Mille Lacs New Walleye Regs

A couple of points from 56386
The local band usually has maybe a dozen netting permits issued. Now the NE MN band & the WI bands a far east as Bad River (Ashland} are far more active. there has been several instances of pickups pulling into field roads and dumping gut piles & intact carcasses of walleyes, pike & muskies, & a few SMB. the east side accesses {Cedar Creek & Liberty Beach I have seen with mt own eyes) will have LEO on site at the entrance to turn non-tribal members away. Dunno about Malmo, Wealthwood, Garrison, Casino, or Cove. CC & LB are very active.
Last spring there was a net / trap out on the south side of Meshegan Point. Basically out in front of the weed bed of the houses / cabins on Lakeshore. A guy who lives on the other side of the point asked me if I had any idea what it was about since I had clear view. When I saw a big Jonboat going out there & vehicles at the city park, I hustled over to the park. The biologist leading the team is based out of Garrison & said it is a trap ne to strip female muskie of eggs the are then fertilized with pike sperm to thenn be stocked in Metro lakes as tigers. Old ML just keeps giving!
We talked for quite a while and he was very interested in my fall night bite. It was good and the #, size & healtyness of 25s & up was exceptional. He said that they had been way off in their modeling.
I’m okay with this reg for this year. Hopefully it will help businesses. Beachside is a couple doors over & Ben & his crew had a lot of traffic on the ice.
Guides are getting their clients on big Muskies. Especially in the fall.

Bladepuller, that is very interesting about the Muskie eggs. I had no idea they were pulling eggs out of Muskies on Mille lacs. Seems odd for many reasons. I assume this was mn dnr? I could see them trap netting for fishery research but not for stripping eggs. I thought most egg take was from leech and broodstock lakes but I’ll admit that I don’t follow that as much as I used to several years ago when I was a serious Muskie nerd, so maybe things may have changed.

Can you share the guides names that are having success on Muskies consistently? I don’t hire guides but I’d be interested to know for buddies that would like to hire them if they can find the Mille lacs giants on a consistent basis. I’m too busy in the fall. Are they all livescopers? Are we talking a few giants each fall or several fish a week type fishing?

I gave up on Mr 55. Pretty pointless attempting a discussion with someone who demonstrates such poor reading comprehension.

Man that plane flew right over your head multiple times now and you still haven’t noticed. To funny.
Hey your first name doesn’t happen to be Richard is it?

FinnyDinDin wrote:

I’m not upset with the rules and don’t blame the health of the lake fish populations on the tribes or netting. I’ve made that clear in the past. Personally I don’t think the lake ever had a problem. Some of the best fishing I have had out there was during the ‘crash’. Lake was nice and quiet and we were a slayin. I’d just like to see some honesty with the situation.

Nicely put. I was out there fishing snallies a couple years ago and watched a pod of nice walleyes move through along a 4-5’ weed edge in broad daylight. That lake is a specimen. Have two Muskies an inch either side of 50” plus my only 40”+ pike from there too. Also know a guy who has figure-eighted big walleyes in the weeds with a bulldawg, and had a 24 ish walleye completely throat a magnum dawg. Those things are about 16” long. Crazy fish. Healthy healthy fishery. I remember when it wasn’t so clear, too. More orange/tannic stained. I remember even in the north sand not being able to see the bottom in like 5’…

Upnorth85, you sure come on this site whenever you think it is beneficial to tout the natives, sorry but I am going to call you out on these comments.

“Of course I’m biased, but I would go as far as to say that the tribes wrote this plan that is obviously beneficial to the state. The tribes proposed the specifics of this plan.”

I have been involved in discussions on ML for a lot longer than you have. While I am not allowed to attend the FTC Meetings, the DNR does provide me with the presentation materials and notes from the discussions. I attend all the MLFAC Meetings and although I applied to be one of the MLFAC members, after I inquired why I was not chosen, someone with direct knowledge in the DNR informed that those making the decisions on members thought there was someone more qualified in my lane, old white guy.

The DNR provides me with their modeling data, their creel survey data, LL Surveys, and any other data I ask for.

I was also provided an advance copy of the 5-year plan for review and input. My reply, it looks like the natives wrote this. The response back was the natives had input about what went into the plan.

Just FYI, before any notes can be published by the DNR, first the notes have to go to the natives for their input and updates. That is why it takes months for the notes from the FTC and MLFAC meetings to get added to the DNR Mille Lacs Web Page. The notes from the last 2 FTC meetings are still not up.

