On May 2, Governor Doyle will be the first of a million-plus fisherman to hit Wisconsin’s lakes this season as part of the 44^th annual Governor’s Fishing Opener.

Governor Jim Doyle, like the rest of us, is at the mercy of a cruel fishing reality: sometimes they bite, and sometimes they don’t. Unfortunately, the latter was the case last year at the Governor’s Fishing Opener, which is the fishing equivalent to baseball’s Opening Day first pitch. Like most anglers, Gov. Doyle prefers to remember the fish he’s caught, not the ones that got away.

“It had been 16 years since any governor had caught a fish, but in my very first year I caught one,” the Governor said. “Let’s just end the story there.”

Fishing shutouts frustrate governors, too. But just like the rest of us, tradition and a love for the outdoors bring them back.

2009 will mark the 44^th anniversary of the Governor’s Opener, a ritual started in 1965 by Governor Warren Knowles as the official beginning to the Wisconsin’s fishing season.

Held at various locations in northwestern Wisconsin each year, this year’s site is one of the country’s most storied fishing cities: Hayward.

Home to the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame and known as the “Musky Capital of the World,” Hayward’s waters are the stuff of legends. The all-tackle world record musky – a 69-pound, 11-ounce monster roughly the size of a 4^th grader – was caught in the nearby Chippewa Flowage in 1949. Record catches continue to be made today, including a world fly rod record 51.25-inch musky taken from the Chippewa River in 2008.

And that might just be the beginning.

“Last year there were several line-class fly rod musky records broken because it is a fairly new way to fish for musky,” said Emmett Brown, Executive Director of the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. “Some of these line-class records were relatively small, in the low 40-inch range, so I expect that in 2009 you will see even more world fly rod line-class musky records fall.”

Governor Doyle may be the first to take a crack at making fish history in 2009, but he’ll have literally millions of anxious anglers waiting right behind him. With more than 1.4 million licensed anglers, Wisconsin is consistently among the country’s top states for both in-state and out-of-state fishing licenses sold.

“Fishing is great here Wisconsin because we have such a diversity of fish and abundance of waters to fish,” said Mike Staggs, Director of the Bureau of Fisheries Management for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “There are 165 different fish species living in 15,000 lakes and 50,000 miles of rivers and streams.”

According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data, Wisconsin is the top fishing destination in the Midwest and the #2 non-resident fishing destination in the U.S. Approximately 88 million fish were caught in the 2006-07 license year: an impressive number in and of itself, but even more so considering Wisconsin has just 5.6 million residents.

“All across the state we have good populations of major game species like walleye, bass, pike, trout, and catfish as well as plenty of panfish like bluegills, crappies and yellow perch,” Staggs said. “The great thing about fishing in Wisconsin is that there some species biting somewhere on almost every day of the year.”

Even for those who come away empty handed, fishing in Wisconsin is a winning proposition. After all, the poetry of fishing isn’t in the catch. It comes from the beauty of the outdoors, the tranquility of the water and the life-affirming experiences that come from witnessing uninterrupted nature.