Recreational fisheries have high economic worth, valued at $190B globally. An important, but underappreciated, secondary value of recreational catch is its role as a source of food. This contribution is poorly understood due to difficulty in estimating recreational harvest at spatial scales beyond an individual system, as traditionally estimated from angler creel surveys. Here, we address this gap using a 28-year creel survey of ~300 Wisconsin inland lakes. We develop a statistical model of recreational harvest for individual lakes and then scale-up to unsurveyed lakes (3769 lakes; 73% of statewide lake surface area) to generate a statewide estimate of recreational lake harvest of ~4200 t and an estimated annual angler consumption rate of ~3 kg, nearly double estimated United States per capita freshwater fish consumption. Recreational fishing harvest makes significant contributions to human diets, is critical for discussions on food security, and the multiple ecosystem services of freshwater systems.