I was also the person who found the net that had been left out of CC Access and took the picture that was put on TV in the metro. I was also provided with DNR Report on this issue and the corrective actions the natives took and the folks responsible for leaving the net.

Now to your comments: For at least the past five years I have been pushing the DNR for three things. 1) A three-year plan, 2) Allow an overage as the science support this, 3) stop with the conservative shutdowns.

The DNR’s repeated responses, year after year, the natives will not allow a multi-year plan, the natives will not allow an overage, Parson’s comment that the DNR sets the goal at 50% of our allotment “so that he can sleep at night.”

The real reason there is a change here is that the DNR was pretty much backed into a corner during last Oct MLFAC meeting over the fiasco from last summer. The amount of heat on the DNR at the meeting left Parson scrambling for cover. He was forced to agree to visit Tutt’s Bait in Garrison and listen to their customer’s feedback on lake management, and went out with Tony Roach for a day on the water to get a real feel for how many fish and forage was in the lake.

One last comment, it was told to me personally by someone very involved from the DNR side in the FTC meetings, that science does not drive the decisions coming out of FTC and managing the lake.

I can’t stop, apparently the natives now want to be able to spear muskies and thus are now in support of starting to stock muskies again.

I also attend the nettings at CC each year as from my lake viewpoint, I can see all the nets set out from Doe Island. From my perspective, the netting is handled very well. I also don’t have a beef with the netting, my beef has been with the DNR being forced to take a conservative approach to management because of the natives. If you’re there this year, keep an eye out for a black ram pickup. I’ll sometimes strike up a conversation with the native conservation officers.

gonefishin wrote:

Upnorth85, you sure come on this site whenever you think it is beneficial to tout the natives, sorry but I am going to call you out on these comments.

“Of course I’m biased, but I would go as far as to say that the tribes wrote this plan that is obviously beneficial to the state. The tribes proposed the specifics of this plan.”

I have been involved in discussions on ML for a lot longer than you have. While I am not allowed to attend the FTC Meetings, the DNR does provide me with the presentation materials and notes from the discussions. I attend all the MLFAC Meetings and although I applied to be one of the MLFAC members, after I inquired why I was not chosen, someone with direct knowledge in the DNR informed that those making the decisions on members thought there was someone more qualified in my lane, old white guy.

The DNR provides me with their modeling data, their creel survey data, LL Surveys, and any other data I ask for.

I was also provided an advance copy of the 5-year plan for review and input. My reply, it looks like the natives wrote this. The response back was the natives had input about what went into the plan.

Just FYI, before any notes can be published by the DNR, first the notes have to go to the natives for their input and updates. That is why it takes months for the notes from the FTC and MLFAC meetings to get added to the DNR Mille Lacs Web Page. The notes from the last 2 FTC meetings are still not up.

I was also the person who found the net that had been left out of CC Access and took the picture that was put on TV in the metro. I was also provided with DNR Report on this issue and the corrective actions the natives took and the folks responsible for leaving the net.

Now to your comments: For at least the past five years I have been pushing the DNR for three things. 1) A three-year plan, 2) Allow an overage as the science support this, 3) stop with the conservative shutdowns.

The DNR’s repeated responses, year after year, the natives will not allow a multi-year plan, the natives will not allow an overage, Parson’s comment that the DNR sets the goal at 50% of our allotment “so that he can sleep at night.”

The real reason there is a change here is that the DNR was pretty much backed into a corner during last Oct MLFAC meeting over the fiasco from last summer. The amount of heat on the DNR at the meeting left Parson scrambling for cover. He was forced to agree to visit Tutt’s Bait in Garrison and listen to their customer’s feedback on lake management, and went out with Tony Roach for a day on the water to get a real feel for how many fish and forage was in the lake.

One last comment, it was told to me personally by someone very involved from the DNR side in the FTC meetings, that science does not drive the decisions coming out of FTC and managing the lake.

I can’t stop, apparently the natives now want to be able to spear muskies and thus are now in support of starting to stock muskies again.

I also attend the nettings at CC each year as from my lake viewpoint, I can see all the nets set out from Doe Island. From my perspective, the netting is handled very well. I also don’t have a beef with the netting, my beef has been with the DNR being forced to take a conservative approach to management because of the natives. If you’re there this year, keep an eye out for a black ram pickup. I’ll sometimes strike up a conversation with the native conservation officers.

I much prefer Upnorth’s input.

