So what ever happened to http://savemillelacssmallies.com/ ?
Talking to a number of launches and bait shop guys, when I ask them if they are slaying the smallies the just look at me and laugh. I checked their website and the last update was in May. Did the issue just go away as it’s been very quiet.
As predicted, this is a not an issue. 
-J.
And the media wrote about that baseless smallmouth venture and will not cover the real, hard-hitting, direly needed http://www.savemillelacssportfishing.org group. As most sport anglers do and say nothing in the meantime…as the lake dies a slow but sure walleye fishery death.
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So what ever happened to http://savemillelacssmallies.com/ ?
Talking to a number of launches and bait shop guys, when I ask them if they are slaying the smallies the just look at me and laugh. I checked their website and the last update was in May. Did the issue just go away as it’s been very quiet.
Putting it in the absolute nicest terms that I can, it is because their arguement was misguided at best… People are not keeping any more SMB than they do on any other body of water
I find it funny that all of you walleye guys sat around while you have watched the DNR make one bad decision after another in regards to the walleye managemant on Mille Lacs and now sit and cry about what they have done to a once Great fishery – but then say that the smallmouth fishermen are crazy and blowing everything out of porportion when the DNR makes a poor management decision that may lead to same fate on Smallmouth. Maybe some of you should have been more vocal while they were destroying YOUR chosen fish than waiting till it may be to late to cry about it. As far as no more Smallmouth being keep this year than in previous years you are CRAZY if you believe that. Maybe not by Bass fishermen but by others.I know of at least 1 launch that a friend was on last week that 8 smallmouth were keep in one 4 Hr. trip. He said the launch captain said they have caught and keep a fair amount of them this year. I think all that bass fisherman want is to keep what is a Great fishery a great fishery for many years – I don’t know why that is hard for OTHERS to understand.
I don’t get why us Walleye guys should have to stand by and let the smallmouth take over the lake. All of my spots that used to hold walleyes are now chuck full of smallies 
Eating the same food, using the same habitat and running the walleyes off. I like catching smallies as much as the next guy, but Mille Lacs was a world renowned walleye lake well before most people even knew it had smallies in it.
Steve
In no way was my post aimed at you. I have the upmost respect for what you are doing and saying in regards to what has been and continued to happen to the walleye fishery on mille lacs. You were one of the few who did not sit back and stay quiet when you saw the errors and problems that were going on. I just hate to see the DNR mess up another great fishery. I know of a ton of fishermen who now spend a fair amount of time and Money going to Mille Lac to fish the smallmouth. I know the resorts and other businesses in that area can use all the help they can to stay in business. I just don’t want to see them loose the $ that the great smallmouth fishery brings into the area.
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I don’t get why us Walleye guys should have to stand by and let the smallmouth take over the lake. All of my spots that used to hold walleyes are now chuck full of smallies
So you are saying that the smallmouth are the reason for the decline in the walleye on Mille Lacs. If you and other walleye fishermen believe that then I have no problem understanding how you let a fishery get so mismanaged. I say we just kill all the fish on the lake and let all the business in the area go under. 
So you are saying that the smallmouth are the reason for the decline in the walleye on Mille Lacs. If you and other walleye fishermen believe that then I have no problem understanding how you let a fishery get so mismanaged. I say we just kill all the fish on the lake and let all the business in the area go under.
I’m not sure that the walleye guys are saying that yet it would be hard to deny the transformation of most of the shallow areas from walleye haunts to smallie hotspots has occurred. You can argue why this has happened, maybe…maybe not. Steve has been preaching the decline on Mille Lacs for years. It seems to me that nothing has changed on the smallie scene on Mille Lacs regardless of the new regulations. The previous concerns about launches loading up on smallies, and it’s predictions of the eventual demise because of the new regs, it is an interesting discussion but after their initial launch and effort I haven’t heard anything to substantiate their concerns. Not that they aren’t real but in all seriousness “what happened?” Us walleye guys have been predicting for years where we are at today. Nothing against smallies, just more interested in the assessment after 3 months………are in fact limits of smallies now replacing walleyes as the fish of choice as stated. I haven’t heard anything and in fact just the opposite may be true, the smallies may even be falling to the same issue, nothing to eat.
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Putting it in the absolute nicest terms that I can, it is because their arguement was misguided at best… People are not keeping any more SMB than they do on any other body of water
We stayed at Father Hennipen State park for 5 days around the 4th of July,and there were more smallmouth bass in the fishcleaning shack than there were walleyes.
As far as the smallies chasing all the walleyes off the rocks,that is b.s.,we caught all off our walleyes on shallow rocks,except for the walleyes we caught in 8 feet of water in the weeds.
As to what has happened in 3 months I can not tell you. Then again I don’t think you could see much change in the walleye situation in 3 months either. I don’t think it is wise to wait until the smallmouth situation gets to the point that the walleye has to make a point if someone thinks that poor decisions are being made. I just don’t see how ANYONE can think that changing the limit from 1 fish ( Over 20″ ) to 6 fish with only a restricted size of 17-20″ fish is not going to have a effect on the # of fish being harvested and thus population effected.
I don’t consider myself a walleye fisherman or a bass fisherman. I like to fish both. I actually use to hold the hard line of being a bass guy. Now I enjoy fish in general. To say that the new smallie reg has no effect at all on the smallie population, would at bare minimum, seem a tad ignorant. But on the flip side, smallies are never, ever going to be the financial cash cow walleyes are. Can you imagine on the bass opener, pulling onto a spot with the same amount of people fishing for smallies, on smallie spots, that fish for walleyes the first month of the walleye season? That’s funny to even try to imagine. Guys on both ends of the spectrum are overly eager to point fingers, when we are all fishermen. This selfish purist, elitism is the down fall of all hunting/fishing groups. Empathy is not even considered. It’s the thought process, of what I like is golden and screw the other guy.
Sorry but the big pond has a lot of problems that aren’t going to regulated away, one way or the other.
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