Slot limit tabled on Leech

DNR tables Leech Lake fishing regulations proposal (2003-12-09)
Anglers who fish Leech Lake will not encounter experimental fishing regulations next season.

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has decided to hold off on implementing regulations that would have protected walleye from 17 to 21 inches in length and northern pike from 24 to 36 inches. The decision follows two public meetings and a lengthy public comment period.

“We broadened our discussions, listened carefully and came to the conclusion there was not an absolute need to adopt either regulation,” said Harlan Fierstine, DNR area fisheries manager. “Our input process did not identify a strong public sentiment. Likewise, staff came to the conclusion there was not a strong biological need, either.”

The proposed walleye regulation was intended to increase walleye numbers and average size by requiring anglers to release a greater portion of their catch. The walleye regulation was also aimed at heading off potential problems with excessive harvest.

“We proposed the regulation because we wanted to be proactive and share our most recent findings,” said Fierstine. “Frankly, we don’t know if recent population fluctuations represent a natural occurrence or are the front-end of something else. Now that people know we are aware of the issue, we will closely monitor the situation, keep folks informed and respond accordingly based on the biology and citizen interest.”

Fierstine thanked the citizens who provided input, noting their comments were insightful and helpful.

What are the thoughts out there on this issue? It sure seems to me that something needs to be done on Leech, as the fishing over the last few years sounds to be much slower then normal.

I would like to see a slot on Leech. When the bite is good the harvest is plenty. Otherwise, it can be very slow on leech for me. I think the pike slot is a GREAT idea also.

The general consensus I’ve heard about the fishing on Leech over the last 3 years or so is that it’s been horrible overall.

I would think that with the regs in place on Winnie and Mille Lacs this would just move the anglers focused on catch and keep to Leech. I wonder if there was an pressure placed on the locals and the DNR by those behind the MWC to NOT look at these regs with the big tourney coming to town?

This is one of those posts that will result in more questions than answers, but it’s important information.
I’ve been following the fishery issues on Leech Lake for a long time. This is one of my favorite lakes and in spite of the terrific fishing that Winnie offers, my best personal performances over the past 20 years have all been on Leech Lake.
2001 was a huge Walleye spawning success in most of the area’s natural Walleye Lakes. In spite of this fantastic spawning season, Leech Lake does not have a strong 2001 year class. For most of us who fish the lake, it’s beginning to look like the fish aren’t even there to bring about a good spawning run. The DNR has not, does not and will not stock fish into the lake because they want to maintain the “genetic purety” of the “Leech Lake Strain”. So it’s going to be up to the fish to make this recovery on their own.
At a DNR Meeting yesterday (1-30-04) we were told that the main reason the slot limit didn’t go into effect was due to pressure by the resort community.
At the same time, there are a growing number of folks over there who are convinced that the Cormorants are the culprit and there are some studies out there that confirm these birds will eat anything they can get. But, they aren’t very selective and nothing in their diet ever makes up more than about 10% of their total consumption.
For anyone who hasn’t read the official DNR 2002 report on Leech, you owe it to yourself to read it. It’s pretty long to post here, but here’s a little bit of it. ” Summer angling pressure on Leech Lake has increased approximately 47% since the mid 1960’s. This trend of increasing angling pressure has been occurring statewide. Although angling pressure has been increasing through time, total harvest has remained relatively stable. Consequently, today’s angler’s fishing success is somewhat less than that of the past creating a perception of a declining sport fishery.”
It sounds like they’re blaming fishing pressure.
Reading this report together with Firestines comments after the slot limit was tabled, convinces me that the DNR is unsure of what needs to be done over there. But there’s no doubt that if fishing pressure is too great, predators are contributing to the decline and we won’t accept protective restrictions, the problem cav only get worse.
Most of us who fish Winnie a lot will agree that the slot limit has helped on that lake. So did it help on Rainy Lake and for Red Lake, protecting the fish, together with stocking has done wonders to bring back the fishery. In light of this evidence, how could a slot limit on Leech Lake possibly hurt?
We as anglers need to do whatever we can to provide input during this process. I’m hoping to do a lot more along these lines and I’ll happily provide more information for anyone who asks.

