Last week, mama caught a 13″ perch which we kept. In the cleaning house I noticed that most of the walleye carcasses were the same length or shorter than that perch. Hopefully that was just weekend warriors doing this but if this is a trend across the lake, how will that affect future fishing? Maybe that was a big year class and it doesn’t matter.
I would still like to see a 14 inch minimum. Not just for Mille Lacs, but statewide.
I always heard size didn’t matter. 
I would agree with Jon. Being on the Croix with it’s 15 inch min., that’s a good size fish. I actually prefer to keep the 14 inch saugers.
In the fish cleaning house up at Winne (yes, I get in there once in a while) I see MANY 12 inchers in there…I’ve meausred them. I don’t think the 12 fillet you would get from a limit of 12 inchers would make a meal for one.
Fishenbuddy…only in fishing does size matter! 
One good thing (for the most part) about seeing people keep small ‘eyes is that they aren’t catching any good sized ones. Plus, as long as they are staying within the posession limits, they only have 6 (or whatever the local lake limit is). Unlike the old perch limits, I can’t picture this really hurting the walleye population. So I think the keeping of the “fry” is done more out of frustration of “damn it, I’m eating something” than an actual continuous slaughter of small fish. So Putz, I think you’re right to figure it’s probably someone who spent some money to rent a cabin and they were going to eat something for their time and effort.
I’d start to worry if you see 12″ remains allong with green and gold spray paint to turn them into perch. 
Quote:
Fishenbuddy…only in fishing does size matter!
Are you saying I should not take the little lady fishing Brian 
I agree with the 14 inch minimum but the DNR chose to leave it open so people could keep the smaller fish that swallowed the hook or were injured.Unfortunatly you have people that see these as shore lunch.They say there is a huge class of these smaller fish and by fall should be eating size and should provide some good action this winter.
I also agree with a 14″ minimum not only for Mille Lacs but State wide. I guess I don’t understand the whole thing about deep hooking a sub 14″ fish? Aren’t your odds just as great deep hooking a 20+” fish? So that means you should be able to keep those too ??????? I don’t think so.
I think there should be a minimum in place to again protect the fishery. Is that not our #1 concern here as fisherman? So big deal that I can not keep a 13.5″ fish for dinner. We all fish for one reason, to catch fish ( ok… some of you might fish to get away from the spouse and 
). If imposing a 14″ minimum helps the fishery, I’m all for it! 
Just my $.02 
Last week I was listening to the VHF, and a couple of charter captains were talking about having 40 in the box, and needing a larger livewell. This happens every day up there. I don’t know if it will have an effect. I have my own personal code up there. I did however keep a 13″ because it was hooked very deep.
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