South Dakota border lake opener??

[minnesotamusky]

Just wondering if anyone has been out to check the ice on Hendricks lately? The border opener is next Saturday and I'm starting to worry that the lake won't be open by then. Anyone else planning on going there for the opener?

[boarder battler]

I know traverse and bigstone probably wont be open. Over 20 inches of ice on traverse earlier this week. oh well this will keep all the pressure off these lakes.

[DOC33]

We are to be heading to Big Stone next weekend. Last weekend the resort thought with some high winds and warm weather the ice would have gone out this past week. Didn't quite get the nice weather we were looking for. It's gonna be a close one.

[Thump'n em big]

i'll be checking out ice conditions on hendricks on mid-day friday

[landscaper]

um.....1/4 of hendricks is open the MN side....i would say by fri/sat we will be fishing....if not just fish the side that doesnt have ICE.....Problem solved

[muc33]

Thanks for the update landscaper!

[landscaper]

YUp i will find out more tonight!

[Pistol Pete]

Looked at Traverse today, no way the ice will be gone by saturday. Just a few spots open in the north end and by jim creek. The rest is ice and not much pulled away from shore either. I do believe you could fish on the ice. Very dissapointing to say the least

[deacon]

Boy I sure would be nice if DNR of MN & SD would close spawning areas to protect fish this year? Lots of big fish could be caught? Any thoughts?

[spoonbill]

I HOPE ANGLERS ARE MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE NOW, AND IT'S UP TO THEM AND US TO RELEASE SPAWNING FEMALES TO PROTECT THE FISHERY.

BUT THEN AGAIN, IT'S ALL ABOUT FILLING THE LIVEWELL FOR OTHERS NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS.

I'M JUST BABLING I KNOW.

[landscaper]

Any Luck anyone?? on Hendricks?

[minnesotamusky]

Caught one 16" walleye on Saturday. Sounds like it was really slow.

[eyewall]

hahahaha at least someone caught a fish....were you fishin in a boat or from shore?

[sdstatekid]

Just learned in fisheries class why sd doesn't close the spring season and it is because taking spawning females out has NO effect on the population of a lake. A few females can produce all of the eggs needed to produce a real big year class, and having huge or even large numbers of big fish can actually hurt recruitment IN MOST LAKES because the big fish compete with the small fish so you could keep every single large walleye you catch and you wouldn't kill the year class. Weather and water level are the two things that affect year class strengths IN MOST LAKES. The reason MN is closed is more because of tradition than because of actual biology.

Notice i said IN MOST LAKES, it is not the case in all lakes but in a very high percentage of lakes this is the case.

[minnesotamusky]

I was in a boat. Caught it in 4 feet of water using a small minnow and a slip bobber.

[winniewalleye777]

sdstatekid, that goes against everything I have ever heard about spawning walleyes. I have a very hard time believing that. I have read several journals and spawning reports from the minnesota DNR that refute everything that you were taught. I wonder if you are talking about just extremely small lakes maybe? If you have never seen the DNR strip eggs out of the Walleyes in Winnibigosh in the spring, you really should check it out.

[sdstatekid]

I'm not claiming to be an expert, I am just relaying what I have learned since last fall.

Our professor has stated this multiple times throughout the course,"very few large females can produce all of the the eggs necessary to produce a good year class." Does this mean that having a whole bunch of large spawning females is going to hurt the population? It might, it will not hurt egg production or even larvae production, it will probably increase both of those but what happens when those larvae turn into fingerlings and they have to go through their first winter. Having lots of large fish will reduce the food resources in most lakes to the point that these fingerling walleyes will not recruit to the population by making it through the winter. According to info from the Icthyology class I was in last fall. Fecundity (# of eggs produced) in walleyes ranges from 23,000 to 615,000 per female depending on size.

As an example, say you have 10 large walleyes that produce 500,000 eggs each, and 20% of those eggs hatch. You are sitting at a million larval walleyes, say 50% of these die during the summer. You are at 500,000 going into winter, the last really large challenge. Say another 60% of these die before spring, you are left with 200,000 individual walleye that have recruited to the population from those 10 original females.

The professor has stated multiple times that closed seasons have little to do with biology and are more based on tradition (MN fishing opener).

Maybe it is different for some of the lakes in MN based on more pressure from the larger population of people, but, the NE SD glacial lakes are doing pretty well. They have no closed seasons and they recieve quite a bit of pressure most springs from people all over the 5 state area.