Hey Jeff. Excellent post & welcome to the site!

A quick question if I may…

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” Summer angling pressure on Leech Lake has increased approximately 47% since the mid 1960’s. This trend of increasing angling pressure has been occurring statewide. Although angling pressure has been increasing through time, total harvest has remained relatively stable. “

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Sounds like you’ve got 50% more people catching the same number of fish on a lake where most all legal sized fish caught are kept. (This is an assumption, if incorrect, please set me straight) With that the total harvest is the same but the level of “angler satisfaction” is going to be quite reduced. Do you have any thoughts on this? Seems like your skills as an angler you would stand to still out-catch most from one day to the next… are you working hard and longer for less now than in years past?

Thanks in advance Jeff.

James,
I’ll throw in my two cents while waiting for Jeff to reply. I’m a frequent visitor to Leech Lake over the past 20 years, and you’re right, the walleye fishing has been dismal. I think Jeff is right on the money when he says that Leech somehow missed out on the good 2001 year class. I would venture to say that Leech hasn’t had a good year class come through since 95 or 96 (the fish that grew into keepers and provided very good fishing in the 1998-2000 timeframe). But those fish are mostly gone (the few survivors are real nice sized), and nothing is coming up to take their place. I think things will get worse before they get better. Many consecutive poor year classes are the key reason to Leech’s current poor fishing. Cormarrants may (or may not) have played a role in this. The DNR used to say that slots would never be necessary on Leech because it had such good spawning success compared to most lakes (so much for that theory).
During primetime in late September, the lake was almost deserted of walleye fisherman (east side). I don’t blame them for jumping lakes, I would jump too if it wasn’t for my Leech Lake bass addiction. I would think that the resorts would be pressuring for a slot, to help extend the survival of good year classes until the next class comes through. However, the resort owners I’ve talked to are big believers in the commorant theory, not the fishing pressure theory.
I would say that over the past few years, my personal catch rates are about 10-20% of “normal”, whatever that is. It’s been TOUGH.
Until there is a good year class, killing cormarrants or establishing slots will not provide any significant improvement in wallye fishing happiness on Leech. However, I would like to see a slot in place now, so it will be in effect whenever the next decent year class emerges. And they might as well take out some of those worthless ugly black birds, although my opinion/guess is that they are eating mostly perch and only a few walleyes.

James,
The direct answer to your question is that we are now working extremely hard to gather a few fish on Leech Lake. When we do catch them, they are often fish that should really be released (19 to 23 inches), but folks are having such a hard time getting them that they are willing to keep fish that they would otherwise release. The information about Leech Lake seems to point in the direction of a simple lack of fish. When other lakes had a banner spawning season, Leech showed no sign of a good year class.
The reference to the fisheries report, was to point out that (in my opinion) the fisheries folks in Walker are still not focused on solving the current problem. The report was generated in 2002 and describes an increase in pressure that really occured in 2000 and 2001 when there was something of an “angler revolt” over the slot limit on Winnibigoshish. Many folks who didn’t like the slot limit headed over to Leech where the fish were their own worst enemy. The bite was so good that the pressure stayed high for most of the summer. Now that pressure is gone because there are vastly fewer fish being caught. This is not a “perception of a declining fishery”, it is evidence of a real decline and at this point, it doesn’t matter how it happened, it only matters how we solve the problem.

Here’s a couple of quotes from message that I received from one of my customers who has stayed on Leech Lake for years;

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We took Monday off after that wonderful long day with you on Sunday. Tuesday we spent all day bouncing around for a dozen ( 3-4nice ) perch and a bonus 20″ Walleye………. I was able to get one of your maps at Sugar Point but wasn’t able to put in any waypoints or get any more help. Leech is dead. Won’t be back in my lifetime. We’re trying to decide on where next year. Will talk more then.——jerry and norma

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Now some folks might like the idea that these two aren’t coming back, but there are plenty of us up here who are depending on tourism and I for one, want the conditions to be as favorable as possible for returning visitors. Every time any of us leave the house and fish on a lake, we become tourists.

