Some of those fish are the 55-plus-inchers you read about and see photos as they are being released. A few muskie anglers don't even handle the biggest fish, choosing to keep them in the water to avoid injuring the fish. Many of the big muskies are nearing the end of their lifespan, but the generations of muskies they have produced will keep things going for a while to come.

"I believe that we have a pretty good stocking program here and a lot of people consider Minnesota a destination for muskie fishing," said Jerry Younk, a DNR fisheries research biologist from the Bemidji office. Younk's efforts are primarily focused on Minnesota's muskie population and he recently completed a long-range muskie plan that is available on the DNR Web site. Any muskie fishing geek should find the report and read it for an interesting history of muskie stocking in Minnesota. Just to prove the initial point of this article, the original muskie plan written 25 years ago defined a trophy muskie as being over 40 inches long and exceeding 20 pounds.

The plan includes lists and maps showing which lakes have native populations, which ones have introduced populations and tiger muskie lakes. It calls for a number of initiatives for managing muskies over the next 12 years. One recommendation involves increasing the number of muskie waters by eight for a total of 98 pure-strain waters by 2020. These lakes will be spread out around the state, Younk said.

The simple fact that there are 98 pure-strain muskie waters around the state, plus an additional 21 lakes in the Twin Cities where tiger muskies have been stocked, makes for a long list of lakes to consider fishing.

These lakes are classified and structured by the DNR in a variety of ways, but anglers tend to have their own classification system. There are "tried-and-true" Minnesota muskie lakes, there are "sleeper" muskie lakes and there are "hidden" muskie lakes.

Muskie anglers are a unique bunch. Some are more than willing to share their favorite lakes, while others would rather cut out their tongues than reveal the name of a lake. Some post their favorite lakes and details of successful outings on Web sites such as FishingMinnesota.com, while others don't even tell their spouses or mothers what water body they were fishing.

"Fishermen by nature want to brag and the Internet is the greatest platform to do so -- your crowd is unlimited. It's unique to our sport, however, if a walleye or bass angler gets a hot bite, they milk it to the end and tell others, while muskie anglers seem to recognize that it's a recycled resource," Hartman said.

We consulted a variety of muskie guides, tournament officials and regular old anglers for their top recommendations of lakes in each category. Here's their breakdown:

TRIED AND TRUE
The largest category of lakes, Minnesota's tried-and-true muskie waters, are heavily fished by anglers after all sorts of species. Many of these lakes are popular walleye and bass-fishing destinations meaning there is plenty of pressure for parking spots at boat landings. The good news is there is no shortage of guides available to help you get started.