[Fish'n guy]

I am pretty sure sdstatekid is right on this matter. It makes perfect sense and I was told the same thing in my ichtheology class. One thing to consider to though is if the tables were turned minnesota would see somewhat of a problem beings that there is WAY more fishing pressure. Seeing how the lakes are turn into a zoo in the spring and are like bumper boats at times!

I happen to know sdstatekid and he is one of the most knowledgable anglers I know so I would have to say he is right on this one.

[pointerboat]

Well i'm still going to release my big fish, that statement can't do any good for any lake, fact or not , to many game hogs , don't neeed any encouragement to kill a big fish. The more you let swim, the better the chances for other anglers as well to land a trophy fish. jmo

[Vexipro]

why would you want to keep a big one anyway for any reason other than putting it on the wall? They taste bad and they have accumulated more toxins in their life. i dont keep walleyes over about 17"

[Team Otter]

Eggs stripped at various hatcheries around the state of MN are used on many lakes that have stocking programs, etc. There is a lot of validity to what sdstatekid is saying but there are also factors that differ from SD to MN, some of which have already been cited.

[riverrat56]

I won't argue with what a biology prof. is saying, it is probably true, but at the same time, I don't see a benefit to all the large fishing being kept, certine times of the year, large females can be very easy to catch, and this could remove to many to pull of a sucessful spawn.

Just a question, but how much does the forage base of large female walleyes and fry walleyes overlap? I would think that they are both feeding on differnt things and they would not compete for food?

I remember hearing that a lake can only hold so many pounds of fish, based on forage and fertility, is this the case? If it is, I would imagion that having an abundance large fish in the system would create a situation that would eventually work itself out, large fish are caught/die, leaving more forage for small fish, which will create larger year classes?

[sdstatekid]

You are correct in your last paragraph riverrat56. If there is a very large biomass of big fish in the lake there will be a much smaller biomass of smaller individuals, than there would be if there is a small biomass of large individuals, unless it is a highly productive lake.

The forage base of large walleye and fry walleye do not overlap but fish do commit cannabilism, if there is a huge biomass of adults and tons of fry swimming around the large individuals will probably eat some of the fry (opportunistic feeders).

Where the forage bases can overlap is fingerling walleyes and adult walleyes. This will happen during the winter when the fingerlings will really struggle to find food and keep from being preyed on by larger walleyes and other high level predators.

Your first paragraph is also somewhat correct. It could possibly hurt the population very small amount, but, even if you would have a bunch of people fishing those big females when they are up shallow, it would be very difficult to remove enough of the population to reduce the chances of pulling off a good spawn.

There are very, very few cases (I think my professor said less than 10) of lakes being fished out to the point where they cannot pull of a spawn. This is called recruitment overfishing and it is almost unheard of in freshwater systems. The cases where it has happened are very small lakes with very, very high fishing pressure and harvest. Recruitment overfishing comes from marine ecosystems that were overfished by commercial fishermann, a few of the different fisheries along the east coast.

[riverrat56]

Thanks for the information, I appreciate it.

I will keep my closed season though, I love opener.

[sdstatekid]

I don't mind opener either, although I like having the ability to fish for walleyes out here at school whenever I want. I hope nobody thinks that I am one of those keep everything people. I usually don't keep a walleye over 17" and I have never kept one over 19". I just thought I would let people know that it is not quite as big a deal as most people think.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

i open the thread looking for bigstone info and get a crash course in mama-walleyeology! good info guys; thanks for sharing. back to the thread; anything going this week now that the lake has been unfroze for a few days?

[Rost]

I'll be up there this weekend for the BWC Tourney. I am scratching my head as to where to begin though.

As far as the closed spawning season vs the open. I think that MN looks at the "opener" as a profit making opportunity. The Minnesota opener tradition must spur big $$$ in license sales.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Go get em Rost. I wish I was joinin ya.

[Rost]

Thanks Eric! Hopefully we'll figure something out.

[angler903]

Nice to see other people on these forums that have Aquaculture like degrees.

I've noticed that when walleye season is closed everyone is after crappies and other panfish, but when walleye open in may people are one track mind. I've been out catching good number off crappies and people come by and say nothing biting and I catch a crappie and they keep trolling by.

so we are glamorizing the walleye by closing the season. I think thats why in the Dakotas walleye do well because people catch them when biting good and if the eyes aren't biting they catch something else. People fish when they can fish so no big crowd for two weeks and one track minds walleye or bust.

sorry for babbling on