new mille lacs safe harvest announced

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/242973181.html

it’s like watching a never ending episode of Keystone Cops

I’d trade the 42,900 pounds for a closed season. No fishing – no netting!

What a complete joke.

-J.

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I’d trade the 42,900 pounds for a closed season. No fishing – no netting!

What a complete joke.

-J.

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I’m not sure area businesses would like that very much. This issue only seems to get worse year after year. How can the most managed lake in the state be in such dire straits?

I think a good slot would be 6 smallmouth and 3 northern in the live well and then you can keep your 2 walleye

OK, time for me to start forming an opinion. Everyone has to have one, right, even people new to Mille Lacs. Sometimes the outsider might have a new perspective. Of course, on the other hand, it would probably be a better use of your time to wait until I’ve been around for a while to bother reading my opinions. I apologize for this being so long.

After reading many of the threads on this subject, here’s what I’ve gotten so far:

1. Noone trusts the DNR (probably for good reason). Only time and a healthier walleye population will fix that.
2. I tend to believe the experts that say there is more than adequate walleye brood stock. This suggests that there doesn’t necessarily need to be a moratorium on 20″ to 28″ fish.
3. I tend to believe the theory that improved water clarity is significantly hurting the competitive position of walleye (witness the relative gains in northerns and bass). I’m certainly not a fan of zebra mussels but if clear water is the worst of our problems I’ve got to believe that Mille Lacs is going to survive. However, assuming we can’t figure out how to get rid of the invasive species, we might have to accept that walleyes may never return to quite what they once were.
4. Obviously, netting is extremely hard on a population and I wish it would stop, but maybe we should be aplauding the fact that the DNR and the tribes have agreed to the lowest safe harvest number ever. As a newcomer, I’m really surprised the tribes haven’t voluntarily temporarily halted netting. As owners of the casino, noone has as much to gain from addressing the walleye problem and getting the negative press behind us. Maybe they fear halting the netting because that might set a precedent keeping them from resuming netting in the future. Has anyone considered offering some type of guarantee to the tribes that their future netting rights will not be adversely affected by a temporary suspension?
5. I also tend to believe those that say that catch and release leads to the unintentional death of more walleye than we would like to think. Having to measure fish all the time leads to a delay in release and only adds to this problem.

Here’s my first cut at a proposal. The experts would have to argue about whether this would constitute a safe harvest, but it sure seems like it would make more sense than what we had this past year. If it’s not viable, then it seems like the only option would be to go to a zero bag limit.

1. IN 2014, ANGLERS SHOULD HAVE A BAG LIMIT OF 1 WALLEYE, ANY SIZE. This will go a long way to alleviate angler frustration. Pretty much everyone will go home with a walleye, probably a pretty nice one. No more worrying about the slot, no more delaying the release of fish to measure them. Removing larger walleye from the lake will reduce predation on and competition with small walleye. Obviously, next year we’ll have to look carefully to make sure the brood stock is still adequate. I’m betting it will be.
2. Limits and/or restrictions regarding northerns and bass should be relaxed and fishing (and eating) northerns and bass should be promoted.
3. DNR educational efforts should emphasize techniques for releasing caught walleyes so as to maximize their chances of survival.
4. DNR and the tribes should put some serious money into promoting Mille Lacs as a year-round gettaway. This would be in the best interest of the state and the tribes. I’m new to the area and I’m blown away by the array of recreational opportunities available. Have you seen the cross country skiing at Kathio State Park? the canoeing on the Rum River? the ATV and snowmobile trails? the world class bird watching? the world class fishing (multiple species)? And there’s a casino, too? Are you kidding me? If the tribes want people in the casino, they need to get people up here, they need to make sure people know how much there is to do here. It’s not all about the walleye.

There it is. If you decided to read it, please don’t rip me apart too much; I know I have a lot to learn. I just know I want to catch walleye and I would like to eat at least one of them. I want the businesses and communities around here to thrive. And I want all this negative press about Mille Lacs to go away.

Welcome to In-Depth.

The biggest problem with your theory is it’s not the Mille Lacs band doing the netting.

