I'm probably a little too instatutionalized in my way of thinking..
Just hope the captains and netters keep a respect for the fishery... I've seen Mille Lacs and Red Lake decimated up here from very poor management.
Amazing fishery!!
So you don't think the biologists that assess the population in Lake Erie have a handle on numbers, strength of age classes, and recruitment? And Lake Erie has a much much larger population of fish than Mille Lacs and Red Lake. I've actually seen aerial photos of hundreds of thousands of walleyes headed up a major river to Lake Erie to spawn and that is only a fraction of the population as many of them spawn on reefs.
Are you sure the population in those two lakes you mention wasn't naturally cyclical depending on annual recruitment and the biologists got the blame when fishing sucked? As an avid angler and fisheries science grad I see anglers always looking for a scape goat when the fishing isn't as good as they want.
I'm all for being a responsible angler but feel your concerns are unwarranted in this case. And don't even get me started on the keeping any fish is a mortal sin crowd.
