Many MN anglers suffer from The Stockholm Syndrome, the psychological phenomenon that occurs when held captive so long that the hostage begins to bond with the warped ideology of their captors.
MN resort owners aren’t capable of planning to meet the needs of anglers outside of the traditional walleye opener? Seriously? The DNR won’t even entertain a catch and release only, continuous bass season with artificial lures only because why? We bassers see might accidentally catch large numbers of walleye that we would also have to release immediately? Sorry, incidental catches of walleye don’t happen often to us bassers and when on the rare occassion that one is caught, there is little to no mortality to those immediately released walleyes. Just as there is little to no mortality to immediately released bass.
Heck, even the closed-season supporter MikeW will be quick to point to the excellent walleye fishing available on Pool 2 of the Mississippi, which is a continuous season, though catch and release only section of the river. Catch and release and other management regs besides a season closure work – and work well.
If you really want to protect walleye populations, the DNRs own research, backed by many others, should point to the closure of our lakes and rivers to livebait fishing in the warm water period of mid-summer and beyond a certain depth. That, and overly generous possession limits, is where lots of walleye mortality is occurring by non-tribal anglers. Close the season or change the regs when it counts most – the high mortality warm water period of the summer months – if you really care about the walleye fishery. Don’t make up some cockamamie story about how catch and release bass fishing is a threat to the walleye fishery.
Yes, the system is broken and broken in so many ways, primarily due to non-biology, non-science based regs that are determined more by political whims and traditions than any thing else.
