Happy with the DNR

I live in southern Minnesota where natural walleye lakes are hours away. Due to stocking, I was able to catch 5 (lost 6th one in the hole) really nice walleyes in the 13-19″ range last night from a local lake. What a treat just 10 minutes from home. It would be too easy to take this for granted and credit myself for being a good fisherman (it was just luck). A lot of work goes into making a stocking program work ranging from getting the eggs, recovering the fry from ponds and putting them into the lake. It also takes some expertise to figure out what stocking rate will work. Take the time to let your local DNR office know when you have been blessed with the fruits of their work. Thanks for the wonderful gift Minnesota DNR!

I also really appreciate the stocking efforts, probably the reason for a lot of my walleye over the years.

Not to put a damper on the DNR but a lot of lakes are not stocked by the dnr. A local lake I fished last night was stocked by the lake or community association.

I won’t jump on that bandwagon. They are doing the job they were tasked to do. I will give a backslap and Kudo’s to anglers who help protect our resources. With the electronics and social media it’s imperative anglers only take what they want to eat and don’t be blasting the “look at me photo’s and reports” naming the exact lake / location all over the net. Stay responsible guys and our lakes will stay healthy.

Who let scrooge in the house?

Kidding a bit Dutch, but whats wrong with a little appreciation and gratitude here and there? Not like we are at the knees bowing in their presence, just a little hey, thumbs up DNR guy.

I also think the walleye stocking program can be great. Perhaps over used in some areas, but no program is perfect and overall it does a good job.

Gill, you know the percentage of dnr vs private stocking is done statewide? I’d imagine private is quite low?

No idea. Not sure how one would find out.

I would imagine that it’s higher than you think. Keep in mind one of the top 10 largest lakes in the state is privately stocked.

Our lake stocks way more walleye on the years the DNR doesn’t and panfish the years when they provide the walleyes. Almost every lake association in our area does the same. All just for the city folks to have a short drive out here to central Minnesota to complain about the numbers and sizes. Ran into quite a few this season already that were disappointed that unlike last season the panfish size is off.

I wasn’t slapping the DNR. They do what they are suppose to do and for the most part do it well. My post was more of a thank you to the anglers because they play as big of if not bigger part in the lakes health as the DNR. I’m speaking on the fisheries side because I really don’t know what the wildlife side does or how well or poorly they do it.

Overall I’ll give them a

Well, I for one will give them a pat on the back. The vast majority of the DNR employees (if not all) I’ve encountered are very intelligent, professional and seem to be one of us. They’re well aware of the politics that drive some of their programs and they still manage to make this a place to be proud of.

Regarding stocking, I just thought it might be a good idea to give credit where credit is due. At least on some of the lakes that I fish.

I for one get a bit tired of all the DNR bashing that goes on here by mostly persons without a scientific much less an aquatic biology background.

I spoke with a DNR employee doing creel surveys at Mille Lacs last fall and I asked him his background and it turns out he had both a Masters degree and a PHD in the field.

I am curious as to how many experts here have even one of these degrees much less 2 of them.

Start another thread in the Mille Lacs forum and I’ll be glad to answer your question.

Merry Christmas

We all know how the Mille Lacs threads end up. I just didn’t want this thread hijacked and nuked.

Merry Christmas to you also.

I had a lot more chosen words typed before I backed up I typed merry Christmas.

Back to stocking. I’ve bought every trout stamp I’ve been eligible to purchase in my life and I use it. The DNR stocks lots of species in lots of lakes and is literally the only reason some lakes are even fishable. It’s only limited by the funding it gets. They do a great job of giving us other choices than the big 10 in this state.

On a side note, if you’re lucky enough to fish a walleye rearing pond after a few warm winters, it can be some epic fishing.

If you check out the dnr website it has all the data from dnr and non dnr stocking.

I think Dutchy had is right. It takes two to tango. Fishermen and the DNR.

January 6th is the DNR Roundtable this year and one of the topics is “changes in the DNR stocking program”. This will be interesting.

My take on the walleye stocking program right now is, if it squeaks, stock it with walleyes. Whether they can reproduce or not. To ME, there is a ton of wasted money in stocking.

I have two years left in the catfish workshop group before I have to rest for a couple years before reapplying. I’m might have to apply for the walleye workshop to keep my hands from going idle.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a CAT night!

PS Kudo’s to the DNR folks in the field that have to put up with us!

Dutch has some pretty good points here.

I have to agree with Brian if a lake cannot support natural recruitment why spend precious dollars on stocking it. If once every ten years or so it needs a boost because of mother nature and her fickle ways I agree otherwise why waste the money.

