Mille lacs Muskie Proposal. 48″ Minimum

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As far as a first timer of newbie catching a mid 40″ fish, is it not better to teach them the importance of catch and release and how to properly handle and release a fish, then it is to put that fish on the wall.

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YES!

I respect everyone’s opinion here but think about what Bob is saying here. It is patronizing to think that a young man or young lady is going to get more enjoyment over hanging a modest-sized fish on the wall than they will from releasing that fish after taking a photo and measurements. If they want to memorialize the event they can blow the photo up to life size or have a replica made (they look better and last longer anyway). The feeling one can get from catching and releasing a large fish is not easily replaced. I honestly don’t believe a dead fish on the wall is going to give someone that same feeling. Muskie, Bass, Walleye, it doesn’t matter. We need to have some waters reserved as true trophy fisheries and increasing minimum length limits can only help in the cause. I applaud the DNR for making an effort…

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If some joker gets lucky pulling a Daredevil with his Zebco 303, let him have the fish, who cares…

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Dan,

For every guy like you or me or Gary, there are a thousand guys out there with the Zebco 303. If they each take one fish, that’s a lot of fish. The strict regulations may seem harsh to casual fishermen but we’re talking about a relatively rare fish here.

And for Timmy: I appreciate your story about the 8 year old and his big Muskie. The future depends on those who spend time out on the water with kids and making sure it’s a positive experience. In this case however it was a golden opportunity to teach this young angler a catch and release ethic he would have carried with him for the rest of his life.

Rootski

As far as kids fishing – all over the place today I see kids growing up too fast. I think that a kid keeping a musky is so insignificant in the grand scheme of things that I say let ’em be kids! Any kid in my boat is more than welcome to keep a fish.

MM – Like I have said before – current regs are STILL improving our fisheries. They are getting better, so let’s let them be. I don’t feel the need to tighten restrictions even further to cater to the minority at the cost of the majority. Along with the talk of a 48″ proposal comes the drumbeaters claiming that the fisheries will collapse if we don’t embrace the new regs. What a load of B.S. – the lakes did not get into the shape they are now if the current regs will wreck them. This horse is dead – I will stop beating it.

MM – You mentioned some other lakes that were successes – namely Vermillion. I am from near there and grew up spearing pike in the winter there. Muskies Inc lobbied our spineless MN DNR to restrict spearfishing for pike to protect their precious muskies after tehy really started to take off. The DNR enacted a tight slot – (30 to 40″ protected slot for pike) that effectively eliminated spearing on that great lake. A small special interest group muscling out the local, traditional methods to further their cause. That is a very sore subject in my circle of friends. They came in and forced their will on everybody else and then make everybody change their ways to accomodate like a bunch of bullies – that is a bunch of crap in my book and the number one reason that MI will never see another dime from me. (The hate mail should be rolling now…. )

I have tried to give you an honest account of what the situation is and now I see there is a hidden agenda involved. GET OVER IT. I grew up sitting in my Grandfather’s lap in his spearhouse buddy. Don’t sit there and act so high and mighty. Things change and we have to change also. If you want a resource in the future grow up and think a little. There is no way in hell the Pike population can withstand spearing anymore. I probably learned more about fish and their behavior staring down my Grandfather’s spear hole than anything else I have ever done. BUT that was a different time and different culture. Join the real world and become an instrument of conservation instead of expoltation.

Negative, my man, negative. No hidden agenda at all. My agenda is very clear – No special interest groups should make the rules for the the majority just to satisfy their own self-rightous cause.

I love to flyfish stream trout and release all of them. I think a total catch/release fishery would be the best for the streams, but I sure as heck would vote against mandating that. Just because I would prefer something does not make it right to force my will on the other groups of people that enjoy different viewpoints. That old timer or pair of kids soaking worms with a bunch of trout on a forked stick have every bit as much right to be there as I do.

I fish a lot and release nearly all of the fish I catch – because I want to – no other reason. A small group mandating that to further their own cause at the cost of the rest of the angling public is crap.

As far as the pike populations not withstanding spearing, I am not sure where you get that info. The good lakes back home that still get speared are still good pike lakes. If they could not handle it, there would be no good pike fishing left anywhere. Bass, pike, trout, musky, you name it they all have a sustainable harvest level.

