Early season report: Fishing license sales climb; AIS violation rate down
By Joe Albert Associate Editor
Posted on May 24, 2012
St. Paul — A warm spring and delightful weather on opening weekend of the walleye season mean license sales are running well ahead of last year.
Anglers have bought more than 413,000 fishing licenses this year, compared with just more than 344,000 at the same time last year.
“I would say, good weather (in general) and nice weather on the opener is probably a good reason to get out fishing,” said Dirk Peterson, DNR Fisheries chief.
Despite the uptick in sales, this year is just the ninth-highest sales figure at this time in the past 13 years. In 2000, for example, anglers had bought 461,549 licenses at this time. On the other hand, they’d bought just 338,491 at this time in 2008.
But when it’s all said and done, the total number of fishing licenses sold all year likely will be around 1.1 million. Since 2000, the total number of fishing licenses sold has ranged from about 1.169 million (2009) to just less than 1.1 million (2011).
“And there’s another half-a-million anglers who don’t need licenses – usually kids who are out there tossing a worm into the water,” Peterson said.
When license sales lagged during the early part of last year, there was some concern that it reflected a decline in the number of people fishing. But sales ultimately picked up, though the total for the year likely was dragged down by the three-week state government shutdown, during which fishermen couldn’t buy licenses.
“We’re always concerned about declining participation,” Peterson said. “We have seen that across the nation. It really hasn’t affected Minnesota much, but when we see lowered license sales, that is a concern.”
Though fishing license sales in the state are relatively stable, Peterson noted the state’s population has been on the rise. The state’s population was estimated at 5.3 million during the most recent census.
The estimate in 2000, for example, was about 4.9 million.
“There is room for growth and room for people to take up fishing,” Peterson said.
Invasives update
Conservation officers have been busy enforcing the state’s aquatic invasive species laws.
“Every officer in the state has dedicated additional time from opening of fishing through Memorial Day Weekend – above and beyond what they would normally do,” said Capt. Phil Meier, operations manager for the DNR Enforcement Division. “Our goal with that was to set the expectation for everyone utilizing our water resources that they can expect to be checked by conservation officers.”
So far this year, the violation rate for aquatic invasive species laws has been about 12 percent. Last year, it was 18 percent.
“It’s an improvement, but we still have a long way to go,” Meier said.
During opening weekend, COs made more than 4,000 contacts with boaters. They wrote 70 criminal citations and 135 civil citations. It’s up to the officers’ discretion if they write a civil or criminal citation, he said.
“Our goal is not to write tickets,” Meier said. “Our goal is to have everybody take the responsibility for their actions before going to or leaving a lake.”
The most common violation officers see is boaters not removing their drain plugs and draining the water from their boats. And people seem to be having the hardest time with the requirement that they drain their bait buckets before leaving a body of water.
Anglers should bring water with them (and ice, too, if the weather is warm), drain the water from the bait bucket, and then add the new water before leaving the access.
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Hmmmm…what changed?
I have already had one incident this year where I put the boat in and noticed that it felt sluggish and remembered I had forgotten to put the plug in—-with the current and flow as high as it was that day it could have been bad if I had not noticed the plug was out when I did. Is it going to take the loss of a life before they figure out how rediculous this law really is???? My plug out going down the highway doesn’t do any good to anyone but it is a feel good measure by the powers that be. If they want to do something about invasive species then they need to start dealing with them at the source and now after the cow is out of the barn. How many species have come in in the balast water of the freighters coming into Lake Superior???? Maybe they should pull their plug out in international waters and stop harrassing the little guy. This situation would be hilarious if it wasn’t so very sad. This whole thing reeks of the Keystone Kops 
Just kidding. Or am I? 