One lake I fish here is Wisconsin they have been doing a draw down to get rid of weeds to help the Walleye population but the Crappies and Sunfish are suffering for it. I will not get into First Nation aspect of this.

I’m going to disagree with Brian… and a few others.

Just because a body of water cannot reproduce walleye, I don’t think that’s any reason to avoid stocking it. We’d have a pretty bleak list of choices to fish for and actually catch walleyes.

Can you imagine if the 100’s of lakes that are currently stocked with walleyes no longer has them? That only concentrates the pressure on the ones that do. We all know what fishing pressure does to walleye populations.

Although some lakes might not even support stocking walleyes very well, it’s quite obvious the DNR carefully monitors the success through surveys and adjusts accordingly.

If the lake and community associations want to throw their money away in stocking, so be it. It’s not your dollars.

biggill wrote:

If the lake and community associations want to throw their money away in stocking, so be it. It’s not your dollars.

Nope, no argument there.

I just don’t like seeing the DNR throwing my money away.

Help never understand what you mean by “throwing money away”.

I tried to research how many lakes the DNR funds for stocking walleyes but couldn’t find it. There’s a page that supposedly has this info but it appears to be missing.

I suspect that the amount of private stocking is much higher than many people think.

Either way, I say that without stocking lakes that don’t support natural reproduction, we would see much more pressure on the big 10 or 20 that do.

Not a waste in my opinion.

Give the people what they want, it that was bass, let it be, but it’s not. Walleye is the state bird, flower and fish here.

“Of Minnesota’s 10,000 (officially 11,842) lakes, more than 2,000 are stocked every year or every few years”

“Every year the state spends roughly $8 million on the whole stocking program. Half of that is spent on walleye alone, with the rest split between other fish and administrative overhead.”

Here is a 2011 list of stocking. I think the program is quite successful.

People like to catch walleye and eat walleye, a good stocking program is the only way to sustain the fisheries statewide. Yes people need to release more fish, and yes limits need to be lowered but we still would need stocking. Can’t imagine the pressure the large natural lakes that support walleye would see if there was limited stocking, yikes.

Stocking Notes
1 – indicates fish purchased and stocked by private citizens and sporting groups.
2 – indicates fish purchased by the DNR for stocking.

Ok, none of the lakes are indicated with a 1. One of which I now as a fact is privately stocked. This list and the one for 2016 is wrong or not complete.

Coon Lake Anoka county is privately stocked.

Lots of lakes on that list that show private stocking. Look for the 2 next to the lake on the right to start.

Their website and few annual reports I read show nothing in regards to that. Not that I care one way or the other. Just plenty of other lakes in that list that show the private/public stocking.

biggill wrote:

Stocking Notes
1 – indicates fish purchased and stocked by private citizens and sporting groups.
2 – indicates fish purchased by the DNR for stocking.

biggill wrote:

The DNR stocks lots of species in lots of lakes and is literally the only reason some lakes are even fishable.

Captddh starts this thread about talking about the stocking the DNR does on a local lake by him. I am guessing on the lake and am very happy that the DNR is stocking this lake with walleye. But the pat on the back should go to the many voluntaries, clubs, and originations that have cleaned up this water way. This lake was marked inhabitable for walleye at one time and is now clean enough to support them. Check around your local area and help with their clean ups. Most of the events I have attended are only a 2 -3 hours long and make a world of difference. The cleaner the environment is for your slippery friends the better they will do. And this starts with you.

^ Winner Post

You must have been fishing near me. I caught 5 Walleye and 1 Crappie on Saturday evening out there. Believe it or not, natural Walleye reproduction does happen on that lake, it’s just not enough to sustain.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

^ Winner Post

And what’s the prize?

As far as walleye stocking, the vast majority of lakes rely on some levels of stocking to even have a viable walleye fishery. Siding with the DNR here, they have done comprehensive study to determine which waters are worth stocking. Yes, there are some lakes with no natural reproduction whatsoever…basically a “put and take” fishery but likely they have been determined to exhibit good growth rates, ample forage, and less competition from other species.
If you are worried about wasting money, the number of hammer handle pike needs to be reduced in many lakes as they can consume the walleye fry and fingerling stocking as fast as the DNR can put them in. The DNR has recently addressed this with the new pike regs although that has met it’s share of resistance.

If a lake is not stocked by the state, it’s likely the DNR has determined that it is not cost effective or does not have a public access. This is where the private stocking most likely occurs.