Originally Posted By: Cecil Baird1
Originally Posted By: J. Meyer
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.


Mille Lacs and the Red Lake issues are rather different, but somewhat similar in that both are controlled by multiple agencies and groups that don't always agree. The Red Lakes have pretty well rebounded after drastic measures were taken by a combined group of local, state, and federal agreements. They stopped all legal walleye fishing for a couple of years, and introduced millions of walleye fry for several years in a row. Illegal poaching remains a problem that will probably never be solved.

Mille Lacs has issues that the Red Lakes don't have. One is the zebra muscle, which has made it dangerous for the walleye to spawn. The sharp shells on the gravel cause open wounds on the bottoms of the spawning walleye. The lake has warmed considerably, killing off the "lawyer" (burbot) and there has been a near extinction of tullubee bait fish. This has put a lot of pressure on the yellow perch by both the northern pike and walleye. The slot limits have had an affect on the walleye too. There has been high mortality of large walleye being released in warm weather. They are tired after being brought in, and they stay in the warm water which is also low in oxygen. There is currently a lawsuit of the mismanaging of Mille Lacs.

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