RED LAKE, Minn. — New walleye regulations for Upper Red Lake likely will include a two-fish limit and a length restriction as the lake continues its dramatic recovery from overfishing.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources managers are in the final stages of drafting their Red Lake walleye management plan, though details won’t officially be released for a couple of weeks. Walleye fishing is set to resume on both state and tribal waters in May 2006.
But several sources familiar with the proposal said it calls for a two-fish walleye limit and a 17- to 28-inch protected slot, meaning anglers would have to throw back fish in that range.
Henry Drewes, regional DNR fisheries supervisor in Bemidji, said a citizen’s advisory committee helped the agency draft the walleye plan for the state’s 48,000-acre portion of the lake.
He confirmed the proposal includes a bag limit smaller than the statewide limit of six, as well as a protected slot limit, but he wouldn’t specify further.
Tom Neustrom, a Grand Rapids, Minn., fishing guide who sat on the advisory committee, said the plan, which could be revised before it becomes public, also would impose a one-fish northern pike limit requiring anglers to release all pike less than 40 inches in length.
Neustrom represented the Minnesota Fishing Roundtable, a consortium of anglers who help guide the DNR on fishing issues, on the citizen committee. Other members included Upper Red Lake area tourism interests and the Minnesota Sportfishing Congress.
The panel met most recently Feb. 18 in Kelliher, Minn.
Once the plan is released, the DNR will hold public meetings to further discuss the regulations.
Walleye fishing in Red Lake has been closed since 1999, when the DNR and the Red Lake Band of Chippewa imposed a moratorium as part of a long-term recovery agreement to replenish a walleye population that was on the verge of collapse from years of overfishing.
Coupled with three massive stocking campaigns in 1999, 2001 and 2003, the moratorium has helped restore walleye numbers to the point where fishing now can resume. The band controls all 152,000 acres of Lower Red Lake and 60,000 acres of 108,000-acre Upper Red Lake.
A Red Lake technical committee that includes state and tribal biologists, among other interests, has been meeting throughout the recovery process and is scheduled to meet again March 30 on the reservation, Drewes said. The committee first announced its plan to resume walleye fishing in 2006 more than a year ago.
In the meantime, Drewes said, the population has continued to recover.
“What we did through this year was we reaffirmed our decision that 2006 is going to be the right time to reintroduce harvest,” Drewes said.
“The walleye population has leveled off in terms of numbers, and growth rates are starting to slow down. They’ve been growing at an exceptional clip the first five years, so that population in terms of biomass is leveling off, and now the size adjustments are occurring within that population. It’s still a relatively young (walleye) population, with essentially few fish over age 6.”
Pat Brown, the band’s fisheries biologist, said the walleye recovery is proceeding at a similar pace in tribal waters.
The most recent population survey showed a small drop in adult walleyes, he said, but “nothing alarming,” and the rapid population increase after the recovery began is leveling off. According to Brown, female walleyes from the first stocking in 1999 now are old enough to lay eggs, and males from the 2001 stocking will spawn this spring.
He said the population also holds a few older walleyes from hatches in 1989, 1996 and 1997, which predate the recovery agreement. Those fish are anywhere from 25 inches to 30 inches in length.
Red Lake Band of Chippewa officials are exploring how to utilize their share of the lake when walleye fishing resumes.
According to Dave Conner, administrative officer for the Red Lake Department of Natural Resources, options include everything from resuming commercial fishing in tribal waters, to a subsistence-only harvest.
“Red Lake hasn’t determined at this point what means it will be utilizing the harvest fish,” Conner said.
While Conner says anything is open for discussion, it’s not likely the band will open the lake within reservation boundaries to nontribal members. Bemidji State University conducted a survey of band members last summer, and preliminary results show the majority opposed opening reservation waters, Conner said.
He said final results from the report should be available within the next couple of weeks.
Meantime, Conner said, Red Lake tribal officials began a series of public meetings this week to discuss options for reopening the big lake’s walleye fishery. The meetings will include an update on the recovery process, along with opportunities for band members to comment on fishing options. Besides reservation communities, Conner said the tribe will hold meetings for band members who live in the Twin Cities and Duluth. He said it’s too early to say whether the meetings will produce a formal plan for managing walleye stocks in tribal waters or if a vote eventually will be necessary.
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Information from: Grand Forks Herald, http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/
