Ive always been one to say, that in these days with terrorism cancer and nuclear warheads, the last thing thatll kill you is eating a fish. However, I hear of some of you who keep the walleyes on the river. I know in St Paul, its considered unsafe, is this a concern for you folks, and why???
Keeping fish out of Pool 2 is not a concern since the entire pool is catch and release.
Elsewhere the MN DNR has found the fish to be plenty safe to eat if you stick to the smaller fish. Check the DNR website for consumption advisories.
In St. Paul it is not legal to keep a walleye, so eating one is a mute point…atleast below the Ford Dam to Hastings. As for other areas, such as Red Wing, I have ate many walleyes and so far it has not affect affect affected me! 
Seriously, unless you eat a lot of fish from the river, which by the way has gotten much cleaner over the past 30 years, there are more serious things to worry about….Like trying to get home in rush-hour traffic.
If you haven’t already, check the DNR site and they should have something in there telling how much fish is safe to eat from any body of water, or atleast a number you can call and ask. 
Follow the consumption advisories, especially for children and pregnant/may become pregnant women.
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Follow the consumption advisories, especially for children and pregnant/may become pregnant women.
Agreed
Also the bigger the fish, the less consupmtion advised. Lucky for them big girl eye’s 
Bret
This is probably in the link provided in a previous post…but the Minnesota DNR advises people to eat no more than one meal of fish per week if those fish come out of the Mississippi below the Cities. They also advise only eating fish that weigh less than five pounds. This is because larger, older fish absorb more of the PCBs (one of two active ingredients in Agent Orange), mercury, and other toxins that continue to be a problem in the Mississippi. The Minnesota DNR especially advises people not to eat channel cat over five pounds, because they and other fatty fish absorb and hold more toxins than do leaner fish.
PCB levels are slowly declining in the river, as they are no longer used in the US, but PCBs break down very slowly, and it will take a very long time for the river to be rid of them. PCBs cause genetic damage, leading to cancer and birth defects, which is why pregnant or nursing women are often advised not to eat any fish from the Mississippi. Mercury is introduced to the river as a by-product of electrical power production, and causes damage to the central nervous system in large doses that build up over time.
The Iowa DNR has no consumption advisories for fish on the Mississippi. Apparently, the river becomes much more pollution-free at New Albin.
I myself ate plenty of small fish out of the river when I lived in Winona. I very seldom ate fish of five lbs. or larger, but I release fish of this size regardless of pollution, except for the occasional big Northern that wound up being pickled. I no longer live right on the Mississippi, so I don’t really have the opportunity to eat large amounts of fish from there.
Like I tell my sister in law…what would become cleaner faster? Moving water…or water in a bowl.
I’m puzzled by the thought that LOTW’s is considered “clean” because it’s up north and a river that is constantly cleaning itself is thought of as dirty.
But then…as stated above, let them polluted old fish get BIG!
Eat it, enjoy it, do not subsist upon it. Practice catch and release most of the time. Your wife is right, that is why we have grocery stores today, but a treat now and again will not cause you to keel over. That is my opinion. I kept two walleye’s from pool 16 today and am going to relish in both of them. Anyone ever tell you that the power lines outside of and inside of your house are proven to cause Leukemia? True fact my friend. Be judicial, but do enjoy God’s gifts.
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a river that is constantly cleaning itself is thought of as dirty.
It’s not actually the “water” that is the problem anymore…not since the clean water act of 1970 anyhow…it’s the bottom sediments that are contaminated with “persistent” toxins like the aforementioned pcbs, and heavy metals. These sediments are not washed away easily, and these toxins bioaccumulate…intensifying as they move up the food pyramid into the largest meat eating fish…and then you.
Ever look closely at a piece of sandstone? As moving water passes over it, sediment deposits more sand/contaminants/mud etc. over it. A lot of the “Junk” gets trapped in that. Moving water is contantly cleaning as was mentioned. That’s my story, and I am sticking to it! 
This question gets asked regularly.
When are we going to wise up and come back with a….
Don’t EVER eat a river fish. Those river fish taste like crud and are chock full of nasty chemicals that will make your X-box thumb wither and fall off and your children misbehave. Avoid them like the plague.
