How Mille Lacs Compares?

Where does Mille Lacs’s catch rate of 15.9 walleyes in standard gillnet surveyed catch rate per effort stack up to other large and famed walleye lakes?

Vermilion 15.65
Leech  9.085
Cass 10.80
Winnie 2.86
LOTW 18.16
Pepin 5.04
Rainy 5.71
Kabetogama 9.55

The only one that Mille Lacs doesn’t stack up favorably to because none do is Upper Red which is literally a walleye factory and 38 and some change….

Not saying anything one way or the other in terms of politics or management—just saying that the lake is full of fish and to acknowledge that it is in a class of it’s own and to enjoy it fellas!

One thing to note: Winnie is currently where ML was in 2012 in terms of their zebra mussel explosion, FYI.

Upper Red 36.80
LOTW 18.16
Mille Lacs 15.90
Vermilion 15.65
Cass 10.80
Kabetogama 9.55
Leech 9.085
Rainy 5.71
Pepin 5.04
Winnie 2.86

A couple of things to note:

1. URL seems absurd at 36.80 but after the size classes of 12″-14″ (300 fish sampled) 15″-19″ (375 fish surveyed) is the 20″-24″ of which a total of three fish (3) were tallied, representing the three largest walleyes surveyed in the standard gillnets. (10″-11″ 40, 8″-9″ 16, 6″-7″ 2, represent the 736 walleyes surveyed in standard gillnets). URL produces lots of fish but not many big fish, and has a reputation for this.

2. Winnie is in the midst of a zebra mussel boom and the clearest the lake’s water has ever been; similar to what Mille Lacs experienced in 2011-2014.

Zander, that is some good info. Thanks for posting. Where did you find the numbers?

Off the MN DNR lakefinder. All info listed is from the most recent fisheries survey. The current info listed for Vermilion for instance was from July of 2017, due to it not being updated with the 2018 info as of yet.

Isn’t it weird that no one is talking about Mille Lacs having basically the best counts of any lake in the state?

Besides LOTW which is only slighlty higher, and being freaking LOTW probably the best walleye lake in the world, and URL being full of dinks….no other lake besides Vermilion can even hold a candle to Mille Lacs. It is literally better than ALL OF THEM.

Yet despite that being fact, all that’s heard is still bad press….it’s bizarre.

Where are the headlines that read:

“Mille Lacs Is Back”

“Mille Lacs—A Return To Glory”

“Gold Rush—Mille Lacs Walleyes Booming”

Am I the only one that finds this pretty odd?

the bad press isn’t all related to fish counts. heard the warf just went out of business. more fish doesn’t mean the problems are solved

Good share

Here is some new numbers for you. The DNR meeting last week stated that we have just under 28 per net!
We can only have 1 fish this winter?
Those numbers are way above other lakes!

Dean – that is good news. We’ve enjoyed C&R the last several years… but hoping we can keep one or two next spring finally. My son will be 7 next spring, and I don’t think he’s seen us keep a fish from Mille Lacs yet although we’ve caught hundreds together, LOL. Already looking forward to another year regardless…

deanfisher1 wrote:

Here is some new numbers for you. The DNR meeting last week stated that we have just under 28 per net!
We can only have 1 fish this winter?
Those numbers are way above other lakes!

It’s just over 28lbs per net….in offshore nets….

Different stat—same big picture

The benchmark with the tribes agreed upon for expanding harvest was 20lbs per CRE. Last year was 18.7 or 18.9….can’t remember off the top of my head.

This year crushed the benchmark. Hypothetically speaking, there should be vastly opened up harvest.

Personally?

I’m fine with C&R and only want harvest unless it’s intended to balance the lake out.