Year round walleye season (even if it's with restrictions!!!!!!)

Am I just selfish???? Or is ok to think that we should be able.to.fish any kind of fish whenever wherever we want? As long as we respect and protect our fisheries… And that’s a given that most of us do anyways no matter the rule book… Here’s where I’m personally at tho.. and that’s I’ve gotta drive 4 hrs to border states in order to just catch a walleye… I personally don’t want to keep any walleye when they’re in their prespawn and spawning stage! ESSPECIALLY the biggens… But I do want to be able to fish for them…. And here in my state… When we are closed it’s technically illegal to fish for the walleyes specifically!! But its known that you can’t decide what ends up biting your hook… So it’s ok to immediately release if you happen to have fluke fish eat your panfish only bait.. But. I’m not trying to swindle my way around it like that…. I just wanna show my license to the dnr and it’s ok that I’m fishing for whatever… Dnr checks the boat or shack for whatever fish you have and once it’s known your legally abiding everyone goes back to what they’re doing… nd closes for an HR…. That state has some of the most special fisheries in the country!! They close for an hr… … Hmmm… And all that does is makes me leave my own state and start focusing more on fishing a different state.. cuz I can’t afford to do both atm ya know!. That takes away from our states revenue ultimately.. along with everything that ends up happening from that.. and I’m not the only one that feels this way so it’s not a unknown thing either…. Soooo I just want to try and state my opinion that I believe we should have a 1 walleye limit from March to may and make it
up to 15-16-18″ whatever but leave those real super breeders in and release em still! or 1 over 30″ for that massive trophy mount of a life time which at this time of year would give it the best presentation possible instead of catching it midsummer when it’s got nothing and mount it 2 lbs lighter…!!! Please Minnesota can we get with it possibly? It really only gives us the opportunity to fish… Not go out for a limit of fish ya know… It will keep people catch and release because if u got one then ur done… It’s a win win cuz the fishing community I know would respect AND appreciate it very much!!!! Please…

Yes to your first question.

Good luck with all that.

Keeping fish during the spawn does not hurt a fish population.
Well at least thats what the MNDNR tells us about Mille Lacs and other lakes…

I am not in favor of it. Walleye populations are strained enough as it is, I don’t see any reason to open up the season during the spawn. Plus, I am fine with taking a few months off and looking forward to “Opener”.

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I’ve fished north Dakota a lot. Also traverse, big stone, and other border waters that are open year around. Some places you can keep fish, some you have to release them. All are great fisheries and all produce good numbers of fish.

That being said I’d like mn to go to open year around but only letting you keep any during our normal season. Keep the now closed season as a catch and release only.

I think its a great idea as long as the pass it with the ability to deer hunt year round also. You know just so i dont have to go somewhere else. Sometimes i just wanna hunt and see nice bucks in July or August, or a tasty looking doe eating out of the kids bird feeder last night.

mark-bruzek wrote:

Keeping fish during the spawn does not hurt a fish population.
Well at least thats what the MNDNR tells us about Mille Lacs and other lakes…

They say it doesn’t hurt Mille Lacs populations; but then close (spawning) areas in certain lakes to fishing after the opener if the ice comes off late…

JEREMY wrote:

I think its a great idea as long as the pass it with the ability to deer hunt year round also. You know just so i dont have to go somewhere else. Sometimes i just wanna hunt and see nice bucks in July or August, or a tasty looking doe eating out of the kids bird feeder last night.

Not sure I follow… I can tell it’s sarcastic, but to catch a fish and let it go during the closed season is significantly different than shooting a deer out of season. Tough to let a deer go once you shoot it. At least it is for me, they always seem to die pretty quickly.

If the crappies can survive getting mauled by people when they’re spawning, why can’t the walleye survive getting caught and put back while they’re spawning?

What gets me is I buy a fishing license to catch fish but I need a trout stamp to catch a trout? Is not a trout a fish? It can’t be a stocking fee because they stock most every other species of fish people fish for.

rjthehunter wrote:

If the crappies can survive getting mauled by people when they’re spawning, why can’t the walleye survive getting caught and put back while they’re spawning?