And then there’d be more for me…
Tuck, I’m not sure I’m following you…as I said the water IS clean, the sediments get moved around to some extent but remain contaminated…the common removal of pcbs for instance usually involves mechanical dredging of the contaminated sediments…these contaminants are insoluble in water. a free flowing river without dams might eventually move most of the contaminants further downstream but they will always be somewhere. In a channelized river with dams they can’t go very far. I guess the point I’m making is if there was a factory with an illegal discharge into a lake the problem would be similar there too, it’s just that most industrial facilities dumped their waste products into our rivers back in the “good ole days” My first job out of college I worked for a firm that did government superfund remediation, we dredged the Manistique river in the UP for just this sort of contamination, and pcbs for instance bond to the organic portion of the bottom sediments which would explain why they end up in fish…..
Jason.
One thing we have going for us is that many areas with contaminated sediments are being buried under a fine silty layer of western minnesota topsoil, gradually.
If that is that a good thing? 
For those uncertain, that was sarcasm…. and a health dose ta’ boot.
A quick read on PCB contamination.
Thanks for the link James.
I’ve been eating river fish for many many years……..
I have no brain dama-dama-dama-dama-damage!!!!!!!!!!!
Sometime I see double-double-double, but in all, all is good!
Just kidding!!!!
If you want a real eye-opener…….Go do a research on LOTW and all Canadian Shield lakes for fish consumption!!!
Tanic acid (which makes the “tea-stained” waters of the great north is actual seepage from swamplands. It is basically, in a nut shell, that the swamplands produce the methylmercury that seeps into the water. The mercury in the air from air-polution (primarily from forestry and lumber process plants) transfers into a methyl-mercury absorbed by vegetation (basically peat moss). This peat moss is what seeps into the water. The vegetation is eaten by zoo-plankton, which is eaten by baitfish, which is eaten by walleyes, thus we eat the walleyes.
That is the easiest gist of it all……..
we go to the science museum,got a membership, it is a cool place with a very good river part in it .the one at the front door has pool 1to 3 on the floor ,pixs from the air made into tiles.anyway the speaker on the poll. in the waters told us that PBCs came mostly from the old battreies the kind in flashlights ect.not to put them in garbage cans , they go to the dump and end up in the waters /rivers.i do not throw mine away any more in the house garbage.just tryin to take care of our friends in the river 
I am not a Scientist, I am more of an old grumpy guy that has spent many years on the Mighty Mississippi. I have eaten lots of fish. Maybe that’s whay I so grumpy. 
But seriously the river has improved over the years. I consider it the best Walleye fishery in the Midwest and it was not always like that.
My Motto on eating fish just like everything in life moderation. Too much chocolate isn’t any good for you either.
I have to agree with BrianK on the up north lake thing just because you can see your feet in four feet of water does not mean that it is not contaminated. The St Lawerence Seaway, Canada and US is some of the most polluted waters on the North American continent. Some of them have a visibility of 30 feet reason: water is so polluted that nothing will grow.
The river Rocks
I remove all the dark meat and center veins from all my fillets. I while back some one showed me how to zipper the fillets and it works great…I usually do not clean anything over 20 inches. The fish I target are 14 to 18 inch for feeding the family..
Just my thought and I do Not have and scientific proof that it is or is not safe… 
Later
what is zippering ,or zipper the fillets. i have never heard of this b-4.
yes the smaller fish are the ones i target to eat too.
also fish that are fatty should not be eatin as much.
i soak my fish in salt water over nite ,milk will do also ,but you can not get PBCs out of fish,it is there to stay .
I am real crummy at this computer stuff…I mean finding stuff on it..somewhere on here I think it may have been discussed. It was James or Dustin that I watched do it once last year or the year before I think. Then Randy showed me last year again an I have been doin it since then. It removes every possible bone in the fish. You end up with four separate sections from each fish.
Good point Vandy. That leaves me with a question. I too Zip all filets, and obviously, everything is skinned and boned. How are the tests run on these fish? Is the skin/bones/lateral line included in the testing? And, is there any difference in concentrations with these parts removed?
That’s right on Tuck.
I really do not know how they test them but someone years ago told me that they would grind the whole fish to test for pollutants. I guess it really does not matter to me anyway.
Moderation is the best for me and I clean them to best of my ability.
The river is polluted and so are our lakes and we need to stay on our politicans and keep trying to make things better. Back in the 70’s the river was a raging sewer plant and I do not want to see that happen again. It is not a perfect world but it is better than it used to be.
So lets keep striving forward for a cleaner tomorrrow.
This was pulled off the Pensylvania DNR site pertaining to trout. I think the general precautions are pretty much the same. Seeing as how walleye have less fat than salmonoids, they may have less potential to store PCB’s?
