New Lake Nokomis project

Heard about this project this morning on WCCO and I went and found the article. We might have a new metro hotspot in a couple years…

Nokomis, meet the catfish

Dang there goes the bait lake. But atleast we’ll get some decent size cats if it works out right

It is an interesting article to say the least. a couple things i thought was interesting was that tehy mentioned “He hopes anglers will continue to take out the bigger sunfish.” i wonder why they would want this? i guess my opinion would be you would want fisherman to take the small ones out so that you keep the fish pyriamid going and not haev too many small fish.

Do any of you guys net here and are they that many bullheads in this lake?

That is complete bullcrap. I think it is a concerted effort to get rid of a very good 7″ bullhead supply lake.

Seriously, this is just dumb. I guarantee you if they took every last bullhead out of that lake, the water quality would remain the same. If the dopes think it is weeds getting uprooted, then why don’t they plant some hardier plants? They do realize that there are already predators in the lake, right?

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“These lakes can have nice communities of bullheads and blue gills. It’s just a little out of balance right now. So what we are going to try to do is rebalance the fish community,” McComas said. “We will be looking for improved water clarity and an increase in aquatic plants.”

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So introducing another species into the lake will ‘re-balance’ it? I really have to question the logic some people use.

I want the numbers to the commercial fishermen who will be netting bullheads this year. We could at least fill our bait tanks before they waste them. What a waste it is indeed.

A few of my neighbors and myself have fished that lake for years, haven’t heard much about bullhead problems but I’ve caught a few fishing with worms on a bobber rig in shallower water.

I’ve seen 3-4# walleyes comes out of there and used to catch 10# northerns or so, until they dumped muskies in the lake and ruined that.

I’d have thought all the bullheads would have been caught by the on shore fishing families I see down there.

Along with everything else they seem to keep by the bucket.

I’m sure it’ll work just like everything else the DNR does to make lakes better..uh huh..sure.

Al

Nokomis is an infested lake. One cannot harvest bait from it.

If the “Lake Detective” Says it will work…It will work!

“Hail the Flashlight King!”

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Nokomis is an infested lake. One cannot harvest bait from it.

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And besides… all the bullies I catch out of there are between 8″ and 10″. Unless you cut off the tails, or use the special catfishing ruler, they are not legal bait. Yet.

I’ll be interested to see what comes of this. It would be nice to have a lake in the neighborhood where I can ice some kitties, but I kinda doubt that they will survive for very long. If they can be caught, they will be kept.

From what I understand, Nokomis (and Hiawatha) are mostly created lakes developed by the parks department, so I am not too upset that they are introducing a new species into the mix. Maybe in a couple years there will be some monsters in there to chase after.

Don’t you love that term, “maybe the lake will balance”? Is that another way of saying I have no idea what I’m doing?

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Nokomis is an infested lake. One cannot harvest bait from it.

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= ha ha ha that was a joke.

Hmm, I guess in hindsight I should have used

Pug buys his bait from Bob Moore.

Ben is right, those big bullheads in there are tasty eater size. Forget those other shore fisherman, I’ll fish out all those big bullies to eat if they want.

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The channel cats will soon realize….

….that they have the upper hand in the bargaining and if we don’t build them a stadium, they will leave.

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I wish I would have said that!

Seems to me they could net the bullies out of there if they wanted to. They do it in a number of other cities in the southern burbs.

I wonder if there isn’t an abundance of channels the DNR’s been raising…and this would be a good way to get rid…er use them too.

I think it’s going to be a good thing, but since I like cats, fish for cats and talk cats…I might be a little bias.

I would like to shake the guys hand that made the stadium comment though.

OK Dtro, I’ve posted. Your turn to post why it’s not a good idea.

…I’m not commenting on the water quality. I’m not even and arm chair chemist.

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From what I understand, Nokomis (and Hiawatha) are mostly created lakes developed by the parks department, so I am not too upset that they are introducing a new species into the mix. Maybe in a couple years there will be some monsters in there to chase after.