Repsectfully – TIm

When I was about 6 years old my Grandfather took me to a lake that was freezing out. The DNR came and cut a huge hole in the ice and people were allowed to take everything they could get because the lake was freezing out anyway. People brought pitchforks, spears, and gunny sacks. They worked as teams and one speared the fish shoved the fish between their legs and their partner stuffed it into the sack. There were fist fights, shoving, swearing and total chaos. When we got home my Grandmother asked my Grandfather what we had been doing? He told her and she was upset and asked him why he would take me to see something like that? He said he wanted me to see exactly what people were capable of. A good life lesson. She then said that he could take me to church on Sunday if he wanted life lessons to be learned. (He hated to go church but he did).
Sorry but I’m not naive enough to believe that everyone will police themsevles. I’d rather rely on regulations over total chaos, but that just me.

I guess I am not seeing the direct relation of that scenario to the current scenario of tightening an already tight regualation to satisfy a just a few.

In your story, people caused chaos over a legal activity, but in the musky debate, I have yet to see people fistfighting over a gunnysack of 40-48″ fish? Like I have re-iterated – the current regs are improving our resources.

Tim

i am so against it. but last time i posted about this topic i got a new a$$ hole ripped for what i said by a lot of guys so all i am sayin is bummer.

This is my last post on this subject. Do you honestly think that the Ontario Ministry is wrong for going to a 48 inch minimum on much of their trophy waters? How about total release on Wabigoon and Lac Seul to save those fisheries from total destruction? Regulation isn’t to benefit a few individuals, this regulation is to protect and maintain what could be a World Class fishery. I truly wonder what spectacular works nature could come up with if we would allow it to even grow up before harvest.

Ok – my last post in response to MM also.

Ontario manages oligotrophic lakes – cold, deep, infertile waters.

Our waters are not the same – ours are mostly mesopthrophic or edging towards eutrophic in some cases. We have a lot warmer waters that are a lot more fertile – supporting WAY more bio-mass than the cold waters of Ontario. These types of waters can support a lot more mortality in the poulation with no ill effects.

Comparing our fertile fish factories to the cold waters of the north is really like comparing apples to oranges .

Back to the question I posed that you ignored: How did our waters get so great now if the current regs are dooming them to failure?

Like I said – it is my last post in response to you, so feel free to rant away .

Tim

Don’t shoot me for an off topic post here…looks like the smoke is clearing anyway.

I have to say, I’ve learned more about muskies in these 4 pages of dialog than I knew in my life! Thanks!

My favorite wife caught her first muskie while trolling for eye on the Croix a few years ago..about 12 pounds by the spring scale..yes, I did subtract out the net…

She had never seen one before and quite giddly told my neighbor about it when we got home. Her head got bigger when he said that’s the fish of 10,000 casts…

She just moved the almost life size photo out of our hallway a few months ago…now it’s in my bedroom. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I see is my favorite wife holding this muskie…that’s three times bigger than the largest I’ve ever caught.

I put my faith in the DNR. They have the resources, information and educated folks…I don’t. I have my (one person) experiances and opinions as to what makes sense to me…and that’s it.

Sure wish there were more ski’s around when I was growing up!

I guess I fish Mille Lacs enough to have an opinion on this.
I thinking they should have a slot for the muskies. Let us keep, say, two 24-36 inches for the table and one trophy over 50 inches per day.
Hey, I have to drive darn near 200 miles to get to Mille Lacs something is getting eaten.
My two cents.

You Gator are lucky your leaving town….

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You Gator are lucky your leaving town….

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Yep, heading up to Mille Lacs in about three hours.

Try McDonalds, they have a filet O fish.

Button-Pusher. We’re not biting… lol

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I guess I fish Mille Lacs enough to have an opinion on this.
I thinking they should have a slot for the muskies. Let us keep, say, two 24-36 inches for the table and one trophy over 50 inches per day.
Hey, I have to drive darn near 200 miles to get to Mille Lacs something is getting eaten.
My two cents.

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Timmy;

I do have one question for you.

Knowing how the majority of today’s muskie fisherman think in regards to releasing all of their fish because of the respect for the beast……

How do you think that boy is going to feel in the “future” looking at a mediocre fish on the wall?

Do you think that 5, 10, 20 years down the road, he will be proud of that fish?

When I started muskie fishing, I had the dream of putting a 50″ fish on the wall. I have not done it…….Why? Because what I did end up doing was putting a 29lb pike on the wall about 7 years ago on a small, local lake. I appreciate that fish today, however I do also wish that “today” I would have released it and put up a replica. Why? Because I killed a fish for no other reason that temporary pride and bragging rights.

