curious if anybody has any experience with Minnesota's Master Angler Program?

A buddy of my peeked my curiosity when he caught a 20lb Brown Trout on Lake Michigan last weekend near his home town. He commented that it qualified for a Master Angler award in Michigan and was filling out the paperwork for the award. That got me to thinking if Minnesota had a similar program.

So I did some research and come to find out that Minnesota does, or did, have a Master Angler awards program. The Master Angler awards are sponsored by the Minnesota Fishing Hall Of Fame in Walker, MN. You can do a search for the hall and find the HSOforum. One of the links on the HSOforum is to the Master Angler awards program but it doesn't appear to be current. In fact, it has the rules for 2002 listed but nothing more current than that. You can also search for previous Master Angler fish but once again, the records seam to stop at 2002.

So, does that mean the program is still in effect but they are really slow to update their HSOforum? Or, is the program now defunt? Does anybody have any recent knowledge of the program?

Additionally, the program is sponsored by the MN DNR and they have a current page on their HSOforum that references you back to the Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame HSOforum.

[Northlander]

As far as I know its still up and running.

[gunflint]

3 years ago we had a kid about 15 years old, catch and release a 48 inch northern with pictures of the fish and of the release. He sent us a letter saying that he recieved a Master Angler Award.

[Mark Christianson]

My son got all the stuff for catching and releasing his 21 inch smallie last summer.

[cheektowaga]

So what are the qualifications then? Catch and release a trophy and send proof to the state? I've heard of the program, but just assumed it was for catching and releasing trophies in multiple species in one year. Like a musky, bass, walleye and northern. Kind of like hitting for the cycle in baseball.

Now I'm curious.

[fiskyknut]

In-fisherman still has their master angler program too.