Part of the issue with crappies is that they are not stocked. We rely solely on natural reproduction. Whereas many of the walleyes we catch (and harvest) are stocked.

One might argue that we need to close the crappie season during their spawn cycle too, or only allow catch and release.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>rjthehunter wrote:</div>
If the crappies can survive getting mauled by people when they’re spawning, why can’t the walleye survive getting caught and put back while they’re spawning?

Part of the issue with <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>crappies is that they are not stocked. We rely solely on natural reproduction. Whereas many of the <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes we catch (and harvest) are stocked.

One might argue that we need to close the crappie season during their spawn cycle too, or only allow catch and release.

So if they’re not really spawning naturally then why would it matter at all if we catch them? With that, people might as well keep them then.

I’m all for conservation and have no objections to c&r only during their spawning seasons. That being said I really enjoy plucking crappies and bluegills off their beds in the spring and summer. To top it off, once I release the bluegills and crappies, they go right back to their beds.

Theres so may waters in Mn that could be utilized for open seasons, without affecting closed seasons. Iowa does it effectively, with very little enforcement issues. Theres no reason that Walleyes cannot be target on bodies of water like the Des Moines river, that no one will fish when the season opens. Take some of the pressure off of the opener.. $.02

Be great if they could at least explore the option.

Move to Ohio. No closed seasons for game fish. The Ohio DNR doesn’t understand that allowing the fish a break during their spawning season is good for the population…..

reddog wrote:

Iowa does it effectively, with very little enforcement issues.

That’s because there are no lakes in Iowa to enforce.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>rjthehunter wrote:</div>
If the crappies can survive getting mauled by people when they’re spawning, why can’t the walleye survive getting caught and put back while they’re spawning?

Part of the issue with <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>crappies is that they are not stocked. We rely solely on natural reproduction. Whereas many of the <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes we catch (and harvest) are stocked.

One might argue that we need to close the crappie season during their spawn cycle too, or only allow catch and release.

Opening the season on walleyes and bass would take a tremendous amount of pressure off the panfish mauling that occurs. I’m betting overall harvest would go down if you spread the season out year round. But then, game hogs will be game hogs whether there’s a season or not.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>reddog wrote:</div>
Iowa does it effectively, with very little enforcement issues.

That’s because there are no lakes in Iowa to enforce.

Plenty of lakes in Iowa that need and get enforcement whether the walleye season is on or not.

I believe WI started catch and release for bass during closed game fish season this year (or maybe last year) state wide and there is talk of changing the Walleye/Sauger to catch and release only (or 1 over 28in) during the normal closed game fish season (after the first Sunday in March to first Saturday in May) on the WI river system south of Wausau. Currently the WI River system is open season year round.

The DNR put out a spring survey on this in 2020 and the results were in favor of this change on the WI River system

Gino wrote:

What gets me is I buy a fishing license to catch fish but I need a trout stamp to catch a trout? Is not a trout a fish? It can’t be a stocking fee because they stock most every other species of fish people fish for.

I get the impression it’s expensive. Hatchery facilities, easement programs, habitat work, etc. I’m assuming the money goes to trout specific programs similar to the reason for a pheasant or waterfowl stamp.

It seems like a fine plan. Why not fish year round? Limits may need to be reduced to compensate for the extra harvest, but I could live with that.
How many lakes in Minnesota are natural walleye lakes anyway?
Most lakes in the southern half have no spawning to protect anyway.
Bass anglers can catch and release fish, why not walleye?