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You are correct. Both lakes were basically shallow wetlands when the city bought them. They were dredged out, and over the years, various game fish species were stocked.

It’s funny to look through the reader comments on the Strib. Someone said something about “man playing God,” in reference to stocking. Of course, nobody complains that walleyes were stocked into Nokomis. Or crappies or tiger muskies. But man, you throw some catfish in there, and some folks get all upset.

Not that I’m always on the cutting edge Ben, but you are right in reading the comments….

I would like to see a lake with 100 pound flatheads in MN!!

…the river would be fine too.

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From what I understand, Nokomis (and Hiawatha) are mostly created lakes developed by the parks department, so I am not too upset that they are introducing a new species into the mix. Maybe in a couple years there will be some monsters in there to chase after.

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You are correct. Both lakes were basically shallow wetlands when the city bought them. They were dredged out, and over the years, various game fish species were stocked.

It’s funny to look through the reader comments on the Strib. Someone said something about “man playing God,” in reference to stocking. Of course, nobody complains that walleyes were stocked into Nokomis. Or crappies or tiger muskies. But man, you throw some catfish in there, and some folks get all upset.

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Actually your wrong there, many of the locals complained about stocking the musky’s but the DNR in their wisdom didn’t listen to them.

Also these lakes have been there since before I was a kid and I’m 62 and had sunfish, crappies, northerns and walleyes in them back then, over fishing is why I’m thinking they got restocked.
Yes we had bullheads back then too…:)

Its not imho the fact its catfish, its they’re trying their hand at improving the lake, and their track record sucks so far.

Although I’m betting before them cats get 100# size, they’re all caught and end up in trash containers like the bullhead do.
Or on somebodies dinner plate.

Want to help get rid of the bullheads that maybe are doing the damage..have a couple of week long fishing tournies that the winner get $500 for bigest and most fish, cheaper than stocking and probably do more good….if any

Al

Hi Allen, that’s another idea, but then you run into ‘wanton waste’ of the fish if they are just thrown away after the tournaments.

Channel cats are just bigger, meaner bullheads, right?! I wonder why they are going with channels and not flats, or a mix of the two. Also, will these cats make it into Hiawatha? Isn’t there a channel that connects them?

Yeah that was a joke. Not a very good one but a joke. I go to Moore’s for bait. I’m too lazy to catch them and only have so much time to fish. Plus I drive down from Anoka to fish the river so it’s Bob’s then to the river.

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Hi Allen, that’s another idea, but then you run into ‘wanton waste’ of the fish if they are just thrown away after the tournaments.

Channel cats are just bigger, meaner bullheads, right?! I wonder why they are going with channels and not flats, or a mix of the two. Also, will these cats make it into Hiawatha? Isn’t there a channel that connects them?

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Maybe they can sell them to the farmers or processors to make fertilizer out of, I think that’s what they did with the carp they hauled out of Nokomis.

Yes Minnehaha creek connects the two lakes by a short distance so it’s very feasible what’s in one is in the other.

Used to catch huge carp out of Hiawatha along with some of the biggest sunfish I’ve seen come out of a local metro lake, but that was years ago.

Can’t help ya one the cats, just started fishing them this year.

Al

I’m sure channels will eat bullheads, but to flatheads that is like a candy bar. You want rid of bullheads, throw in a few flatheads.

Just curious, I don’t suppose the tons of salt that ends up in these lakes over the years is to blame for any of the problems they’re having??

Al

Just to bring everybody up to speed here it appears as expected the 09 and 2011 walleye stocking has been a pretty major success on Nokomis.
Had another good outing with 14 Eyes ranging in size from 7″ to 25.5″.
Hopefully the 2013 stock goes as well.
Not sure how the removal of bullys and sunfish has effected the water quality yet but it appears to be working in my water clarity findings to date.

I can only assume no channel cats are present in Lake Nokomis and they thankfully s h i t canned that idea.

Oh one more thing dont quit your day jobs!…lol

Good luck$

Since I didn’t comment on water quality, can I keep my day job?

I was just mad they were stealing my bait.