Point is, yes that kid is going to be happy and proud at his young, tender age. A young tender age where he doesn’t understand conservation and preservation of our natural resources. Today he is proud of that fish.

However, I’m willing to bet some adult beverages with you in the boat chasing skis, that in the future, he will regret it and say he didn’t know any better.

Also, in the future, let alone today…….No other angler is really going to respect the fish. Yes, they will be pround of the kid for catching his first nice musky, but is it a trophy? It maybe a trophy today, but will it be a trophy for him “tomorrow”????

Why not congratulate him and continue to give him higher standards of bigger fish that are truely achievable “today”……

Why not teach him conservation today at the young age so he respects the resources in the future?

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Button-Pusher. We’re not biting… lol

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I guess I fish Mille Lacs enough to have an opinion on this.
I thinking they should have a slot for the muskies. Let us keep, say, two 24-36 inches for the table and one trophy over 50 inches per day.
Hey, I have to drive darn near 200 miles to get to Mille Lacs something is getting eaten.
My two cents.

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Not even a nibble. you guys are getting to know me too well. I just hope I have better luck fishing this weekend.

Gary – Excellent question – something I had not thought of.

My anwser is a maybe. I do believe, though, that at a young age, it is easier to foster that burn to keep after the fishing if a kid is allowed to keep a fish. At that age, I think the risk of souring them on the sport is too big. In the big picture, I can’t see the real harm in it. The incredibly low number of kids that will actually land a nice fish is insignificant, I would think.

As far as regretting it in the future, I don’t think so. He will no doubt have a different view of it, but I don’t think too many guys would regret killing a nice fish at age 8. Whoever wins that bet doesn’t matter, as long as we can share a laugh and a good time over that beer!

We have all seen the list of stages that a sportsman goes through – from wanting the most fish to the biggest fish, etc.. I think that a kid that keeps a big one is merely going through one of the steps in becoming a conservation minded fisherman. It may not be a necessary step, but I doubt if it will adversely affect the long term outcome.

As far as replicas, I don’t like them, but that is a purely personal choice. I don’t begrudge those that do, they are just not for me. I have released some nice fish and opted for the 5×7 picture to hang on the wall instead of the replica.

29#pike? Holy crap! That is a bruiser!

Tim

Does anyone feel that a muskie stamp may be a ticket for protecting the amount of muskies that are taken out by walleye and smallie fisherman who accidently catch a 40plus fish. If you dont have a stamp then your stuck putting it back. The money generated from the stamps could be used soley for muskie conservation. Say we put a $15 tag price on. If you really love to muskie fish this is nothing in cost, but would be to a walleye nut. FF

I am a smallie guy that fishes Mille Lacs all the time, I will never keep a Muskie.
Not that the stamp is a bad idea but who is going to enforce this. We do not have enough CO’s already. I fish the pond 20+ times a year and not in 5-6 years have I ever been stopped by a CO. With that said I would purchase one as the money could go to a good cause. I have hooked one ski while fishing for smallies, my 6 pound test was not up to the challenge

As for the 48″ minimum, I do not see a reason for change as we have a trophy fishery now. Just a bass guy thoughts

Ron

Ron

The reason many Muskie fisherman are worried about the Muskies in Mille Lacs is not because they are not doing well. They are doing very well as expected. Whenever Muskies are initially introduced into a system as prolific as Mille Lacs their numbers and size will skyrocket for a certain period and then level off. The Muskies in Mille Lacs and Vermilion and other newly established waters have done well. They are without a doubt peaking now. After a time however and things start to level off, the added pressure of being the hot new spots targeted by fisherman will begin to take their toll. To maintain what we have NOW. We need to protect what has been developed. I know Timmy thinks it BS but a crash on many of these lakes in the future is a real worry. Proactive conservation is the only way to assure a consistent population that has a chance at possibly maintaining their own population without costly stocking every year. At least these Muskie deserve a chance at maintaining their own population. A 40 inch minimum gives these Leech Lake females at best 2 but more likely 1 and in some cases 0 chances to spawn before being susceptible to harvest. Like I said before in this thread there are dozens of stock and harvest/put and take Muskie fisherys already established. Mille Lacs has a REAL chance to be a World Class Muskie fishery for decades if managed correctly. I just can’t see a down side for anyone in supporting that chance.

Steve Voigt

Thanks for the info.

