Retaining certain rights when land is sold is a common practice. A property owner might decide to sell land, but retain some property right, such as an easement or mineral rights. The biggest Indian fishing operations are being encouraged to switch from gill nets, which kill everything they catch, to trap nets, which let anglers throw back sport species that are alive when the nets are emptied. Trap nets are also favored because they can work like artificial reefs for sport anglers. Gill net fishing is completely being phased out in many areas, including south of the 45th parallel on Lake Michigan and south of Rogers City, Mich., in Lake Huron, leaving all sport species in those areas for sport anglers.
Surveys indicate that about half of all fishing in the Great Lakes region is done using a boat.
The Great Lakes states have about 3.7 million registered recreational boats, or about a third of the nation's total. On the U.S. side, Michigan and Minnesota lead in the number of boat registrations, with 986,000 and 793,000, respectively. Ontario reports it has 1.2 million recreational boats. Minnesota ranks first nationally in the sales of fishing licenses per capita. Fishing enthusiasts range from grandparents to pre-teens.