IDA member Jonny P and family made the paper.
Upper Red Lake crappie craze still carrying on
One of the most remarkable fishing stories in Minnesota history continues to unfold at Upper Red Lake, where anglers still are catching eye-popping gigantic crappies … and lots of walleyes.
By Doug Smith, Star Tribune
Last update: February 06, 2007 – 11:10 PM
Petrowske family: Good fishing.
Doug Smith, Star Tribune
Outdoors
Upper Red Lake crappie craze still carrying on
WASKISH, MINN. – To borrow from Mark Twain, reports of the demise of Red Lake’s crappies have been greatly exaggerated.
Yes, the lake’s famed slab crappies, which have attracted hordes of anglers here the past half-dozen winters, are slowly disappearing — as predicted by fisheries biologists.
But they aren’t gone yet.
One morning last week, local fishing guide Jonny Petrowske and I dropped minnows down holes in 13 feet of water in one of the heated ice fishing shacks that Petrowske and his family rent to anglers.
Before we could get settled, my bobber dipped beneath the cold water and I reeled up a plump 13-inch crappie, shimmering silver and green.
“So the crappie bite is dead?” quipped Petrowske, 31, whose family has been fishing the lake for four generations.
Then we caught another. And another. And another.
For about three hours we landed 16 of the most beautiful crappies in the world, nearly all in the 13- to 15-inch range — twice as big as standard keeper-size panfish. We also caught and released a half-dozen walleyes, and Petrowske caught and released a 36-inch northern.
But it’s Red Lake’s crappies that have been one of Minnesota’s biggest fishing stories in recent years, and anglers from all over the Midwest have journeyed there to fish for them.
A historic occurrence
The crappies, of course, are an aberration — the result of a “perfect storm.” Red Lake — actually two huge basins, Upper Red Lake and Lower Red Lake — long were premier walleye waters. Lower Red Lake and more than half of Upper Red Lake are owned by the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, and no non-band angling is allowed. The state owns 48,000 acres of Upper Red Lake, where non-band anglers fish.
But commercial netting by the band and overfishing nearly wiped out the walleyes by the early 1990s.
In that vacuum in 1995 came a prolific and historic “year class” of crappies that filled the void. The crappie population exploded, and for the past six years anglers have flocked there.
“The moon and stars aligned to allow them to spike like they had never done before,” said Henry Drewes, Department of Natural Resources regional fisheries manager in Bemidji.
It was a one-time deal.
Crappie reproduction since then has been marginal, meaning anglers rarely catch any smaller crappies. And in 1999, the band and state stocked walleye fry in the lakes to jump-start the walleye fishery. That effort, combined with a walleye fishing moratorium, worked, and huge numbers of walleyes now fill the lake. The state’s portion was reopened to walleye angling last spring, and fishing generally has been fantastic.
Is the end near?
For crappies and crappie anglers, however, the writing is on the wall.
“Virtually all of the crappies anglers are catching is that 1995 year class,” said Gary Barnard, Department of Natural Resources area fisheries manager. “Those fish are 12 years old.”
How long will they live?
“We don’t know,” Barnard said. Drewes said scientific literature reports crappies living to age 14 or 15. He doesn’t expect them to disappear suddenly from Red Lake, but just steadily decline from natural and angling mortality.
“We’re kind of on borrowed time,” Barnard said. “Their numbers have to keep tailing off, because we’re not making any new 12-year-old fish.”
And despite the hot action Petrowske and I experienced last week, Drewes and Barnard said DNR creel surveys show that anglers aren’t catching nearly as many crappies as they were a few years ago.
“Five years ago you couldn’t not catch crappies,” Drewes said. “It’s not that way today.”
Anglers still come
Petrowske’s great-grandfather homesteaded on Upper Red Lake and commercially fished its famed walleyes. And the family still calls the tiny burg of Waskish home. He and his grandfather, Jim, and father, Kelly, and Kelly’s wife, Patsy, run Waskish Minnow Station, formally a bait shop, now a fish-guiding business. They rent nine ice fishing houses.
“We’ve had the best fishing this year than the past three years,” said Kelly Petrowske, 51.
They survived the tough years when the walleye fishery collapsed. Whatever happens with the crappies, they are optimistic that the plentiful walleyes and big northerns in the lake will continue to attract anglers.
“There are endless possibilities here,” Kelly Petrowske said.
Said Drewes of the fading crappie boom: “It was a fantastic segue between a totally depressed sport fishery and one that is cranking on all cylinders right now. It was a blessing … for the local communities.
“We were lucky.”
Here’s the link to the complete story:
May not get a limit in an hour but we will always catch some.