Town Hall Meeting on Mille Lacs walleye

[Jimmyrig]

Reinhard wrote:
I agree with stopping netting during the spawning season. It makes absolutely no sense and you would think the native population would realize this and agree to stop this during this period. There is no reasonable argument that can be made to condone this by any party on this issue. good luck.

I am guessing that most of them do. It’s the Fond du Lac band that are the rapers. They have done it before and will do it again.
You’d think that the rest of the bands included in this treaty would stand up to them.
That is the best way for this situation to be solved IMO.

Let's GET EM!

[email protected]

[smackem33]

They don’t normally bite through the Ice Saldan… They bulk up in the fall and go dormant I’m the winter. Some people don’t even fish for them till sept. So closing the season in December really doesn’t matter

Your down! Your down!!! Just kidding

[fishnpole]

In the Isle City Hall meeting last week with Senator Dave Brown, he asked the meeting hall full of business and resort owners what we thought about making the minimum length for muskie 55″, and everybody in the room said to just keep ’em ALL, and laughed.
Everybody knows how many walleye they eat. They STILL stock 5000 every year in Mille Lacs.

They don’t have a clue how to manage a walleye fishery.

Here’s proof they’ve been stocking this invasive species (not native to Mille Lacs)
http://www.lake-link.com/Minnesota-Lake-Finder/lake.cfm/8698/Mille-Lacs-Lake-Mille-Lacs-County-Minnesota/?view=Stocking
These numbers don’t include the ones that Muskies Inc. stock every year.

[saldan]

Smackem33,

Yes I understand that the Musky mostly goes dormant during the winter and that they are very inactive as far as ice fishing goes. It is the bulking up during the other 8 months of the year that I am more worried about, especially if I were a little 12 inch Walleye.

Small Mouth are not exactly the most active fish during the middle of Winter either. Yet a couple of friends used to catch a few when they had a house at the old Liberty Beach Resort. Yet again, the DNR has changed the Smallie regs last year and possibly again this year.

If the DNR made the Musky regs the same as Northern, all hell would break loose, and then the POLITICS would really start. The state Musky Association would call for firings and demotions within the DNR. Especially when they have been lobbying for more restrictions on Muskys.

At Wilderness Resort (now RV Park) I believe one of the last years that Gene Hanson owned the resort, there was a rather big Musky caught in February. Maybe by a guy named Gordy, but not sure after more than 15 years, (late 90’s). It was a nice looking mount after the taxidermist finished it.

[smackem33]

I’m sure they eat lots and lots of eyes Saldan, but if u think about it every big walleye factory in MN has big huge muskys in it.. Except red but red has ginormous pike in there and those lakes are doing fine right?

Your down! Your down!!! Just kidding

[fishnpole]

If it was JUST the muskies, the lake could probably handle them. But it’s not.

This is what a young male walleye in Mille Lacs has to watch out for.
Gillnetting when it spawns.
Muskies, Huge hungry smallies, Northerns, Huge hungry walleyes.
Anglers that are keeping pressure on the younger population due to recent year’s slots.
Dwindling food supplies due to zebra mussels, spiny water fleas and other invasives.

Collectively, this is all killing the lake’s walleye population’

And even though they KNOW this stuff, they aren’t doing anything to change it.
The gillnets are still the same size that are targeting the smaller males.
They still stock muskies and have high restrictions on the rest.
Anglers are STILL targeting the smaller male population.

What’s it gonna take?

[saldan]

guys guys

My original post was just trying to figure out why the DNR has plans on changing all the different fish regs, but never mentions the Musky Species as ever eating a walleye. The DNR states big smallies, bigger walleyes, and northerns eat the smaller walleyes, but it seems to be a taboo subject to state a Musky may have eaten a walleye. Same idea as that the DNR states that the gill netting does not hurt the population of walleyes.

Yes any person who has fished knows that the big predator fish eats the small fish. Law of the wild, the lake, the land, what ever. Its just ironic that the DNR never says the name MUSKY.

[BigWerm]

In case anyone was wondering they do! At least this one ate a 19.5″ eye I was about to catch.

Crush 'EM

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[fishnpole]

Muskies inc. do alot of funding for MN DNR like this:

To fund the Minnesota DNR Field Fisheries Offices in four (4) Areas: West Metro, Little Falls, East Metro, and Montrose, with equipment to enhance muskie management and on-going research. The proposal was submitted by the North Metro Chapter of Muskies Inc. #21, and will be granted to them for area distribution.

March…..$8,800.00

http://www.twincitiesmuskiesinc.org/node/167

[billeno]

470 pounds

[billeno]

Wrong. Dec 1 to Dec 1. Fact!

[saldan]

At least their will still be Muskies over 50 inches to catch and release, for that is all that you can do with them, catch and release. A good taxidermist would probably charge at least $700.00 for a mount or replica, if not more. Maybe its time to start finding a few Musky recipes for thats the only fish that will be left in the lake, the state legislature is looking to pass the 50″ statewide minimum length this year and the Musky Inc wants a 55″ limit. We should just go to 60″ and save all the Musky.

[fishnpole]

Bandersnatch wrote:

Sure.

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