Statewide Slot lower limit for walleye.

[Bluegill1510]

 Quote:

I was in a discussion about this yesterday with a friend and he brought up a point. He felt that if the daily limit was lowered to four then the possession limit should remain at 6.

Bob this is a suggestion I could live with, and would be in favor of if the posscession limit stayed at 6 but daily limit went down to 4. For a slot, there are way to many opinions on it and I really am not a fan of them, but if a statewide slot does happen I would rather see something simple like on Mille Lacs, and to what was suggested of a slot of where u can only keep 15-17"ers is totally unreasonable period. They had slots like this on Mille Lacs back in 2002, and 2003 and if you want to see a big sea of floating fish, and washing up onto shore going to waste like it happened on ML in the summer 2002. Then by all means put your statewide slot of 15-17, but I know your average angler is going to be stand offish on that suggestion or a statewide slot anyways, so if you want the general public of anglers to go for a statewide slot you need to keep it simple and reasonable so a person can go out and catch a few for a meal (as to keep anything under 20", and 1 over 28") and have a good experience on the lake.

As for me, I honestly don't fish for walleyes that much, only when I do BWCA trips and early ice season really. I don't go out for opener unless someone invites me (don't own a boat yet) or we go for panfish, cuz they are usually spawning then around opener. Plus right now I only live a half an hour from Mille Lacs and I didn't fish it at all last summer, well once but I don't count it because I had to work and shapparone while on the launch...anyways, I don't really like fishing the Pond anymore cuz of all the people, the pressure it recieves, the slot it has on any species (walleyes, northern, bass, suprised they don't have a slot on perch), and really no spots on that lake are a secret anymore cuz of the lakemaster chip, so IMO I'd rather not even fish that lake, and go to another walleye fishery with less pressure.

[goose89]

bluegill,

good to see you're not scared of a slot limit anymore, or at least more open to it. As others have stated, state-wide slots may not be realistic with the power that be (legislators) where $ talks. IF it were to become a reality, I would suggest a low end also, say 15"s. 15-19, 1 over 30.

[Bluegill1510]

Yeah, money does talk, and know that for a fact since my uncle works close with the DNR as a lobbyist down in the legislature. He gets pretty frustrated with some of the politicians that what their "expertise" brains have to say since their opinion is more important than mine. But I do agree with him as to what the DNR has to work with they do a good job, and DO NOT get the respect or appreciation that they do deserve from the public period.

Yea I guess when it comes down to it, maybe a slot isnt such a bad idea or a lowering the daily limit but keep the posscession limit the same.....if the statistics are correct...this state especially around them the metro area is suppose to grow another million people by 2020, and they will want to fish, hunt and have a good outdoor experience. And IMO our lakes get enough pressure the way it is now, and your suppose to add another million people to this state!!!! Some of them are gonna want to fish and hunt too, and your going to take another million acres of land too for development with all these people....so something has to happen, or limit the number of people living here seriously otherwise we are going to ruin our environment and we wont have any lakes to fish and we all will be forced to go to Wisconsin or Canada just to fish "decent" lakes.

[Dooley87]

i personaly think that 6 walleyes is way liberal anyways. i don't fish many walleyes here in mn but up at our lake place in wisconsin i fish them a lot and the limit there is two fish, one over 14 and one under 14.

it has been like this ever since i can remember although i am only twenty. because of this the fishery has steadily gotten better and better with time. i remember when i was around 15 you couldn't buy a fish out of that lake that was over 18 inches, now a days it is hard to keep a legal limit of two fish because they are all between 16 and 24 inches with a few 27 to 29 inchers swimin around, your lucky if you can come across a 13 3/4" walleye so you can bring home two.

thats just my .02 after seeing an almost dead walleye fishery go to a booming walleye fishery over the course of my lifetime with strict regs. and it is pretty simple people- there has to be a good population of nice fish in a lake to keep producing lots of quality fish, if they are taken out of the lake that is one less fish that will lay eggs this spring