So I purchased some property on the Whiteface Reservoir north of Duluth. I was up there yesterday to meet a guy who is going to do some dirt work for me. While I was waiting I struck up a conversation with the neighbor, I was asking about how the fishing was and just general surface conversation. When he somewhat casually mentions that they are letting the natives net on the reservoir again this year. I said this isn’t reservation land and the lake was not always here it’s man made. He says yeah you’d think right?
They let them 3 years ago they meaning the DNR and then said they couldn’t come back for 5 years but they let them back in this year. They can net up to 26,000lbs. They didn’t net very much the first time because they didn’t know where to put their nets so they must have campaigned to come back early. The reservoir is not stocked so it’s kind of burning the candle at both ends in my opinion.
I did a quick search of the DNR web site but couldn’t find anything on it. But I have never heard of this practice of netting on non reservation lakes and reservoirs. Grant it I’m not immersed on all the ins and outs on the laws and policies in regards to netting but this is a new one to me. I have emailed the local fisheries office that manages Whiteface asking for clarification of this. See what comes back.