You are correct about the state and local business promoting other activities in the area. Mille Lacs is a world class Smallmouth and Muskie resource that is hardly being used. It’s going to take many years for the Walleye to return. The sooner the resorts and businesses around the lake embrace Smallmouth and Muskie the better they will survive.

Well thought out and well written. Brian is correct and
a few more small concessions from the tribes and a lot of
this pent up anger could begin to be subside. That is
my wish for this delicate problem.

tweed

How about this, if you walleye fishermen are truly serious about saving this fishery I say you should stay off the lake for two years, I don’t mean have the dnr close it I mean just don’t fish it. If you guys really care like I assume you do by all the ranting and finger pointing I hear. The walleye sportfishermen do more damage to the population then you can ever imagine. There are plenty of walleye guys that get it but a lot more don’t. So many walleyes are killed by fishermen accidently just because the use live bait and don’t know how to safely catch and release a fish. On a different note a friend of mine was out there this winter with a camera and he said the bottom was absolutely crawling with tiny perch, looks like the forage is coming back which means in a couple years the walleyes will return. Like I have said before the lake runs in cycles like every other ecosystem does, the lake is just in down swing. I will say this cycle is more extreme and I would atribute that poor management, pressure from sport fishermen and major factors being the lake is changing becuase of invasives, and let’s not forget the hot summer we had a couple of years ago, that summer there was dead fish floating everywhere I was catching extremely skinny walleyes in less then two feet of water. The fish were starving. I do believe the lake will come back but I n the mean time do your part and stay off the lake.

Food is not the main issue. Yes there is a lot of tiny perch this summer a big hatch. But they will be eaten up. The issue is poor spawning success and new fry not making it. This is a complex issue that won’t be solved anytime soon. The netting is a huge factor not all to blame. I just don’t understand tribes from Wisconsin allowed to net Mille lacs also. Can’t they net in Wisconsin? We’ll they are killing them there too so I guess they want to thin us out here too. The bass regs and pike regs added to this. Mille lacs isn’t able to handle the size of game fish to the scale it has. It doesn’t have the characteristics of a trophy fishery so why does the dnr think it needs to be. Can’t it just be a good lake to catch a limit to eat. There are plenty of other lakes that already provide a trophy type fishery why does every lake need to be that. Sorry to say it won’t be solved with the tactics they are working on. All the money won’t fix it it will take a group effort of fisherman and the tribes to make it change. For the tribes it isn’t necessary for food and religious is plan a joke. It is the “we can so we will” attitude that won’t help. Mille lacs can’t sustain the harvest levels currently and poundage is a poor way to regulate numbers. Plus it is only a guess anyway. We have a long road ahead and hopefully something to look forward to.

The lake has excellent spawning sucess accoording to dnr anyways. The problem is they don’t get a chance to grow up. That means they either don’t have food or their getting eaten.sure sounds like a food problem to me. There hasn’t been a decent population of perch in a couple of years and tulipee are pretty much non existent. Whitefish and tulipee can only survive in cooler water, millelacs is on the very most southern edge of their region. When the water temps reached the mid eighties a couple of years ago it really put a hurt on them. Tulipee is some of the richest food source in any fishery, take them out of the ecosystem it will have a negative affect.

http://www.startribune.com/local/243033321.html?page=2&c=y updated article

Looking forward to smallie sandwiches this summer.

I have a question and I am not trying to be a funny guy either. How does the DNR really know how many pounds are taken. This is hard for me to understand.
I was checked by them once last year which I had no problem with. The other 20+ times I was on the lake they had no idea if I had my limit, if I had nothing, or if I was a dishonest jerk who took 10 at a time.
Then there is the nets? Do the nets get checked for the amount harvested?

Someone that is a lot smarter than me needs to explain this.

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Food is not the main issue.

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When it comes to the inability of the walleye to make it past the first or second year, the lack of Perch spawning success (and Tullibee) over the past several years probably plays just as much of a role as all the other factors. When the perch spawn is poor, it puts additional predation stress on the young walleye classes. The DNR has reported good walleye spawning success, with really high mortality rates with ‘young of the year’ fish. To me, the lack of forage in the lake means that the good walleye spawn goes to waste because all species end up targeting these young fish. Walleyes are not the only species that eat perch. A few years of good perch hatches could easily reduce the predation on young walleyes. With a strong spawning stock, the lake has the potential to come back relatively quickly. The DNR knows that these big fish are the ticket to an expedited recovery. At the very least, I am happy to see the lake finally getting the attention that it needs.

