DNR Lake info

I was looking at different metro lakes with gill trappings and I’m not sure on how to understand this…Mille Lacs was at 12.9, Prior was at 0.8, White Bear was 2.0, Minnetaonka was 4.5, and Cedar (near Prior) was 16.1…

How is one suppossed to understand this info?…Thanks!!!

I think it is pounds per acre.

Pete,
My understanding is a little limited, but I’ll try and answer some of your questions.
gill nets, and trap nets are used by the dnr to sample the fisheries of the lakes in our great state.
you asked about gill nets, and it looked like you were specifically looking at Walleyes.
the number per gill net (2.0, .8, 4.5) is the number of Walleyes (average) per gill net that the dnr used on their survey. the higher the number, you’d generally think there is a larger population of fish. and again the number of fish is the average no. of fish per gill net.
it also shows the average size of fish they caught. avg fish is pounds per fish. when they are looking at normal range of fish size, and normal range of numbers of fish. they are comparing other lakes data that are similar with the lake you are looking at. similar lake physical and chemical characteristics.
With all this data, and they do surveys every 3 to 4 years, they can tell if a like is growing more and healthier fish, and if there is natural reproduction or not, or if they need stocking or not. they can also see if there are multiple year classes, or some years whole classes are missing for some reason.
the Fisheries people put their collective heads together, and come up with a fish management stategy for each body of water.
slot limits, minimum sizes for legal fish, limiting daily limits, or making a body of water OFF limits.
Hope some of that helps you.
Jack..

so if cedar is 16.1 & miile lacs is 12.9, does that mean that there are 25% more walleyes per acre on cedar than there are on mille lacs?…can that be possible?

Those numbers are correct! THAT is one strong walleye pop. for a small lake. 6-9 fish per pull is great.

‘Course now there will be boats bumpin’ into each other trying to catch’em after they read this.

that’s whats wierd…we’ve fished Cedaryears and have gotten only a couple, we gave up on walleyes a while ago and go after Muskies