Dennis Anderson: Unpredictable Mille Lacs harvest tough to figure out
Dennis Anderson, Star Tribune
Published January 23, 2004 ANDY23
Ron Payer, the Department of Natural Resources fisheries chief, is an unflappable guy. Knowledgeable, too. But he must lie awake at night puzzling about Mille Lacs, once a great lake, still a great lake, but now a fishery manager’s nightmare.
Two summers ago, anglers couldn’t keep Mille Lacs walleyes off their hooks. Though most couldn’t be kept because of size restrictions growing out of a management pact with eight Minnesota and Wisconsin Chippewa bands, boatloads upon boatloads of anglers visited the lake nevertheless, just to share in the experience of catching so many walleyes, many of which were longer than 20 inches.
So many fish were caught the treaty-fisheries quota of walleyes allotted Mille Lacs anglers was exceeded by about 40,000 pounds, not so much measured by fish taken home, but by those that died after being released — fish that also count against the anglers’ quota.
Walleye fishing on Lake Mille Lacs in 2002HandoutLast year just the opposite occurred. The lowest walleye harvest in history (by angling) was recorded at Mille Lacs, with only 67,000 pounds taken, a figure that included hooking mortality.
Paradoxically, last year’s low harvest occurred after the DNR liberalized the lake’s walleye fishing regulations from 2002. In 2003, anglers could keep four Mille Lacs walleyes, though none between 17 and 28 inches were allowed (one more than 28 inches could be kept).
DNR fisheries managers wanted the 17-28 inch walleye “protected slot” to remain in effect on the lake for five years. Stabilizing harvest regulations in this manner, they believed, would give researchers a better chance to understand the effect, if any, of the restriction on Mille Lacs ever-changing walleye fishery.
Another benefit of stabilizing harvest regulations, and an important one, would be that Mille Lacs resort owners could tell their customers well in advance of summer what to expect in terms of angling restrictions.
Change in plans
Now it appears that stabilized harvest regulations won’t be in effect on Mille Lacs for five years — or even two.
“It wasn’t that so few walleyes were caught last year on Mille Lacs,” Payer said. “In fact, between 400,000 and 500,000 pounds were caught by anglers. But most of those fish were in the protected slot and had to be released.”
In an attempt to help develop new angling restrictions for Mille Lacs, biologists representing the DNR and the Chippewa met Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the status of the Mille Lacs fishery.
No matter what restrictions ultimately are agreed upon and announced perhaps sometime next month, the stabilized regulation idea for Mille Lacs is out the window, Payer said.
The reason is twofold.
First, as last year’s harvest data indicate, Mille Lacs presently has relatively few walleyes that aren’t 17-28 inches long. Put another way, if last year’s Mille Lacs walleye regulation is allowed to stand, anglers likely would again harvest a record or near-record low number of Mille Lacs walleyes.
Secondly — notwithstanding the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming the Chippewas’ claim to up to half of the fish and game in a 12-county region of east-central Minnesota, including Mille Lacs — any regulation that again limits anglers to a mere 67,000 pounds of walleyes is simply unacceptable politically, socially and economically.
Payer’s challenge is to find other-size fish for anglers to catch and keep this year on Mille Lacs.
In doing so, he can’t very readily target fish of less than 17 inches because DNR test nettings last fall confirmed what anglers said with their harvest data last summer: That very few of those fish exist in the lake.
Moreover, those same walleyes are some of the very fish the Chippewa will target again this spring with their nets.
Bit of a gamble
The Chippewa said they will limit their annual Mille Lacs walleye harvest to 100,000 pounds for the next four years. Last year, the bands fell short of their 100,000-pound quota by about 30,000 pounds
In a meeting early next month with Mille Lacs area resort and business owners, Payer and his fisheries managers likely will recommend that anglers this year on the lake be allowed to take some of the lake’s larger walleyes — the very fish that were protected by last year’s regulation.
Doing so, Payer believes, is a bit of a gamble because no one can predict when the lake might turn on and these larger fish begin to be caught and kept in high numbers.
“The bigger fish are the lake’s brood stock,” Payer said. “The challenge will be not to harvest too many fish greater than 20 inches while still giving anglers some fish to keep.”
Complicating matters further, Mille Lacs likely won’t have a walleye year-class mature into the 14-16 inch range in significant numbers until 2005 and possibly 2006. That’s when the 2002 year class of Mille Lacs walleyes will become keeper size, filling a gap created when the 2000 and 2001 year classes were disproportionately preyed upon by larger fish due to a lack of forage fish in the lake.
“I’m not sure yet exactly what we will do in terms of regulations,” Payer concluded. “But whatever we do, our goal will be to optimize for non-band anglers the chance to keep as many walleyes as is possible, while keeping the fishery sustainable over the long term.”
Finally, two additional Mille Lacs walleye management notes:
• Though some Wisconsin Chippewa bands have expressed an interest in commercializing their portion of the Mille Lacs walleye harvest — meaning sell their fish on the open market — Payer has heard nothing new on the subject. “We would want to be very involved in that if it did occur,” Payer said.
• No talks are occurring with the Chippewa to explore the possibility of purchasing or leasing the Indian’s share of Mille Lacs walleyes, and Payer said he knew of no plans to do so.
Dennis Anderson is at [email protected].
