New Mille Lacs Smallmouth Regulations

http://www.savemillelacssmallies.com

By raising the limit to 6 is our fine DNR actually trying to say that the reason for the walleye population crash is due to smallmouth eating the young walleye?

I’ve known George for many years. Great guy.

I respectfully dis-agree with almost all he says here. In many ways, he (and the pro bass gal) are out of touch with reality at Lake Mille Lacs–both on the smallmouth front as well as the walleye front. I’ll leave it at that…

Steve F, I haven’t read your take on the modification of the Smallie regs. Is it posted somewhere?

My issue is that the DNR has claimed for years that only the legislature could modify these regs on Mille Lac Smallies. And then on top of this, it was never mentioned at the DNR Roundtable, never discussed with the DNR Bass workshop committee and I’ve not seen anything that says this was vetted by the DNR’s internal Black Bass committee. While I heard indirectly that this was being planned, it was IMHO done in secrecy.

It seemed to me the DNR decided to “fix” something that WASN’T broke. Just saying!

They honestly believe people are going to travel from lands far around to catch a limit of bass for the livewell? If anything wouldn’t this possibly help an already fragile economy on that lake right now by maybe promoting large scale bass tournaments to take place there? People still come to the lake for Walleyes ,but I will bet ya by allowing tournaments to start coming into town you will have more and more bass anglers finding reason to come week in and week out to get to know this lake as well. Just my .02 cent

Sign the Petition, Save the Mille Lacs Smallies

What a bunch of BS….

As someone who grew up by Mille Lacs and cares deeply about the local economy because some of my best friends are resort owners the only statements in this entire video that I agree with is that the lake is over regulated and that we should allow the harvest of some larger walleyes to get the population closer to it’s natural balance.

Which is why I find it interesting that immediately after explaining that Mille Lacs is over regulated he continues to argue that we need to continue to use more restrictive smallmouth regulations than the rest of the state. Most other lakes allow anglers to keep up to 6 bass, but as far as I’m aware there are no examples of greedy bass anglers showing up and cleaning out a lake of bass. So why do we need the extra DNR regulations to protect Mille Lacs from the “greedy” bass anglers?

Do I really think that bass anglers are all “greedy”? Absolutely not but isn’t that exactly what this video is implying???

Speaking of the local economy not only will this change have zero negative impact on it, I expect it will have a positive impact. While I expect that few if any people will book their next vacation to Mille Lacs because they want to come home with cooler full of smallmouth fillets; the last thing we would ever want for launch/resort customers who have chosen to spend their time at Mille Lacs would be to leave empty handed and this gives them one more option to keep fish if they can’t find a walleye in the slot. Not only that but having the ability to keep more bass will create new options for resorts to hold bass tournaments and generate additional local revenue.

IMO the reason they are against the new smallmouth regulations is that they are only looking out for their own interests and not what’s best for the local economy.

Quote:

---

They honestly believe people are going to travel from lands far around to catch a limit of bass for the livewell? If anything wouldn’t this possibly help an already fragile economy on that lake right now by maybe promoting large scale bass tournaments to take place there? People still come to the lake for Walleyes ,but I will bet ya by allowing tournaments to start coming into town you will have more and more bass anglers finding reason to come week in and week out to get to know this lake as well. Just my .02 cent

---

100% agreed Erick

Steve,

Where exactly can I find what your opinion is for the cause and your opinions on how to cure the lakes issues? And how that relates in anyway to the SmallMouth fishery?

thanks

Corey

When Courts allow one ethnic class of people to have very specific and special rights to do as they please, then the people charged with upholding the laws and regulations are seemingly not present to verify the rules, regulations and agreements are being followed, yet seem out of no-where to come up with special regulations affecting other species, then the people have no choice but to revolt and go above their heads to call for changes.

Yes, an overly managed specie of fish (the Walleye) seems to have had their numbers severely reduced in the last few years, while the Smallmouth Bass numbers have increased and drawn larger numbers of followers, the people making and agreeing to the regulations changed direction without much if any input from the populous. This all while the smallmouth numbers are more balanced and the Walleye numbers are disproportionately out of balance. The Walleye is targeted with nets and spears during the critical & vulnerable time of spawning. Thus large numbers of the breeding stock are taken reducing future generations. Regulations increase and decrease year by year and during the year without regard to balance, but seemingly taking all younger fish leaving many trophy sized, but no longer prime spawn producing fish left to cruise and devour the food supply.

Now, when the Walleye numbers have been decimated, they blame it on the Smallie’s. Is it the Smallie’s fault or are ever changing walleye regulations along with a pretty much uncontrolled harvest to blame?

Just my personal opinion!

Bass are every where…do we need another bass lake? The small percentage of people who are going to actually keep bass on Mille Lacs isnt going to hurt anything.

walleye are everywhere do we need another walleye lake? What kind of statement is that? Minnesota has more walleye than any other state in the union. I think the question here is what is sound management? Millelacs is a desiginated trophy smallmouth bass lake and I for one hope we keep it that way. My opinion whould be that the bass have little effect on the walleye fishery and if they do then the muskie have a biggere effect and no one is complaining about the muskie. FOCUS on the real problem….. Overharvest of the walleye population is the REAL problem

My tomatoes are gonna be huge this year!