Pickled smallmouth and pike anyone?

-Drew

The nets are checked by the people who set them and the DNR takes their word for it. Sport anglers are checked by the creel survey folks at points of access. The results are more of an estimate than anything else. I would expect to see a closed season by July if the weather is nice.

Last year the nets were relatively unproductive early due to the late ice. One might almost say the good Lord himself is trying to save the lake from ruin.

I just don’t see how creel surveys can be even close to accurate. Like I said, I was checked in with once or twice after about 20 + trips on the water. I don’t have an answer as to how to do it better but it makes no sense to me. How can this equate to number of pounds taken?

No nets and no harvest for anglers.. Shut all harvest down for a couple of years and lets see where we are at. It sucks and I feel bad for the local businesses up there but at this point it is what it is. In all honesty, unless there is more being done behind the scenes that I don’t know about, I am shocked at the lack of aggressiveness when it comes to the resorts efforts to get rid of the netting. I would think there would be constant and continual outcry for better regulation or a public outcry from them to do away with it.
Is there a reason the resorts are not more involved or a reason why there isn’t more of a unified approach from the resort owners around the lake?

????

How about a 2 fish limit with ONLY FISH OVER 24″ can be kept. Yes I know the small fish taste better. However the big fish are eating more. If the forage is the problem clean out the bigger fish and let the smaller fish grow?

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How about a 2 fish limit with ONLY FISH OVER 24″ can be kept. Yes I know the small fish taste better. However the big fish are eating more. If the forage is the problem clean out the bigger fish and let the smaller fish grow?

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The only problem with this approach is that the bigger fish are the ones spawning and without them there will be no smaller fish. I’m personally not sure what the answer is but I for one want to give the DNR a ton of credit this year for how transparent they are being with their handling of Mille Lacs.

Will, since you are pretty plugged in on Mille Lacs let me run something past you (and everybody else)

I stopped in a shop in Wahkon yesterday and got talking lake conditions with a lady. One thing we agreed on was that there are many, many large fish in the lake of all species. Pike, Muskie, Smallmouth & Walleye. If we assume that large fish eat more forage should we take more large fish out? I mentioned that maybe a “Trophy Tag” much like a Deer tag can be sold. What if in addition to a regular license a person was able to purchase a “Trophy tag” for say a additional $25.00 (pick a amount) You then would be able to catch & keep one Trophy fish of say over 48″ Muskie, 20″ Smallmouth, 45″ Pike, 30″ Walleye ect. These Trophy funds would be dedicated to Mille Lacs only. Either to fund stocking or Tourism.

So if Joe blow went to Mille Lacs to fish Walleye his limit would be X with 1 over X. If he purchased a optional trophy tag he could take 1 Walleye over 30″ for a season. This would draw additional folks looking for that one Trophy wallhanger in addition to removing large fish from the system. In addition a guy could just purchase a normal license if he just wanted to fish as he has in the past.

When buying the Trophy license you would need to declare what species it was for. You also would be able to buy multiple Trophy tags. This I think would be very, very attractive to out of state vacationers.

Keep in mind that a lot of thought hasn’t gone into this it’s just something that drifted through my mind.

I don’t think I’d go for it simply because I like equal regs for everyone and I think it would be impossible to enforce/track harvest for such a system.

I think if we want to take some larger fish out of the lake it would be best to go to the total inches measurement… Say 2 fish limit with 36″ total to be taken which would hopefully force harvest of multiple year classes and essentially limit someone who keeps a larger fish over 22″ to only 1 fish. However any regulation including the harvest of larger fish will quickly result in shutting the lake down because the harvest tracking metric uses pounds of fish so a 24″ walleye counts close to double against the quota as an 18″ walleye would.

I would be more in favor of having the same walleye regs as pool 2 for five years and then assess again. No walleye harvest by anyone and c&r only. Everyone can go fishing and the loss of fish will be minimal.