The Minnesota DNR as announced new slot size limits for Rainy Lake and Kab.
18 to 26 for Rainy and 20 to 26 for Kab. Bigger better eaters this year.
Hopefully I posted the link below properly.
http://news.dnr.state.mn.us/2015/12/28/dnr-announces-new-special-angling-regulations-2/
I saw Rainy’s change but Kabetogama wasn’t listed unless I missed it.
Kabakona was.
I doubt this helps either lake. Some/many days the ratio of “overs” to “keepers” at Rainy is 50 or more to 1. Not much different in many areas at Kab as well. Those over 22″-23″ need to go. Most or all of them before it’s too late. There is a solid reason the bite has been so consistently hot….and I am guessing, as we saw on Mille Lacs 3-4 years ago—MOST of the released big ones are biting again and again and again within minutes—at least 4-5 times an hour–same fish–eating everything in sight. ( Mn. DNR watched that happen countless times at Mille Lacs –in person–and still used the total times “fish” were reeled in vs. how many were actually different fish reeled in–thus making the “mortality” number MUCH higher than reality. ( you can kill the same fish more than once–right? lol)
Long term slot limits? Death wish…
I think Rainy, for one, is in a bad way for down the road. Hot bite now! Big fish–no problem! Great pics–no problem! Livin’ the dream! And livin’ in denial..??
I’ve fished Rainy 3 times now (all in early October). Each year, we get a little better at finding fish and I can say that we catch quite a few fish that were in the old slot of 17″ to 28″. I cant say that this will change much for us when we go up this October as we catch very few fish that were on the low end of that slot though, most slot fish we catch are 21″ to 24″
In my group’s trip last July we struggled a little to catch eater size fish, but we caught almost as many walleye 13 inches or less as we did over 17 inches. While there was definately a gap of eater size fish it looked to us like it was just a year class (or maybe two years) without good numbers but seems like there are plenty of smaller fish. We are heading back up again this coming July and are hoping to find more eater size fish, even though it is fun to catch lots of 20+ inch fish. We stay at Kettle Falls, so we are fishing the far eastern end of the lake.
Long term slot limits? Death wish…
I think Rainy, for one, is in a bad way for down the road. Hot bite now! Big fish–no problem! Great pics–no problem! Livin’ the dream! And livin’ in denial..??
Slot limits and reduced bag limits are the main reason the fishing is so much better now on Rainy than it was 45 (or 30 or 20) years ago. I fail to see the logic of how slot limits and reduced harvest leads to poorer fishing. Limit your kill, don’t kill your limit.
Three trips so far this year = 90 smallmouths and a few pike. No walleyes yet but who fishes for those when bass are biting? Oh OK, I will eat the first keeper I catch this spring.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>steve-fellegy wrote:</div>
Long term slot limits? Death wish…I think Rainy, for one, is in a bad way for down the road. Hot bite now! Big fish–no problem! Great pics–no problem! Livin’ the dream! And livin’ in denial..??
Slot limits and reduced bag limits are the main reason the fishing is so much better now on Rainy than it was 45 (or 30 or 20) years ago. I fail to see the logic of how slot limits and reduced harvest leads to poorer fishing. Limit your kill, don’t kill your limit.
Three trips so far this year = 90 smallmouths and a few pike. No walleyes yet but who fishes for those when bass are biting? Oh OK, I will eat the first keeper I catch this spring.
Or….eliminating the gill netting was the first step to bring the lake back?
And about 5-6 years of slot limits and relative regs did the rest. But….the present day scenario–although producing lots of big walleyes, is a sign the slot limit has been in place too long–long predicted by Mn. DNR biologists in general regarding long term slot limits. The sign of an unhealthy fishery is a fast and furious bite –years on end–and MOSTLY big walleyes contrary to a balance of all year classes in the catch–very few being big. The long term ( 20 years now) slot limit has, obviously, created a much bigger than normal number of big walleyes and therefore a bigger number of predators that the normal carrying capacity of the lake can handle forage-wise. YOY walleyes become the only “forage” left. Lack of good year classes for several years growing to adults is the outcome –right before the OLD “protected’ walleyes die off and you then have ….??
Yes… the Rainy fishery is hot these days–all species. Why and for how long? It is “numbers’ game…and the slot limit related numbers over a LONG period of years end up being smaller/fewer than before the slot limit was put in place. The math/outcome is almost inevitable at best.
Understand? If not…your choice and prove me wrong a few years from now? I hope I am wrong…
Years ago the myth was that there were too many crappie in Rainy and they were eating up all the baby walleyes – NOT (it was the gill netters I believe). I have cleaned many walleyes with baby crappie in their stomachs but never the other way around. Then it was the all the sturgeon that were now so numerous on Lake of the Woods that they were eating all the walleye eggs there. Now apparently the story is that the walleyes that are eating up all the walleyes! When I clean fish from Rainy what I find they have been eating mostly is crawdads, perch, mayflies, sculpins, shiners, and ciscos. Sadly the smelt seem to have disappeared. Once in awhile, I find a walleye in a pike. But for every walleye I find at least a hundred perch. Apparently smallmouth bass are too ornery (har!) to be eaten as I have yet to find one in another fish’s stomach.
I have no trouble catching walleyes of all sizes (well the BIG ones are scarce) on Rainy. And if you go to Red Gut Bay or Spawn Inlet in summer you will find it is absolutely loaded with dink walleyes. So I don’t think there is any shortage of little ones. The reason eaters are sometimes hard to catch is most of them are KEPT. I do wish they would have a minimum size on Rainy in addition to the slot. It is sad to see the cigars some people are keeping for shore lunch.
The best fishing for any species is on waters that have had restrictive harvest for several years. The fewer fish removed, the more there are to catch.
I have no dog in this fight but, from what I can tell, people still wanna keep and eat fish, why wouldn’t they go to a body of water that lets them, is that wrong ?
Nothing wrong with that. Rainy still lets you keep plenty of eaters.
What I am saying is that I think the slot on Rainy has greatly improved the fishing. And I don’t see how leaving it the way it is could possibly hurt.
I can’t believe there’s enough fishing pressure to cause the problem on lakes of this size. There is just too much water.
I’m going with the too many bigger fish theory also. I’ve seen it more on Kab than on Rainy. According to the DNR reports the perch have really taken over on Kab.
I think changing the slot to 18-26 is a good thing. It will bring more anglers to the area. There is plenty of water on this lake and more ethical anglers than d-bags. If fishing goes down because of it then bring back the 17-28. Either way, getting your limit isn’t hard if you’re willing to work for it. And if you strike out, the beer is always cold if its been on ice all day.
To add to my previous post, we caught very few fish that were between 17″ and 18″, most of the fish we kept were between 14″ and 16″
To add to my previous post, we caught very few fish that were between 17″ and 18″, most of the fish we kept were between 14″ and 16″
Glad you were catching good eaters. I will be up there week of May 28th, I’m expecting a good shallow bite and more seasonable weather. (Warmer) I think it would have been nice to see Kab and Rainy both be at 18 to 28 don’t understand why it isn’t the same. From some of the DNR reports I read upcoming year classes in Rainy were better then Kab so why the difference?
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
