LAKE PHALEN
Minneapolis is not the only big city with productive tiger muskie waters thanks to Lake Phalen in northern St. Paul. Phalen is completely surrounded by a public greenway and receives pressure similar to the Minneapolis lakes. Phalen has two main basins, with the northern one dropping to 90 feet and the southern one bottoming out at 53 feet.

The lake features excellent cover with both emergent and submergent weed growth. Pure-strain muskie anglers drool at the site of cabbage, and tiger muskie anglers are no different. Lucky for them, Phalen has some great cabbage beds. The lake has a healthy forage base of perch, sunfish and crappies that concentrate along the numerous shoreline points and around several storm drains that flow into the lake.

Stevenson said he likes to use a jigging spoon in 9 to 10 feet of water along the edges of the weeds. Hartman said another good technique is to find the depth of the thermocline and then follow it to where it runs into the bottom. There is a great trolling run in the southern basin along a dike around to the area near the beach.

There is only one public access on the lake on the north end off Frost Avenue. Parking is limited and difficult to find during the summer most any day of the week. There is some limited parking on the street as well. There is an electric motor-only regulation on Phalen.

WEAVER LAKE
The mere mention of Weaver Lake in this article will upset a few tiger muskie enthusiasts. Of the 23 lakes in the metro where tigers can be found, this is one of the most overlooked yet most productive tiger muskie lakes. Located in the northwestern metro in Maple Grove, the lake has one boat launch off Highway 101.

Hartman said Weaver Lake has produced a few fish over 30 pounds in recent years and has the potential to kick out more because of an excellent forage base of crappies and sunfish. Most of these can be found along the edges of the weeds in 10 to 20 feet of water, and the tigers are sure to be close behind. Schools of crappies can suspend all over, and if you are lucky enough to find one, do not pass by without working the area for tigers. Don't overlook the shallows near the beach on the southeastern end as well as the large flat along the northern and western shorelines.

NATURAL TIGERS
The best chance for catching tigers comes from stocked lakes but anglers also catch the naturally occurring ones in lakes where muskies and pike are prevalent. Because pike spawn early in the year and muskies spawn several weeks later, the chances of the two being in the same area with spawning on their mind is very rare. Still, it happens.

Chris Kavanaugh is the DNR's fisheries manager for the Grand Rapids area and has seen tigers on several lakes in the area while doing ice-out muskie assessments. "These fish are natural and not DNR-stocked," Kavanaugh confirmed. As a biologist, Kavanaugh said the presence of a spawning muskie and northern in the same area is called temporal isolation. "All it takes is one late-blooming northern and one precocious muskie to get together, one thing leads to another, and you have a tiger muskie," he said.

Some of these "accidental" tiger lakes include Moose near Grand Rapids, Spider, Deer, Vermilion and maybe even Leech.

Whether you go after the natural ones or the stocked ones, tigers are furious fighters that are more willing to bite than the elusive muskie, and offer a chance at a trophy on every cast. There is not a short supply of them, but finding one can prove to be time consuming. However, it's worth the effort when one is leaping into the air at the end of your line.