Quote:

---

walleye are everywhere do we need another walleye lake? What kind of statement is that? Minnesota has more walleye than any other state in the union. I think the question here is what is sound management? Mille Lacs is a designated trophy smallmouth bass lake and I for one hope we keep it that way. My opinion whould be that the bass have little effect on the walleye fishery and if they do then the muskie have a biggere effect and no one is complaining about the muskie. FOCUS on the real problem….. Overharvest of the walleye population is the REAL problem

---

First, you are right, over harvest is a problem. Yet to me Mille Lacs has always been managed (if that’s what you want to call it) for walleye, in fact it’s been referred to “The Walleye Factory”. As a designated smallmouth trophy lake, this is a relatively newer regulation, maybe 10 years old or so. Prior to the c/r regs Mille Lacs was always a trophy smallie lake, you just had to know where to fish. Today it’s pretty easy….Anderson’s, Indian Point, Rocky Reef, 3-Mile, pretty much any rock pile is devoid of walleyes and replaced with 15 inch smallies. Along with the normal fall trolling runs that now yield smallies, I have caught them in off the flats in 35 feet of water. Would I state the the smallies have been one reason the walleye’s are in such bad shape, nope, I’m not that smart. Yet there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of 24″ walleyes in the lake yet try to put together a pattern in the fall on one of the reefs, say hello to Mr. Smallmouth. It’s more complicated than that however it seems like Green Lake near Spicer went through the same problem. I love fishing smallies and having access to the Mississippi River behind the house provides loads of fun. In my opinion, the smallies have taken over the Mille Lacs rocks. Is it because of the C/R, no proof. When it was legal I kept the occasional 16 inch smallmouth caught on Indian Point, one never got more than 1, and quite honestly they taste delicious. Personally I welcome the new opportunity.

Quote:

---

When Courts allow one ethnic class of people to have very specific and special rights to do as they please, then the people charged with upholding the laws and regulations are seemingly not present to verify the rules, regulations and agreements are being followed, yet seem out of no-where to come up with special regulations affecting other species, then the people have no choice but to revolt and go above their heads to call for changes.

Yes, an overly managed specie of fish (the Walleye) seems to have had their numbers severely reduced in the last few years, while the Smallmouth Bass numbers have increased and drawn larger numbers of followers, the people making and agreeing to the regulations changed direction without much if any input from the populous. This all while the smallmouth numbers are more balanced and the Walleye numbers are disproportionately out of balance. The Walleye is targeted with nets and spears during the critical & vulnerable time of spawning. Thus large numbers of the breeding stock are taken reducing future generations. Regulations increase and decrease year by year and during the year without regard to balance, but seemingly taking all younger fish leaving many trophy sized, but no longer prime spawn producing fish left to cruise and devour the food supply.

Now, when the Walleye numbers have been decimated, they blame it on the Smallie’s. Is it the Smallie’s fault or are ever changing walleye regulations along with a pretty much uncontrolled harvest to blame?

Just my personal opinion!

---

My friend you should be a politician… Bringing up random stats that sound important then figure that people will eventually just nod their head and agree even if they have no relevance to the current discussion.

If I can assume what you’re trying to get across is that just because the walleye population don’t mess with YOUR smallmouth population. Well I’ve got news for you… The smallmouth population is already a mess. Never has it even been close to this high before. The current situation for smallmouth IS NOT normal and it would be better for the forage base if it went back to a more natural level both for numbers and size.

Secondly, is that smallmouth bass fishing, while yes it can bring in a few bonus bass fisherman, does not fill campgrounds, cabins, and launches up at the local resorts around Mille Lacs. It doesn’t bring people to all of the local bait shops to purchases leeches, minnows, or crawlers. It doesn’t bring in even a fraction of the $$ that walleye fishing does to Mille Lacs.

So to be perfectly honest from both a biological and economic perspective it doesn’t make sense to me to continue with regulations that are overpopulating the lake with bass if there is any chance that doing so will harm the walleye population on which the entire resort economy is built on.

did anyone else have a problem with the guy in that video that seemed to cast judgement on people for keeping smallmouth? I have no idea what they taste like but i’m sure there are plenty of people that think they’re great. This to me looks like nothing more than a video made by a special interest group who probably cares very little about the lake so long as people leave “their” bass alone. Walleye population has to be the #1 priority of the DNR and if the smallie fishing has to suffer a bit to give the walleye room to roam than so be it. The lake can not be managed as a trophy walleye, pike, muskie, and smallmouth lake, that’s just too much. It looks like the DNR picked the smallie to take the hit

Quote:

---

walleye are everywhere do we need another walleye lake? What kind of statement is that? Minnesota has more walleye than any other state in the union. I think the question here is what is sound management? Millelacs is a desiginated trophy smallmouth bass lake and I for one hope we keep it that way. My opinion whould be that the bass have little effect on the walleye fishery and if they do then the muskie have a biggere effect and no one is complaining about the muskie. FOCUS on the real problem….. Overharvest of the walleye population is the REAL problem

---

I will respectfully disagree… The real underlying problem isn’t exactly the over harvesting of walleyes. By over regulating both the smallmouth and walleye populations it is creating an over abundance of big fish which in turn is decimating the baitfish population. From a biological perspective I think it is much better for the lake if we were to set regulations for both Walleyes and smallmouth that reduced the number of big fish.