Yaaa prolly just a selfish punk I am.. But I do know that just facts from other states show no problems or decline in fish… And you can keep fish during the spawn… Which that to me is more dangerous than going for a trophy and throwing 99.9% right back to what they were doing… So I take it back lol I’m not selfish at all…. It’s just crazy our licenses get more expensive every year and they just keep taking limits away and making more rules without giving any kind of return to me personally….all the money mn spends goes to mille lacs and lotw! And the big fisheries…. THATS NOT THE STATE OF MN… That’s a couple lakes that bring ppl from all over the country… But it’s all about money vs what’s good or bad for the fisheries… Look what covid did to lotw… WRECKED the population… U think they’re gunna change anything up there… Heck no… Ur just gunna catch tiny fish for the next 5 years.. I’m just looking for rules that make sense for everyone…. Not just a couple places… they take fish out of our great fisheries that are naturally reproducing and cut the belly’s out in the spring time… HUNDREDS of them… Then they throw em on the shore for the birds to eat… THATS MN DNR… How I know this… I was mad when I found em all cut open on the shore and called em!!!! And they said “oh we had samples to take” UNBELIEVABLE! so I cant fish so u can’t cut open the belly’s (prolly stealing eggs to put in other lakes) and then throw em to waste on shore????? and I can’t fish to throw a fish back to live…????? Not much makes sense about the way things work but I’d sure like to go to a meeting somewhere and ask questions like this to professionals that have an educated opinion instead of an “answer” for everything…

Tom schmitt wrote:

It seems like a fine plan. Why not fish year round? Limits may need to be reduced to compensate for the extra harvest, but I could live with that.
How many lakes in Minnesota are natural walleye lakes anyway?
Most lakes in the southern half have no spawning to protect anyway.
<em class=”ido-tag-em”>Bass anglers can catch and release fish, why not walleye?

Agreed 100%. Red wing has open season year around. The fishing is still phenomenal. Same with traverse and big stone. Fishing there is awesome as well. To ask for a catch and release season during the closed time now isn’t too much to ask.

Problem is there’s a bunch of pig loser dirtball lowlife slobs that can’t obey the rules of a closed “spawn” season already so allowing catch and release would only make the problem of out of season harvesting worse.

Spend a weekend on the Croix between now and opener, from the shorelines of Point Douglas to Arcola, you’ll see a bunch of out of season walleye get harvested. It’s disgusting

. hey just looking for someone to answer this too… How come they cut the belly’s out of hundreds of walleyes (natural reproducing lake) and leave them rot on shore??? Called dnr when found the unbelievable site of literally hundreds just cut open and left… Dnr says oh we were just out there doing samples and surveys.. it was them that did that!.. AND I CANT CATCH AND RELEASE??? And they wouldn’t even say what the sampling was for!!!! They prolly took the eggs and sold em to south Dakota for all I know! But I do know they wasted a whole years worth of meat for me in ONE “sampling” and here I sit not even able to throw a line in a river and chase a fish and release it just for fun. At least my logic keeps the fish alive and reproducing!

Tips icy outdoors wrote:

It’s just crazy our licenses get more expensive every year

That’s a blatant lie. The last increase was 2018. Prior to that, it was 2013 followed by 2001.

It’s $25/year for an individual. That’s a crazy bargain.

Tips icy outdoors wrote:

How come they cut the belly’s out of hundreds of walleyes (natural reproducing lake) and leave them rot on shore??? Called dnr when found the unbelievable site of literally hundreds just cut open and left

I’ve never heard of or seen this, and I highly doubt that the DNR would litter a bank with fish carcasses. If it is, in fact, true, why don’t you point out page 36 of the regulation book to your DNR contact.

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Tips icy outdoors wrote:

. hey just looking for someone to answer this too… How come they cut the belly’s out of hundreds of walleyes (natural reproducing lake) and leave them rot on shore??? Called dnr when found the unbelievable site of literally hundreds just cut open and left… Dnr says oh we were just out there doing samples and surveys.. it was them that did that!.. AND I CANT CATCH AND RELEASE??? And they wouldn’t even say what the sampling was for!!!! They prolly took the eggs and sold em to south Dakota for all I know! But I do know they wasted a whole years worth of meat for me in ONE “sampling” and here I sit not even able to throw a line in a river and chase a fish and release it just for fun. At least my logic keeps the fish alive and reproducing!

That may have something to do with how the fish are being sampled. I believe they use different kinds of nets depending on where they are placed. My assumptions are some of the fish may die as a result of the survey?