That was entirely too long to just say you know alot of DNR people and breaking! The tribe runs the show!

gonefishin wrote:

Upnorth85, you sure come on this site whenever you think it is beneficial to tout the natives, sorry but I am going to call you out on these comments.

“Of course I’m biased, but I would go as far as to say that the tribes wrote this plan that is obviously beneficial to the state. The tribes proposed the specifics of this plan.”

I have been involved in discussions on ML for a lot longer than you have. While I am not allowed to attend the FTC Meetings, the DNR does provide me with the presentation materials and notes from the discussions. I attend all the MLFAC Meetings and although I applied to be one of the MLFAC members, after I inquired why I was not chosen, someone with direct knowledge in the DNR informed that those making the decisions on members thought there was someone more qualified in my lane, old white guy.

The DNR provides me with their modeling data, their creel survey data, LL Surveys, and any other data I ask for.

I was also provided an advance copy of the 5-year plan for review and input. My reply, it looks like the natives wrote this. The response back was the natives had input about what went into the plan.

Just FYI, before any notes can be published by the DNR, first the notes have to go to the natives for their input and updates. That is why it takes months for the notes from the FTC and MLFAC meetings to get added to the DNR Mille Lacs Web Page. The notes from the last 2 FTC meetings are still not up.

I was also the person who found the net that had been left out of CC Access and took the picture that was put on TV in the metro. I was also provided with DNR Report on this issue and the corrective actions the natives took and the folks responsible for leaving the net.

Now to your comments: For at least the past five years I have been pushing the DNR for three things. 1) A three-year plan, 2) Allow an overage as the science support this, 3) stop with the conservative shutdowns.

The DNR’s repeated responses, year after year, the natives will not allow a multi-year plan, the natives will not allow an overage, Parson’s comment that the DNR sets the goal at 50% of our allotment “so that he can sleep at night.”

The real reason there is a change here is that the DNR was pretty much backed into a corner during last Oct MLFAC meeting over the fiasco from last summer. The amount of heat on the DNR at the meeting left Parson scrambling for cover. He was forced to agree to visit Tutt’s Bait in Garrison and listen to their customer’s feedback on lake management, and went out with Tony Roach for a day on the water to get a real feel for how many fish and forage was in the lake.

One last comment, it was told to me personally by someone very involved from the DNR side in the FTC meetings, that science does not drive the decisions coming out of FTC and managing the lake.

I can’t stop, apparently the natives now want to be able to spear muskies and thus are now in support of starting to stock muskies again.

I also attend the nettings at CC each year as from my lake viewpoint, I can see all the nets set out from Doe Island. From my perspective, the netting is handled very well. I also don’t have a beef with the netting, my beef has been with the DNR being forced to take a conservative approach to management because of the natives. If you’re there this year, keep an eye out for a black ram pickup. I’ll sometimes strike up a conversation with the native conservation officers.

Thank you for your response. I still like to receive information from multiple sources to allow for more objectivity to form my non-stagnant opinions.

I come and go on forums and social media, it all takes a fair bit of time and energy to respond to everything.

That was a long post, most of which does not warrant a response, but my name is on it so I’ll hit a few points.

1) As of 2025 we have an overage plan, it’s specifically designed to allow harvest and avoid closures. I’m confident in the current policy. No more all year catch and release regs like last year (I hope).

2) Its true the Bands will not allow a multiyear plan. I do not support this.

3) I hear often “it’s not based on science”. Which in my experience most sportsmen only believe science that fits their perception anyways but here goes:

The quotas are based on science, of course its a looser science than a velocity calculation in physics or something but it is based on science, it’s quite quantitative actually.
There are three metrics:
A year class strength index of ages 0 – 3
The fall gill net total poundage
The Statistical catch at age modeled adult biomass estimate,
the last one incorporates a ton of actual measured data

These metrics suggest an exploitation rate. Now here’s where there is some subjectivity. There is no strict formula to suggest an exploitation rate. I would love a scientifically rigorous exploitation rate formula. The FTC may develop one, but at the moment we don’t have one.

This year the quota is set at a 13% quota exploitation rate. An analysis done by a gifted retired DNR fisheries stats guru suggests that by using 13% there is a 98% unlikleyhood of over exploiting the walleye population. I like using 13%, it’s conservative but allows for significant harvest.

This year, the 13%, used in conjuncture with the new policies, I expect will result in the most total walleye harvest, and highest actual exploitation rate in over a decade (measured at the end of the season). This is something I plan to watch very closely over the next few years.

I expect this will be a great and busy season, good energies all around. I look forward to it.