Crappy on how long we gotta wait. I have Bear problems on my land. We have a ton. I see a few almost every night on stand. Pictures mof over 4 at a time mature bears not young. figure at least 12 different bears on 160. between my dad and I 1 night seen 9 different bears. different areas spread out and differnt sizes and markings.
I believe most of the newer GPS units have a function that lets you know when all the planets are in alignment 
Seifjr, I don’t meen to crap on your parade…I’m glad you caught fish…it might be the only walleyes you catch this winter on ML…let’s hope not…as of late, I guess ML has made me into a disgruntled fishermen…especially during the ice season…at times it can be very frustating…
That’s pretty risky to go out on 3 inches of ice and unpredictable ice flows just to catch fish…but earlier you get out there the better…It seems as though the fishermen whom take these kind of risks on ML seem to catch fish on this lake, especially this season…Lately, it seems as though to catch fish on this lake you have get out on unpredictable ice, fish during a full moon on a cold October or November night in darkness, be a guide or live on the lake and fish on a daily basis, or have the means ( atv or snowmobile and portable fish house) and ambition to travel around the entire lake cutting and fishing a hundred or more holes a day or all the planets have to be in perfect alignment…I guess I ask myself if the only time the fish seem to bite is during what I would consider extreme conditions and during very limited windows of oppurtunity is is worth it…I would say, no! I will still probably fish a few time on ML during the winter when the ice is considerable more thicker, but with lowered expectations than in years past and only for short periods of time during the twilight hours…not until the forage base dwindles will I put in more effort…lets face it, fishermen fish because they want to catch fish…not because they enjoy starring down a hole hours on end or to risk thier lives doing it…
In figuring out the the hours/fish rate I discovered i did make a mathimatical error….It take 14.70 hours on average to harvest 1 lbs. of walleyes (not one fish)…the average slot fish is probably 2 lbs…therfore, it takes even longer…twice as long 14.70 times 2 = 29.4 hours/ fish…even worse…
If what JDLII is saying true…look for the hardcore fall all night trollers to do O.K. starting in a couple weeks until freeze up catching the bigger females…and immediately after freeze up a few walleyes might be caught…but after that look for it to be a long winter ice fishing on the Pond…very much like last year…ML is getting the reputation as the best 3-8 inch perch fishery in the world bar none…especially during the hard water season…i think i’ll be doing more ice fishing on other lakes this year…This is just my prediction…I could totally be wrong…But I sure feel for those guys and gals in the resort business on ML…
I think stocking 37 million fry in Leech Lake in 2005and 22 million in 2006 had more to do with improved fishing success than anything else…
I can’t get the above outdoornews article to come up…but if you do a search and type in leech lake stocking you can find it….
I have to make one more point, the harvest numbers for 2008 are not ananomoly or fluke either…If you compare the harvest numbers of the last 6 years, 3 out of the 6:
2003,2004 2008 have been the some of the lowest ever recorded…
2005 was not much better we managed to harvest about half the quota
I’m not 100% sure about 2006, I couldn’t find any harvest numbers for that year..i do recall the fishing being pretty good that year but I don’t know for sure how close we were to reaching the quota…
as you recall last summer, the fishing we excellent early on and by mid summer the DNR tightened the slot because were getting close to he quota…well the fishing shifted to “dead sea mode” after about mid-july…therefore the further restricting by the DNR really didn’t make that much of a difference anyway…
Yes, we can probably attribute poor fishing to perch hatch blooms…but these perch hatch blooms seem to be happening more frequently than years past…Is there a correlation between perch hatch blooms and tribal netting or some other factors….who knows? but it sure seems as though the overall fishing for average fisherperson is either boom or bust…and not alot in between…
Not to flame the fire,
but I did a little math…if you use the DNR’s numbers…60,000lbs towards quota and subtract 9,000 (towards mortality rate) that equals 51,000 lbs of fish harveted…
if you divide 51,000 into 750,000 hrs. of fishing
51,000/750,000 = 14.70…
that means to keep one fish for the fry pan, a guy has to fish and average of 14.70 hours of fishing(asuming my math is right)
I wonder what the catch rate is for the tribal netters…it would definately be how many fish per hour fom them… as opposed to one fish per 14.70 hours for us(tax paying, fishing,boat and trailer license buying, slot and bag limit abidding, one fishing pole fishing, night ban abidding, citizens) …That just ain’t f’ing right in my book…an by no means am I a fish hog…
I would have to agree with you to some extent, here on the SE as posted before the majority of the fish we were catching early on were ‘keepers’ 14-18″…therefore, I believe the DNR estimate could be a little low…but I can’t say that for the rest of the lake, ie. the mud flats, north sand, deep gravel…I believe these areas experienced an inconsistent bite this year…and generally (not wriiten in stone) the rocks areas on the south and east side tend to hold smaller fish,anyway…
One difference between ML and most of the lakes you have mentioned is depth and more northenly location, therefore, these lake generally have deeper colder water and support larger and more stable populations of tulibees(ciscos) than Mille Lacs does…and muskies really love tulibees, i think with the larger tulibee populations, muskies generally don’t target walleyes.. that being said, I do believe muskie predation of walleyes in ML is insignificant…personally i think they eat a ton of perch….