Q. What are PCBs?
PCBs are polychlorinated biphenyls. These are a group of man-made chemicals that were used as lubricants and coolants in a variety of industrial and electrical products and applications, such as capacitors, transformers, turbines, etc. The manufacture of PCBs in the United States was discontinued in 1977. PCBs are very persistent, and even though their manufacture was discontinued more than 20 years ago, trace levels of PCBs remain throughout our environment. PCBs are a group of 209 individual chemicals, known as chlorinated hydrocarbons, that were marketed under various trade names. The most common name for PCBs found in the environment is Aroclor. Everyone is exposed to some PCBs, and they are found everywhere. They have even been found in penguins in Antarctica. There are several possible sources of exposure to PCBs including drinking water with PCBs, breathing air with PCBs and occupational health exposures. The most common source of exposure is from eating foods that may contain some level of PCBs. Such foods include fish, eggs, red meat, poultry, milk and cheese. Click here to see “PCBs 101” from the U.S. EPA.
Q. How should you clean and cook fish that might contain PCBs?
PCBs and most other organic contaminants usually build up in a fish’s fat deposits and just underneath the skin. By removing the skin and fat before cooking, you can reduce the levels of these chemicals.
One of the best ways to reduce your exposure, and get a more enjoyable meal, is to fillet the fish:
Prepare the fish by making a cut along the back, near the dorsal fin.
Cut the length of the fish, working toward the tail and belly–but don’t cut into the belly. Let the rib bones guide your knife blade to get the fullest fillets.
At the tail, don’t cut the fillet off. Guide the knife blade between the skin and the flesh.
Flip the fish over and repeat.
You can take other steps to reduce chemicals in the fish you eat:
Remove all skin.
Slice off fat belly meat along the bottom of the fish.
Cut away any fat above the fish’s backbone.
Cut away the V-shaped wedge of fat along the lateral line on each side of the fish.
Bake or broil trimmed fish on a rack or grill so the remaining fat drips away.
Discard any drippings. Do not eat them or use them for cooking other foods.
Zipping:
If you hold the filet frothe tail end with the skin off…
Note the lateral line in the middle of the filet.
Make two cuts on each side of that lateral line.
Grab one of the “Forks” of meat, and pull or “Zip” it off. Then grab the lateral line, and zip it off the other half of the filet. When done, you have two halves out of each beginning filet.
Tuck
Should we eat fish from the river due to mercury and PCB’s..
Look at the consuption advisories. The eating restriction in the river is better than most lakes.
Yes, the water they swim in has some contaminates. Have you ever looked at the ingrediants in most boxed or canned foods we eat regularly? How about the food given to chickens at the big farms.. you think them chickens build lots of muscle from standing in place all day in a pen with a billion chickens? Then we have the rearing ponds.. ever notice at stocked trout lakes there is always a sign stating the trout contain low levels of PCB’s? Its not from the lake they are stocking, its from the food they are fed in the rearing ponds. Then we have farming.. lots of products out there that make the plants grow like crazy, even on less than ideal growing years.. its good for the life of the plant, but is it good for us to be consuming small amounts of these chemicals?(I really dont know answer to that one, and dont think I want to).
The reality is.. there are so many preservatives in our food these days that we are probably half *preserved* by the time we die. We are getting fatter all the time, but we are living longer than ever.
Should I eat fish from the river that is rated at 1 meal/week that is considered 1 lb of fish to be the meal?
Let me think about it when I finish my cigarette and go get another cup of coffee.
Doctors say if you want to live to a ripe old age, live a healthy life style.
Who the heck wants to live long enough to die of “nothing”?
Eat the small ones, thats why I keep the small saugers and cut out the belly meat. Give me $200K and I’ll write a paper on why it is safe to eat fish out of the river.
A couple of years ago some neighbors were laughing at me for eating the fish out of the river. One of the wives was telling me should would only eat Canadain walleye. She even mention that she had it the night before for dinner. I chuckled and asked her if she would eat fish out of Lake Erie. She then told me how polluted Lake Erie was and no one should consume fish from that lkae. I then told her that the walleye she had that evening likely was from Erie because 80% of the walleyes sold for resturant and Grocery consumption comes from Lake Erie. She got real quiet after that.
Go ahead and eat the fish, throw the big ones back and don’t worry about it.
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Zipping:
If you hold the filet frothe tail end with the skin off…
Note the lateral line in the middle of the filet.
Make two cuts on each side of that lateral line.
Grab one of the “Forks” of meat, and pull or “Zip” it off. Then grab the lateral line, and zip it off the other half of the filet. When done, you have two halves out of each beginning filet.
Tuck
Tuck, could we get some pics of this?
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