Mille Lacs Regulations – 2022

One-Fish Walleye Limit Set on Mille Lacs for Spring, Fall Fishing

This was about as predictable as the sun coming up.

I really dont understand this? why would they close the season completely to all fishing than let people keep fish other times… closed over the fourth? so confusing. are they trying to put the resorts out of business?

No, hell no. The resorts are fine with July shutdown over the 4th. Their comment last year with the same two week shut down, “that is fine as our guests will come, even if they can’t fish.” May not be word for word but that is basically what Dean at Agate Bay and Steve at Portside commented.

So a win/win situation for resorts and DNR. The resorts are okay with July shutdown and the DNR is happy as this is usually the time for the highest mortality.

Once again those of us who have a home on the lake take it in the shorts as for a lot of us, that is when our families come visit and we can’t fish for walleyes. And the wheel house guys get to keep a fish all season long with no risk of closure. What a bunch of B.S.

At the last MLFAC meeting, all Parson’s was concerned about was being able to sleep at night and thus DNR with their modeling targets to leave about 50% of the non tribe harvest on the table, year after year, with the 50% on the table in case the bite picks up, a hot summer, etc. Can’t go over, the tribes who controls the DNR won’t allow that.

gonefishin wrote:

And the wheel house guys get to keep a fish all season long with no risk of closure. What a bunch of B.S.

I’ve stated my position on this before too and its exactly the same. There is absolutely no reason for a full open harvest season in the winter if there has to be a closure in the summer.

That being said, a 2 week closure during peak mortality in July is fine by me. I’d rather have a planned closure than an abrupt one.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gonefishin wrote:</div>
And the wheel house guys get to keep a fish all season long with no risk of closure. What a bunch of B.S.

I’ve stated my position on this before too and its exactly the same. There is absolutely no reason for a full open harvest season in the winter if there has to be a closure in the summer.

That being said, a 2 week closure during peak mortality in July is fine by me. I’d rather have a planned closure than an abrupt one.

I don’t have a dog in this fight but the wheelhouse season is usually less than 60 days, isn’t it? It’s usually early January when they can get on the lake and end of Feb when the season ends.

I think these regulations lack any common sense but open water season is 5-6 months versus ice which is maybe 2. A closure during the ice season doesn’t seem comparable.

None of these arguments stated are even relevant for a shut down. They were not even close to the LB’s this past season or the past three..
Just fooling yourself if you think MN DNR have anything to say or contribute to this, except moving the cards in the three card monty.

Matt Moen wrote:

I think these regulations lack any common sense but open water season is 5-6 months versus ice which is maybe 2. A closure during the ice season doesn’t seem comparable.

There are other advantages that wheel houses get though. They can fish with 2 lines and there’s no night ban either.

I honestly don’t have a dog in the fight either, I just think there should be equal opportunities for both open water and winter anglers.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
I think these regulations lack any common sense but open water season is 5-6 months versus ice which is maybe 2. A closure during the ice season doesn’t seem comparable.

There are other advantages that wheel houses get though. They can fish with 2 lines and there’s no night ban either.

I honestly don’t have a dog in the fight either, I just think there should be equal opportunities for both open water and winter anglers.

Good points…it’s a mess all around.

My preference is no closure over being able to keep a fish, winter or spring. Here is what I have been pushing with DNR behind the scene.

1) No closure
2) Limit winter harvest at 10K so that if the bite gets hot again as in 2019, the summer isn’t wiped out.
3) Allow overage. (natives are hung up on this and DNR goes along)

When looking at last year, when 41% of the allotment was left on the table, even with winter, spring, and fall harvest, if there was no closure in July, using recent worst case estimates for July hooking mortality, we would still have been well under the allotment.

But the target for the DNR is to have a 50% buffer built into the allocation. With 50% built into their modeling, they are comfortable with not going over the allotment in case the bite is hot, water is hot, etc. This so as Dave Parson’s commented during the last MLFAC meeting, so he doesn’t loose sleep at night in regards to potentially going over the allocation.

Even though the science shows that an overage would not hurt the lake. The past five year plan with the natives has ended, so for this year the DNR could have taken a new approach, but they didn’t. If anything the current DNR under Walz is even trending more towards being in bed with the natives. If you don’t believe that is the case, read the current 5 year plan which has as the first objective, “Improve Tribal Coordination”. I was given an advance copy of the 5 year plan and asked for input before release to the public. My response, did the natives create this document? The response I received back was, I only had input for the fish data put into the plan, management did the rest and the natives were allowed to read and provide input for the document.