Being closely involved with the excellent team at the DNR Grand Rapids Regional Headquaters, has given me some insight into the process. I think that the Leech Lake folks are in need of some good solid input from folks who fish the lake and approach them with a sincere desire to help. After a while, they will develop a sense of trust and progress can be made. These stakeholder groups can be a valuable tool for providing current information about the fishery. But, once the DNR sets a course, we have to be willing to follow it. If that means slot limits or some other form of harvest restrictions, we need to have an open mind and try to help stabilize these great Walleye fisheries. Otherwise, we are heading for a cycle of “Boom and Bust Fishing” where everyone finds the hot bite, fishes it to death and then starts looking for the next one.

I HAVE AND DID FISH LEECH IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS, THE BITE WAS AS GOOD AS IT COULD GET . WHY LIKE A LIGHT SWICH WAS TURNED ON DID THE FISH SLOW SO FAST ?
BE IT NETTING,BIRDS, OVER HARVEST, OR JUST A THING OF NATURE I DO NOT KNOW.I THINK A SLOT WOULD HELP, I THINK MAY BE REGS FOR THE NETTERS SHOULD BE LOOKED AT ALSO , LIKE ON MIL LACS. I DO KNOW THAT TALKING AT THE ACCES WHEN WINNY GOT THE SLOT A LOT OF PEOPLE WOULD HIT LEECH TO FINISH OFF THERE TAKE HOME LIMIT, MORE PRESSUR. I HEARD THE THE BIG LAKE WAS MISSING A YR. CLASS BUT WAKER BAY WAS NOT? THE LAKE MADE FOR GRAET FAMILE FUN AND I DID KEEP FISH FOR A FISH FRY, AND ALSO PUT BACK MORE THAN WE ATE. WITH ALL THE LAKES UP THERE AND ALL SO CLOSE TO EACH OUTHER WILL NOT THIS THING SNOW BALL ,WITH THE NEXT LAKE ,AND THE NEXT,AND SO ON?
RESORTS ,GUIDES,SMALL TOWNS WITH PLACES TO STAY ,ALL ARE IN THE SAME BOAT.
WISH I HAD A ANSWER,I HOPE THE DNR FINDS ONE,I HOPE IT IS A BETTER ONE THAN CUTTING ALL THE TREES DOWN ON THE ISLAND THAT THE BIRDS NEST ON?
JUST VENTING I GUESS?

Pfluggy,
Your concern is obvious, but please whatever you do, don’t sit by and wait for the DNR to fix this. Your voice is more powerful than you think. Call the DNR fisheries office in Walker and tell them that you’re concerned. You don’t need to have the answers, but they need to know what your thoughts are. Most of the time the DNR gets little or no input from the public. Unless we tell them otherwise, they can easily get the impression that we don’t care.
Stand up and be counted

I’ll say last year was much better than 2001 and 2002. I have been on the lake since 1997 and 2001 was the worst year.

2003 bought us a lot of small fish that we did not see the 2 years before. I think the post is in the right direction. Opening always bought a lot of pressure to Leech but since The big pond to the south put the slot on a few years ago I sure have noticed the increased pressure on Leech.

I would say the number of night time fisherman has increase by 300% in the last three years. This I am sure does not help either.

I look forward to a better year but it will take a fews years for the bad hatches to work through the system.

On a bright note the Perch and Bass are exploding on Leech. and the crappies are doing OK so far this year.

I fish Woman Lake a lot (family place on the lake) and I have noticed more rigs at the public access over the past couple years. I wonder how much of that is fallout from the poor fishing on Leech?

So, keeping healthy fisheries is EVERYONE’S interest because of the ripple effect caused by one failure. I like Leech Lake a lot but I haven’t fished it in a couple years now. I had the single worst walleye outing of my adult life on that last trip.

I was really hoping Leech would have put some restrictions or slots in place. I have seen positive results personally on Rainy Lake, and even on Mille Lacs.

I hope Leech bounces back for many reasons. I’ll be the first one to drive up there, buy bait and fish the day away… it is a beautiful lake. Plus, it might keep that public access a little less crowded on my home waters.