dead paddlefish, sturgeon

Didn’t see this anywhere else.

http://www.postbulletin.com/news/local/dnr-discovers-dead-paddlefish-sturgeon-in-lake-pepin/article_a12bcec3-a9b0-5791-a8db-0379abf2c652.html

Most commercial guys are good stewards of the resources. All it takes is one.

Nets are required to be checked at least every 24 hours.

Paddles in a gill net don’t last too long. Sturgeon on the other hand seem to survive better (because of the harder gills?)

All catches are to be reported to the dnr monthly, but I believe catches/deaths of a paddle and sturgeon are to be reported immediately.

With over 40 fish to report, calling the dnr is about as likely to happen as a hunter shooting a hen pheasant from across a road, at night without a hunting license.

FYI there are sturgeon/paddle fish deaths reported to the DNR (both MN and WI) each year buy boaters and fishermen. At least in one case that I was involved in, the commercial fisherman was required to move his net to another location.

“Don’t look at me, I have an image to uphold” –

Now that pisses me off.

There are always bad apples that spoil the bunch, but how many commercial fisherman are there?

Now take this one incident amongst those very few commercial guys and the percentages get bigger.

I’m all for harvesting the land and waters but if they can kill over 40 “hard earned” fish in terms to mother nature than go find another job and leave the lake alone.

These commercial guys paying you off or what BK, I don’t even fish those waters and I’m PO’d!

Over 20 sturgeon, what’s the average sturgeon per acre on a lake/river system?

Last time I checked there were 13 commercial fishermen on Pool 4.

Paid off? No.

I read through my post and didn’t see anything that would suggest that.

Would it help if I say this (more then likely one commercial outfit) should have their commercial license taken away IMO?

Brian Klawitter wrote:

Most commercial guys are good stewards of the resources. All it takes is one.

I was fishing Pepin last week and saw several dead Paddlefish and Sturgeon. One I looked closer at had been slit open on the belly. Odd I thought.

Later I saw and chatted with some DNR guys who were monitoring the situation. They said the slit may have been because whoever caught them was trying to sink the evidence.

Hope they solve the situation. That’s a lot of dead, rare fish.

nhamm wrote:

These commercial guys paying you off or what BK, I don’t even fish those waters and I’m PO’d!

Im not quite sure how you arrived at that based on BK’s initial post. Didn’t seem to me he was selling out to them, merely pointing out some of the rules they have to abide by along with common sense that says all it takes is one bad apple.
Nice leap though…

Knowing Nick (Nhamm) is a good guy, I think reading this just got him riled up and rightly so.

I have 0 problem with commercial fishermen as long as they are managed well and the commercial fishermen are good stewards.

I’d venture to guess IF this turns out to be a commercial fishermen, the other commercial fishermen are not going to be happy.

If it is a commercial fisherman, he must not be very good because he caught the wrong species. I can just see a guy pulling up nets full of these fish and redirecting his anger at his horsecrap fishing skills.

One I looked closer at had been slit open on the belly.

The roe of both of those fish is sought after. I don’t know enough about roe harvest, time of year ect. to comment on it. It would have been interesting to know if the roe was removed.

I have faith in big Nick S. of the Dnr.

In the mean time please use the tip line if you see a sturgeon, paddle or even walleyes floating. More so if it’s belly is cut.

The good commercial fishermen hate this type of publicity even if it wasn’t a commercial guy.

PS I’m open to being bought out to anyone with more then a million in mind.

I was wondering about that too – whether it was someone looking for the roe.

The DNR guy seemed pretty confident it was instead more of an attempt to sink the fish/hide the evidence. But I have no idea what’s really going on.

BK’s advice is good – let the DNR know if you’re noticing more of em.

Ruh-roh as Astro would say.

Story

Commercial Fishing on Lake Pepin Temporarily Suspended

This will put the pressure on the other commercial guys to start pointing fingers.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

This will put the pressure on the other commercial guys to start pointing fingers.

That was the talk around the office today. The guys that are innocent are going to be coughing up names when it affects their livelihood. Nothing gets people talking like the loss of money out of their wallets.