Wednesday Feb. 18th the Mille Lacs Input Group will be having its annual meeting with the state DNR.
The 1837 Ceded Territory Fisheries Committe met Jan. 21 and 22 and a recommended a safe harvest level of 541,000 pounds for walleyes for the year 2009. The state has an allocation of 414,500 pounds of walleye.
Status of Mille lacs Walleye Fishery
Walleye abundance is measured annually using catch-at-age models that incorporate information on angler kill, gillnet and electrofishing surveys, and population estimates. Since 1997, abundance estimates have been used to set annual safe harvest levels. The safe harvest level for 2009 is 541,000 pounds. Data from annual gillnet surveys are used to evaluate trends and determine the status of the fishery (conditions1-3).
Overall stock health: Stock assessment surveys are conducted annually, and consist of a tribal harvest census and the following surveys: recreational angling creel (open and ice), spring juvenile electrofishing, fall trawling, and fall assessment gill nets. A walleye mark-recapture population estimate was conducted in 2008. More than 19,000 walleyes were captured, tagged, and released during the spring spawning, over 4700 walleyes captured with short term gill net sets in early summer and 134 had been tagged during spring spawning in 2008.The estimated population of walleyes 14 inches and longer at the time of spawning in 2008 was 680,000 fish.
The 2008 fall gill net indices for walleyes increased from the low 2007 catches. Catches increased in both inshore and offshore surveys, but the inshore nets were still below average while the offshore net catches were about average. Walleyes from 15 to 20 inches were still under-represented in the gill nets compared to long-term average catches.
Catch-at-age modeling that incorporates all of the assessment data suggests the population is characterized by a large number of mature classes of both males and females. Older walleyes (>9 years) make up a large proportion of the walleye stock. Ages 1 through 4 are reasonably abundant, as are age 6 and 7 walleyes. Age 5, 8, and 9 are relatively sparse.
Body condition indices of walleyes increased from 2007 to 2008 for fish of all sizes, especially for the biggest size classes. Body conditions of fish longer than 20 inches was approximately average for the first time since 2005, and was above average for fish less than 20 inches.
Total fising mortality Anglers caught about 430,000 pounds of walleye in 2008. Total yield (kill) of walleye was 76,000 pounds by anglers and 88,000 pounds by the tribal fishery. Angling catch rate (0.06 fish/hour) in 2008 was very low.
Spawning stock biomass (SSB): The catch-at-age models show an increase in SSB from 2008 to 2009 due primarily to low total harvest in 2008 and an influx of smaller, fast growing walleyes in 2009.