Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

Fishing in the Neighborhood (FIN) Program

Authors: James T. Levitt, Richard J. Walsh, and Mark L. Nemeth

The Minnesota Department or Natural Resources expanded its urban fish management efforts in 2001.  The Fishing In the Neighborhood (FiN) Program was created in response to lagging angling license sales and changing demographics.  The program operates in the Twin Cities metropolitan area – a 7-county region of 2.5 million people.  The FiN Program works collaboratively with local government to create and enhance shore-fishing opportunities, and currently manages over 60 small lakes covering over 400 hectares.  Three of the program’s objectives are typical of most urban fishing programs: increasing fishing opportunity, aquatic education, and evaluation.  Additional objectives are to build local resource stewardship through habitat restoration projects, promote local angling opportunities, and keep pace with changing regional demographics.  We present information on FiN’s promotional efforts, strategies using surveys/focus groups and GIS analysis, and demographic data from FiN lakes.  From 2003 to 2006 there has been a 70% increase in hits to the FiN website, and a 300% increase in number of fishing pond maps given away.  We attribute these increases, at least in part, to effective promotion.  However, it remains to be seen if effective promotion and demographic strategies will result in increased angler recruitment and retention.  License sales data for Twin Cities’ counties from 2000 to 2006 do not show an increasing trend for the 16 to 20 year-old age group.