I never looked at it that way. I see a lot of lakes go in cycles. Mille Lacs and Gull walleyes, Hubert Lake Smallmouth to name a few. If it is a proven way to help the fish than I am all for it.

Ron

I’m all for the 48″ minimum, thats why I fully endorsed the idea at the Input Group meeting.

There are people who go out and target these fish just so they can kill them. They have demented ideas that muskies are the reason they don’t catch other species of fish like they used to. There is one guy in paticular that lives on Big Point on Mille Lacs and thats all he does is troll for muskies. He kills every legal one he catches with a baseball bat. Hopefully this restriction will take a few swings of the bat away from him!

Putting a 48″ restriction is going to help protect the future of this fishery.

The rest of the muskie fishing world is just starting to learn about Mille Lacs, and you will be seeing more and more muskie guides from all over the country starting to fish this lake starting THIS year. Its all over the internet. Guides are planning on coming here from Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and even Kentucky, all organizing and booking trips to Mille Lacs for the chance to fish this unknown “muskie jewel” of a lake that has “world record potential”.

The next thing we need to address is some state restrictions and licensing for non-resident fishing guides working in Minnesota for only the cost of a non-resident fishing license!

Thank you for your continued support on this issue Jack. I hope that this opportunity to make Mn. a World Class Muskie fishery isn’t being taken for granted by this generation of Muskie anglers. If they only knew the effort it took to get to this point. But time will tell. Thanks again Jack.

Steve Voigt

i support the 48″ minimum. as jack said, there are guides comming from all over the USA to guide here on mille lacs. who ever said that mille lacs has the makings of being a world class lake, well you are wrong, it IS already a world class lake. we have to be proactive and regulate it now so the lake will have a ongoing world class ranking. i think that there are alot of mid 40″ fish kept every year. most are caught while fishing for walleye or smallies. i live full time on mille lacs and spend alot of time on the water. i can tell you that there are more people fishing for muskie on mille lacs than ever before. even during the week you have to take a number to fish some of the more popular spots. on some days i think there are more folks fishing muskies than walleyes. there are guides out there on the lake 24 hours a day muskie fishing now days. the regulations need to be changed to protect the breed stock. as a side note, 2 years ago they put 3000 muskie fingerlings in cove bay, the cormrants moved in and followed the school around the bay for a week. the dnr figured they ate all 3000 fish. come and spend a month on the lake and see what it really happening, how many mid 40″ fish are being harvested, fishing pressure, and maybe you will change your mind. by the way, thanks to scott, jack, and all the rest who go to the input meetings and put forth our ideas…………tom fellegy

I agree with a higher minimum length! I am an ocassional musky fisherman and an avid/fanatic walleye fisherman. I had the standard to mount the first 10lb walleye I caught. I did that back in 1994 and I am still proud of that fish, but I wish that I would have let her go! I look at the pictures more than I look at the mount! I do NOT think bad of anyone mounting a fish, but there are many other options today than killing the fish! To me a nice picture is a trophy and I always smile when I think that I let her go and maybe someone else has caught her or how big she may be? If that fish is handled poorly, killed out of spite, or mounted these things can never happen In closing my wife and I were on Waconia over Memorial weekend fishing crappies and sunnies. She caught a 14.5″ crappie and I asked her if she wanted to keep it and mount it or take some pictures and let it go. She let it go after some quick pictures and a measurement! I might get a graphite replica of it for her birthday ? I also had a mid 40’s muskie take a 10″ crappie at the boat, it was the most awesome thing that I have seen in a while! I am heading to Mille Lacs for some walleye/smallmouth therapy! Good Luck this weekend to ALL! 690reece

48″ min is way over due! Mille Lacs has proven itself to be a great musky producer. Why not protect it a little and see what this lake might do in another 5-10 years. Just for the record my 7 year old son’s first Wally was over 25″, a real beast in his eyes. I took the opportunity to explain to him why that fish was more important in lake and that we would have some great pictures. He understood and now asks me tons of questions on what type of fish we can keep and what/why we release them. Just a thought?

I support a longer length for Muskies. There are people who have never caught a trophy fish as big as a 50 inch muskie. I am fortunate enough to have handled a 50 incher and I was excited to let it go. I have no pics with me and the fish but that is in my mind and just an amazing catch. I hope that another person gets to catch that fish again and enjoy releasing it as much as I did. I have no problem keeping fish and no problem releasing it is par of our sport and each fish is worth a lot more than just money.