just to add…I personally think it is ridiculous to have a slot limit on northern pike on ML…it is a proven fact that pike are a furious predator fish and love to eat smaller walleyes…the DNR knows that, and in lakes with abundant pike populations, walleye stocking is usually useless because the walleye fry and fingerlings get predated almost immediately…
Do the muskies eat alot of walleyes in ML, who knows for sure…I’m sure they eat some…but is the muskie population that big to make a difference, who knows for sure…
does a larger small mouth popultion affect the ML walleye population…I think it has…because they share almost the same habitat and food…
I read an article in local fishing mag about Green Lake near Spicer about how the walleye popualtion has steeply declined due to the larger smallmouth populaton that has greatly increased due to a slot limit for smallmouths very similar to Mille Lacs…
Mille lacs and green lake are completely different lakes…but in ML I do believe there is a larger smallmouth population and it has effected the walleye population…but to what extent? besides I like catching smallmouths, especially when the walleye bite gets tough..
I have to dispute your argument that all species are down…from reading many post and targeting them personally…the smallmouth bass bite has been fantastic…dispite the large perch bloom…
I personally think overall the walleye population is down a bit from what it is historically…but it is not in dire straits, YET!…and for better or worse I believe there are an abundance of larger walleyes in the lake (24′ or greater) and less fish in the 14-20 inch range from the norm…
I think there are a few factors contributing to the smaller numbers of average sized fish:
1) tribal netting (targeting of average size walleyes)
2) a larger muskie population eating smaller walleyes
3) a larger average size pike population (due to a slot limit on pike) eating smaller walleyes
4) A larger small mouth population (due to a 21’and under protected slot) I believe the small mouth bass compete directly with walleyes for food and habitat
5) the slot limits themselves…more fisherpeople are targeting the same size fish prior to slot limits and releasing larger fish…creating an imbalance in the popultion…
these are in no perticular order or ranking…
too sum things up, nobody knows for sure what swims below the water on ML…but you can count on the DNR’s policy makers to play it ultra conservative and hold the fishermen accountable and further tighten slot limits and quotas for sportfishermen while the GLIWC deems it ok to raise their qouta…
I personally thought the harvest number would have been a little higher…from about a week after opener to about mid-July the fishing was pretty consistent on the SE side of the lake and most of the fish we were catching were keepers (more so than in the past few years) and from alot of posts it sounded like more keepers were being caught…The Zebra mussels seem to be picking up steam…just one more thing to be concerned about when it come to the overall health of the walleye population in ML…time will tell…
So basically Rick is telling us were SOL this summer if you intend to keep a few walleyes for an ocassional meal…you probably have a better chance buying walleye fillets from the tribes rather than trying to catch slot walleyes yourself out of Mille Lac 
s….
So in my opinion based on what Rick said, If looking to catch some slot fish for an ocassional meal this summer your SOL. You’ll have better luck trying to buy walleye fillets from the tribal netters I guess….