The biggest thing I can never get past on these regs is that just about everything is based on creel surveys and estimates, NOT actual fish counts.
I would never suggest or condone it, but what if everyone on every day said, “sorry we didn’t catch a single fish”?

gimruis wrote:

And the wheel house guys get to keep a fish all season long with no risk of closure. What a bunch of B.S.

While I agree the closure sucks. As far as us wheelhouse guys catching all the fish, I can assure you the guys I know that spent a fair amount of time on the lake this winter did not exactly pack their freezer. It was slow fishing to say the least.

John Rasmussen wrote:

While I agree the closure sucks. As far as us wheelhouse guys catching all the fish, I can assure you the guys I know that spent a fair amount of time on the lake this winter did not exactly pack their freezer. It was slow fishing to say the least.

I don’t think anyone is packing their freezer if the limit is 1 fish. While the open water fishing season is generally better than it is during the winter, I just think it should be equal opportunities for both.

Generally, when the ice season is slow, its an indicator that the following open water season will be too. Not always, but usually that’s how it is.

There are other species to target during the closure and certainly there are other lakes to fish. The first half of July is usually a tougher bite anyways because its so warm out so its probably a moot point on my behalf.

John Rasmussen wrote:

While I agree the closure sucks. As far as us wheelhouse guys catching all the fish, I can assure you the guys I know that spent a fair amount of time on the lake this winter did not exactly pack their freezer. It was slow fishing to say the least.

By the time the wheel houses can access the lake (mid Jan.) the best fishing is over. And it was slow all season.

Correction from my previous post, my recommendation to DNR has been to cap winter at 15K, not 10K as commented in my previous post.

Some numbers from creel surveys

Year/Winter/Summer/Total/Allotment/Total/% of allotment
2018/5981/38290/44271/87800/-49%
2019/15514/77478/92860/87800/+6%
2020/29243/37911/66748/87800/-24%
2021/15861/37627/53485/87800/-51%
2022/6771

We can’t have what happened in 2020 when over a 1/3 of the allotment was taken in the winter, forcing summer shutdown and overage. 2019 and 2021 winter was 15K, thus my take to cap winters at 15K which would not hurt winter fishing unless the bite was very hot.

Three out of the last four years the DNR has been very happy because we were way under the allotment. For 2022, again the DNR is targeting us to leave about 50% on the table. With the slow bite from winter expected to last into the summer, once again we will be well under the allotment.

My main problem with the DNR is that they will not force the overage issue with the natives. If overage was allowed, the DNR could target closer to the allotment. The season could stay open all year, and Parsons could still sleep comfortably.

If the DNR’s science was any good, they should have seen bumps in their netting following the years when allotments weren’t met.

But why would expect anything different with Walz, Strommen, her right hand person for negotiating with the natives who was formerly the natives right hand person, and now two new natives on MLFAC.

bigfatcroixbaby wrote:

Hooking mortality doesn’t happen elsewhere in Minnesota, only on Mille Lacs? That’s the excuse for the closure, no??

Hooking mortality certainly happens all over. The issue is that Mille Lacs has a treaty to abide by that other bodies of water don’t and it has been upheld by the Supreme Court.

Also, for being such a big lake, its really not that deep. Which means there’s no thermocline that develops like on other bigger lakes that have depth.

It’s only going to get worse once they officially own the bottom 1/3 of the lake. I think it’s official now but I am sure it will go to the Supreme Court next and then it will be official official.

bigfatcroixbaby wrote:

Hooking mortality doesn’t happen elsewhere in Minnesota, only on Mille Lacs? That’s the excuse for the closure, no??

Other lakes and portions of lakes in MN get closed for ANGLING, during and after opener because of spawning conditions. But netting Mille Lacs during the spawn has no effect…. and hooking mortality only applies there.

And for the comment above about people going to the resorts over the 4th regardless of the closure is bull. Agate Bay resort has half of the fish houses it used to. So if he’s who your going off….

Just keep however many you want like 75% of the people fishing it and let 25% of the Karen’s complain about it.

If the soft water season is anything like the hard water season, you will be lucky to keep 1 anyway. I always said they need to stock that lake with bait and nature definitely took care of that with the absurd perch hatches in the lake this year.

I do not think this will ever get resolved and the ML walleye regs make my head explode at times, but a couple things I’ve noticed and I think might be true. We have no or little leverage with the ML Band other than if the whole gaming calculus changed either by the legislature or by boycotting their casinos, which when I drive by judging from all of the vehicles in the lot a good number with boats or wheel houses attached is not going to happen anytime soon.

