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Commercial Fishing


Prescott Rob

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Does anyone know when the commercial fisherman come to the Croix?

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I think they are there now. You might call St. Croix Bluffs Park, I think they issued permits for use of Point Douglas Park beach...the phone number is 651.430.8240

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Did not even know they still did this. Where can a guy find this info out?

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Huh.

Let us know how they do it, along with the fish type & quantities.

Does the DNR Supervise it ??

Hummmmm...

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I saw their fishin rigs tonight at the point. 30' jon boats w/ bunch of nets.

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I watched them last year or the year before, they were set up at the Prescott beach, they set the nets about 1/4 mile out and about almost that wide and drag slowly to shore. They sort out the gamefish and keep the carp. They load them into a tank truck and ship them to markets like Chicago and Detroit according to the one guy there, looked like a father and son team. The fish in there was unreal, everything from muskie to huge catfish. Some pig walleyes as well. Pretty neat to watch if you get a chance.

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I went down to the river and watch the guys pull there nets this afternoon, didn't stay till the net was completely pulled but I did talk to one of the guys involved and he was telling me that the first pull netted 60,000 pounds and the second pull was around 30,000, this was the third pull and if the numbers were high enough they would do another one or so, he said there were alot of big walleyes caught, close to a hundred over and around the 10 pound mark with the biggest being around 14 pounds, sure makes a person want to go fishing!

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My Gosh - Can "Someone" get & post a Picture...???

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You wonder if this could have a bad affect on the gamefish spawning? Does it stress out the big females when they get cought in the nets or handling during release? I dont know what the water temps are but I would guess they havent dropped there eggs. Maby this doesnt have any affect on the fish, I dont know just courious what do you guys think.

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Oh probably not, I mean the DNR does netting for their surveys...The nets are pulled to the shore and the guys are out in waders doing the sorting, so the fish are never out of the water. Probably not much more stress if any over getting scooped up by a fishermans landing net....

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yea thats probably true, what type of nets do they use ? trap net? where they follow a guide net down to the trap or holding area to be sorted? like the shiner traps on winnie

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I believe they area like a drag net or a gigantic seining net for lack of a better term. Not sure of the technical word for them. I know that they get some awful big tears in them as they drag them across the bottom, when i was watching, one guy was sorting and another was sewing up holes...

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I'm going down there again tomorrow and I'm going to stay till the end if there pulling net and I'll bring my camera and take some photos!! I'm on the case!! cool.gif

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I planed on swinging in the area later am to have a look. I assume Prescott area. Walli were are you going to be?

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They have been on MN side @ Pt. douglas beach. Pulling straight in to the sandy beach, makes sorting easier. Was pretty neat yesterday. Lots of neat fishies

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Sounds like it would be fun to see all the different species of fish not to mention all the big pigs they must catch!!

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I was down to the river this morning not much going on, I walked around the shoreline looking to see if there were any dead game fish and I found none, so rest asure the guys doing the sorting of the fish are doing a great job. The holding nets in front of the beach have thousands upon thousands of rough fish in them. I took some photos for everyone to see what the holding area likes like, I guess you can make out some fish in the nets, I tried tongue.gif.

PICT0206.jpg

PICT0204.jpg

PICT0208.jpg

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Hey walli nice pics !! thanks !! It would be cool to see what and how big the fish are!! That is the best thing about the river you just dont know what you are going to catch

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thanks for getting the photos for everyone, that's amazing. i wonder what the fisherman get by the pound for the rough fish?

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Carp are not worth much, but when they net the bigmouth buffalo in southern Minnesota, they can get $20,000 worth of buffalo out of one lake. Buffalo is a high-buck food fish. There are a lot of smallmouth buffalo in the Croix, which sell for even more than the bigmouths because they have more meat on them. Sheephead are also worth quite a bit. There are a lot fewer commercial netters these days. It's a ton of work pulling nets, and one jerk with a buck knife can ruin your catch and set you back thousands of dollars. Plus, the commercial netters are HIGHLY regulated and watched by the DNR, you can lose your license at the drop of a hat if you screw up just once. Which is a very good thing, because an unscrupulous netter could devastate the fishery. You need a different license to net inland lakes than border waters. More people net the border waters because it's much harder to get a netting license on inland lakes. With the new problems with exotic species and fish diseases (like VHS) the commercial guys have to be especially careful.

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The gentleman I was talking with down there said they get up to 70 cent a pound live weight

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Thank you very much for going down and posting pictures!

Happy Easter to you and everyone!!!

Tim

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70 Cents, that went up alot this winter. I need to get a permit I think. j/k

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