How often do Midwesterners north of Iowa get bit while lake swimming?

14 comments

1. Never got bit by a fish the whole time growing up, and I would be out swimming in lakes with Northerns all summer long.

2. I’ve never heard of anyone getting bit by a fish while swimming in those lakes.

3. Sunnies sometimes give a little nibble when you’re dangling your feet off the dock, but it’s not painful. I have spent an absurd amount of time swimming in MN and WI lakes and I haven’t had any problems — not just no problems, I haven’t had any fish biting experiences at all except the previously mentioned sunny nibbles.

4. I wasn’t even aware we had fish with teeth. In any case, I’ve never heard of that happening.

5. I feel like if you can safely swim with alligator gar then you can do the same with muskie.

6. I spent an enormous amount of time swimming in upper Midwest lakes and I have never once been bitten by any fish or heard of it ever happening. Pike and Muskie want nothing to do with anything large splashing in the water.

7. I’d be much more worried about leeches than getting bitten by a fish.

8. Been in Minnesota for 41 years and never met anyone that’s been bit by a Northern or Musky. Know someone that was bit by a goose though. Geese are assholes.

9. Sunnies will nibble on your toes if you dangle them off the dock. They’ll also bite your nipples sometimes. It doesn’t hurt but it’s a bit startling and funny.

   Leeches are highly attracted to me for some reason.

10. Only thing I’ve ever been bitten by while swimming is a mosquito. Fish are scared of you.

11. Spent a lot of years in North Dakota and never got but by fish in a lake, and I’ve done a lot of lake swimming

12. Only deer Flys :'( things hurt like crazy. Make you bleed even

13. Closest I’ve been to “bit” was standing still enough for little fish to come close and start nibbling on skin. Big teeth fish are usually smart enough not to bite something larger than them. Closest I’ve been seen with that was a pike checked us out on my scuba certification dive. One of the other divers poked it with his knife and it swam off.

14. Have you been watching River Monsters?

    I grew up in Michigan, I live in northern Michigan surrounded by lakes and ponds full of muskies and pike. Never. Never *heard* of someone being bitten.