The second thing is my son, my nephews and their friends could give a rip about how many walleyes you can keep as long as the smallie fishing is good and they might happen into a big walleye. I hate to say it but I think this whole fight is important to older guys but not younger guys coming up. When We talk about it which is not much they look at like I have a 3rd and 4th eye. As nephew always says fish the lake for what it is.

beardly wrote:

And for the comment above about people going to the resorts over the 4th regardless of the closure is bull. Agate Bay resort has half of the fish houses it used to. So if he’s who your going off….

I’m not sure how long you’ve been going to Agate Bay, but I would say the houses you see gone are now people that went to having more amenities by getting a trailer along the shoreline and up by the lodge. I’ve been at agate bay for 30yrs, my family has been going for over 50. We’ve seen plenty of people coming and going over the years.

Krh129 wrote:

I do not think this will ever get resolved and the ML <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye regs make my head explode at times, but a couple things I’ve noticed and I think might be true. We have no or little leverage with the ML Band other than if the whole gaming calculus changed either by the legislature or by boycotting their casinos, which when I drive by judging from all of the vehicles in the lot a good number with boats or wheel houses attached is not going to happen anytime soon.

The second thing is my son, my nephews and their friends could give a rip about how many walleyes you can keep as long as the smallie fishing is good and they might happen into a big walleye. I hate to say it but I think this whole fight is important to older guys but not younger guys coming up. When We talk about it which is not much they look at like I have a 3rd and 4th eye. As nephew always says fish the lake for what it is.

Yeah I miss the walleye days where giant smallies were easy to catch when you were all by yourself. Now not so much. Boats pounding every shallow rock pile all day long. Can now see when a few are caught, usually 3-4 boats circling him.😃 I’m 42 does that mean I am old…😂😂

Justin Laack wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>beardly wrote:</div>
And for the comment above about people going to the resorts over the 4th regardless of the closure is bull. Agate Bay resort has half of the fish houses it used to. So if he’s who your going off….

I’m not sure how long you’ve been going to Agate Bay, but I would say the houses you see gone are now people that went to having more amenities by getting a trailer along the shoreline and up by the lodge. I’ve been at agate bay for 30yrs, my family has been going for over 50. We’ve seen plenty of people coming and going over the years.

The current owner is the 3rd since I’ve been there.

I’ve asked this question before, but has anyone gotten ticketed for fishing walleyes during the shut down?

Seems pretty hard to give a ticket for a fish that won’t be in a live well. Long as you’re not on the mud flats pulling spinners or basin trolling seems like fishing smallies is the same as eyeballs.

Land for now…feathers

Doubt if any tickets get written…Beads

oh, the natives are very successful with netting during the spawn and their preference is in the shallows. The most highly netted location on ML is around Doe Island using the Cedar Creek Access. They will set up nets to cover the entire edge of Doe Island going south as in the attached picture. Also attached is an abandoned net I came across a few years back from that location.

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   Net-Placement.jpg
   

Deuces wrote:

I’ve asked this question before, but has anyone gotten ticketed for fishing <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes during the shut down?

Seems pretty hard to give a ticket for a fish that won’t be in a live well. Long as you’re not on the mud flats pulling spinners or basin trolling seems like fishing smallies is the same as eyeballs.

I know more than one person who was warned but not cited during the closure.

Obviously there is some crossover tactics here but what you mentioned is pretty much exactly what occurred out in deep water on the gravel. The regs also say no live bait is to be used during the closure other than suckers that are at least 8 inches long. The party I know had night crawlers.

If you’re targeting bass on rocks with artificial lures you’re good. If you’re trolling lead core over the mud flats, you aren’t. Some common sense judgement should be exercised here.

Feathers wrote:

You could troll leadcore with artificials such as stick baits over the mudflats during the entire closure and never be charged of a violation. If you get ticketed it will not hold up in court.

I’ll pass. I don’t need that kind of trouble.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mr.Beads wrote:</div>
I’ve asked this question before, but has anyone gotten ticketed for fishing <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes during the shut down?

Seems pretty hard to give a ticket for a fish that won’t be in a live well. Long as you’re not on the mud flats pulling spinners or basin trolling seems like fishing smallies is the same as eyeballs.

I know more than one person who was warned but not cited during the closure.

Obviously there is some crossover tactics here but what you mentioned is pretty much exactly what occurred out in deep water on the gravel. The regs also say no live bait is to be used during the closure other than suckers that are at least 8 inches long. The party I know had night crawlers.

If you’re targeting bass on rocks with artificial lures you’re good. If you’re trolling lead core over the mud flats, you aren’t. Some common sense judgement should be exercised here.

Tons of big smallies are caught this way