Quote:

---

did anyone else have a problem with the guy in that video that seemed to cast judgement on people for keeping smallmouth? I have no idea what they taste like but i’m sure there are plenty of people that think they’re great. This to me looks like nothing more than a video made by a special interest group who probably cares very little about the lake so long as people leave “their” bass alone. Walleye population has to be the #1 priority of the DNR and if the smallie fishing has to suffer a bit to give the walleye room to roam than so be it. The lake can not be managed as a trophy walleye, pike, muskie, and smallmouth lake, that’s just too much. It looks like the DNR picked the smallie to take the hit

---

Well said… However I don’t really feel like the the smallmouth are taking a hit here at all.

For instance wouldn’t it be silly for the DNR to change the walleye regulations to allow only 1 fish over 28″ to be kept? That’s essentially what the regulations for smallmouth were set as before… Now they are on equal ground with walleyes allowing for some harvest but still requiring release once they reach their prime breeding age.

I’m sure that these regs are meant to reduce the smallmouth numbers, whether they will or not is yet to be seen. One thing I can say with a fair amount of confidence is that launches won’t be keeping thousands of smallmouth a day like that guy was claiming. That to me sounded a lot like a crooked politician completely exaggerating a situation to get people to take his side.

I would really like to know who the idiots are that are behind these new regs. This lake is a world class bass fishery right now, they have been working towards that for years and now that they have it they are just going to throw it away all because their precious walleyes are in a pickle. I want to see the studies or the proof that the bass are hurting the walleyes. It’s knee jerk reactions like this that will ruin this lake. Was this decision made in the best interest of the fishery or was it in the best interest of the politicions. Five minutes with Google and I was able to find out that the biggest predator of the zebra mussels is the smallmouth bass, I bet that was more research the dnr did. In the last couple of years bass fishermen have been traveling from all over the country to fish the smallies on mille lacs. As the video stated its not the bass fishermen that is going to keep the bass its the launches and the walleye fishermen that will be the problem. Going from zero to six is just stupid, why not start with one or two.
Mr. Fellegy I would really like to hear your opinion on this.

Quote:

---

Five minutes with Google and I was able to find out that the biggest predator of the zebra mussels is the smallmouth bass,

---

Make your case for the bass if you want too, but don’t try to fool anyone who fishes the lake into thinking the smallies are controlling the zebra mussel population.

Quote:

---

I’m sure that these regs are meant to reduce the smallmouth numbers, whether they will or not is yet to be seen. One thing I can say with a fair amount of confidence is that launches won’t be keeping thousands of smallmouth a day like that guy was claiming. That to me sounded a lot like a crooked politician completely exaggerating a situation to get people to take his side.

---

I can promise that the launches will be taking huge numbers of smallies everyday off the lake, the people that go on launches want to take home meat.

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

Five minutes with Google and I was able to find out that the biggest predator of the zebra mussels is the smallmouth bass,

---

Make your case for the bass if you want too, but don’t try to fool anyone who fishes the lake into thinking the smallies are controlling the zebra mussel population.

---

I’m not saying they are controlling the population, but why remove some of their biggest predators.

How many will they take? Thousands and thousands like the guy in the video stated?

Quote:

---

I’m not saying they are controlling the population, but why remove some of their biggest predators.

---

Because they obviously aren’t doing anything to slow the spread of zebs. Every rock reef in the lake is full of bass and zebs. I guess the bass are eating crayfish and minnows instead

studies have also shown that perch will target zebra mussels, why don’t we have large schools of jumbo perch swimming around controling the zeb’s? I can’t believe that many will take the trek to target fresh smallmouth meat. There’s so many other destinations which habor a large population of keepable walleye. We will see what happens. Wait a few years and listen to the bass guys complain of the stunted size of all the bass, or the walleye guys saying there’s too many large bass in the protected slot?

Yes it will be thousands on busy weekends. And you’re right josh the reefs are covered in zebs but how do you know that it wouldn’t be worse if the smallies weren’t there. And again I ask why take out something that us known to eat them.

I’d like to hear Steve’s opinion on the smallmouth. Its obvious that the netting has lowered the walleye population to the point where smallies are taking over prime walleye areas. Just like the red lake crappies took over after the walleye collapse the smallmouth are taking over mille lacs.