This was a surprise!! - Mille Lacs Lake - Mille Lacs Lake

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Mille Lacs fishing is looking up
By BRIAN S. PETERSON
Outdoors Editor

Jack Dunn wasn’t able to attend the recent Lake Mille Lacs Fisheries Input Group meeting at Hazelton Town Hall in Aitkin. But he didn’t need to attend to know what many never would have guessed.

Lake Mille Lacs’ walleye population may be on the way up.

“I had a great year guiding. My customers all went home with fish,” said Dunn, who has guided on Mille Lacs for more than 10 years and is a member of the input group, which met with the DNR recently to discuss results of the agency’s fall surveys. “I think the lake is on the upswing.”

Success on Mille Lacs, coupled with word out of the group input meeting, which also was positive, had Dunn more than cautiously optimistic. And he wasn’t alone.

“Things are on the way up,” said Pat Schmalz, a DNR biologist.

According to DNR numbers, annual fall inshore netting by the DNR was up from 7.2 walleyes per net weighing 12.8 pounds last year to 9.8 at 18.7 pounds this year. Granted, last year’s totals were the lowest ever and this year’s catch still was well below the average of 15.1 walleyes per net at 27.9 pounds over the previous 25 years. Offshore net totals were 23.4 walleyes at 36.1 pounds – slightly above the average for the last 10 years (19.9 fish, 35.9 pounds). Netting surveys give the DNR an idea of the walleye population and help determine harvest levels on the lake.

“The shallow-water nets showed more fish and the deep-water nets had a lot of fish in them, too,” Dunn said. “(The surveys) show about a 33 percent increase (in walleye numbers).”

According to the DNR, about 67,000 pounds of walleye had been harvested by anglers on Mille Lacs through September, which is still quite low. And while Dunn reported a successful season on the lake, most reports out of Mille Lacs through the summer and so far this fall have been similar to those of recent years.

It’s been slow going on the big lake.

So why the optimism?

“I think a little bit of it was expected,” Schmalz, of the Aitkin area fisheries, said of the increase in net numbers from last year. “The dominant size fish (in the surveys) was the age-three walleye. That would have been the 2004 year class. We’ve known since the fall of 2004 that that was a pretty poor year class, whereas 2005 was a good year class. We expected an increase from that. And the 2006 year class of fish was a pretty decent size. So we did expect a little increase based on those (classes).

“We’re definitely still at a point where we want to be a little cautious, but we’re happy the netting numbers are better than last year.”

As in the past, the DNR will meet with the input group again in February as it works to set its harvest levels for 2009. Those totals have been in flux in recent years, a cause of concern for the DNR, the input group and anglers, who were often left scrambling to keep up on the ever-changing regs for the lake. And although Schmalz said it’s too early to tell if the slot and bag limits will remain the same for the second consecutive year, he said it’s a good possibility – also reason for optimism.

“Overall, it’s generally positive,” Schmalz said of the outlook for 2009. “Some of the goals we had in February, one of the biggest was to maintain some consistency in regulations to minimize the chance we would have to change the regulations in the middle of the season. As of right now, we still have data to analyze and it’s still preliminary, but it’s looking relatively encouraging that we’ll go into next year with the same regulation. It’s something they (input group members) were pleased with. That stability is something they are happy to hear about.”

Dunn agreed.

“This last year, in February, when we were discussing the open-water season, the consensus wanted one, steady number (for limits).”

The lake has a protected slot limit of 18 to 28 inches, with one trophy walleye over 28 inches allowed, and a bag limit of four fish.

“Mille Lacs had a pretty reasonable population of big fish and that remains the case,” Schmalz said. “There are a lot of year classes present out there. There are a lot of old fish out there. A fair amount of bigger fish.”

Said Dunn: “A lot of people got upset because you can only keep small fish, but it’s not as restrictive as Winnie or Leech or Red (lakes).

“I think it’s a cycle. We had a low spot – the tribal harvest and gill nets on spawning beds have had an impact on the resource, as does our harvest regulations. But even before that there were cycles on the lake. Nature has its own ways of balancing this out.

“I see a bright future on the lake.”