Would like to know (The Red Lake Story)

[kgpcr4]

"And now the nets are back in the lake."

WHERE are the nets back in the lake????? Don't just repeat rumors or personal beliefs. Give us some facts!

"We will never learn."

Some of us have learned.

My response to your 5-16-08 post concerning the same subject.

"It sounds like the results from their hook and line fishery are getting better and better with more and more people fishing. I haven't heard any mention of gillnets being used again. They have talked of trying pond nets so they can return the slot fish back into the lake. Another tribe in Canada is using pond nets succussfully and is willing to come here and show the Red Lake Band how they are doing it."

Why keep beating the same dead horse?

Well Kelly the nets are going back in the lake.I think we have to call a duck a duck. Sportfishing had ZERO impact on the total crash of lower Red and minimal on upper. With that small of a portion of the lake sportfished it just is not going to crash a lake like what happed on upper and lower Red. Now there are nets going back in. History often repeats itself.

[Ogema]

Those were some real good articles, and well suited for this post. As a business owner, I have a tremendous amount of respect for other business owners, and for those in biz in the Washkish area. We all toughed it out and are now enjoying the benefits of our sacrifice.

As one who lives on the lake, I know the beauty, the quality of life and feeling of seeing that lake out your window. I've spent countless evenings watching the wildlife of the lake during the sunset.

I'm not sure of the exact method of netting that is being referred to, however I doubt it would be what happened in the past. The amount of fish taken versus our quota is proof that we are not going to overfish the lake. History repeats itself to those who don't learn from mistakes, therefore knowingly allowing it to happen to them.

[wolfman-k]

Godspeed Red-Lakers, on both sides of 'the line'. I haven't spent nearly enough time up in your area, nor do I claim to know all the reasons for the collapse, but I trust that all who have a stake in the recovery want things to go forward in a way that benefits everyone concerned.

[kelly-p]

Some people are going to go through their life hating and tearing things apart. Some are going to go through life leaving the past behind and trying to make things better. We each have the choice to make.

[Jake S]

Thanks for sharing the stories. I'd like to pull a couple of them to share with my 10th grade biology class. I think it is a great lesson for conservation and looking at how fast selective pressures can change populations.

[Guest]

Jonny or kelly,

Who originally "discovered" the crappies? What year were they first found. I would have to think there are some very interesting stories about when they first found.

thanks

[Quackaddict9]

Jonny or kelly,

Who originally "discovered" the crappies? What year were they first found. I would have to think there are some very interesting stories about when they first found.

thanks

I've heard that they have always been in the lake, you just had to find them but then that great hatch URL had for two years started the craze...

[shaky legs2]

Originally Posted By: rocky

Jonny or kelly,

Who originally "discovered" the crappies? What year were they first found. I would have to think there are some very interesting stories about when they first found.

thanks

I've heard that they have always been in the lake, you just had to find them but then that great hatch URL had for two years started the craze...

I heard that Kelly, Buddy and Foster were actually seal hunting when they stumbled upon them.

[Random guy]

They have always been in the lake, When I was a kid I brought a stringer of them back to the resort as I was out to deep for walleye. Locals used to catch them all of the time even back in the fifties a few good repors and old photos are floating around.

As for the latest boom I would have to say the local Thayer boys are to credit as they never gave up on the lake even in its darkest hours they still went looking for fish and one day the found a bunch of crappies.

[grantmn]

If you go on versus tv web page in the search section type "Red lake" and "The Babe" has a short story about it as well.vary cool to watch

[Bassin'Wally Guy]

Jonny or Anyone??

So does anybody know what methods our clever MNDNR are using to calculate the hook and line harvest from Upper Red Lake. I haven't seen a fish creel survey person at the landing in a couple trips myself. Do they go by boat count each day, how is the magical 214,000 pounds (I believe this is the right number?) figured??

Just Curious

[Random guy]

How you got through without talking Miss Creel is beyond me. I think I have spoke with her three times this week. They do LOTS of creel survey's, netting and electro fishing. All this is plugged into models where different scenarios can be tinked with, such as moving the slot up to 20 inches or increasing limits to get a estimation of what might happen.

[Bassin'Wally Guy]

Thanks Jonny -

Yeah, it's not like we had the boat out of the water with lightning speed either with all the professional boat loaders at the landing. Plus i give it a good wipe down when it get's out of the water as well. Yeah two trips no Miss Creel, third time is a charm I guess. Maybe see ya up there this week. Tues and possibly Saturday?? We're gonna stay at Winnie starting Wednesday, so is fishing is slow there, I'm sure we'll be up once, of crud that would be Saturday!! How have the crowds been on the weekend, is it worth it??

[Random guy]

Friday was bad but yesterday poeple spread out a little more from what I could see...of course I was seven miles away and launching out of a private access. I heard the public ramps where fairly packed.

[kelly-p]

Boatload of hope in '99 becomes the reality of today on Red Lake | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Boatload of hope in '99 becomes the reality of today on Red Lake

The stocking that spring marked the first step in a recovery plan state and

tribal officials had signed off on barely a month earlier, in April 1999, to

replenish a walleye population driven to the point of collapse by years of

commercial over-netting in tribal waters and too much hook-and-line harvest in

the state’s 48,000-acre share of the lake.

By: Brad Dokken, Grand Forks Herald

1

Brad Dokken

The walleye fishing was about as good as walleye fishing gets when I met up with

a couple of friends for an early June excursion on Upper Red Lake, and it

reminded me how much has changed over there in the past 10 years.

To put it mildly, it’s been quite a decade.

It was a rainy day in May 1999 when a Herald photographer and I joined a

fisheries crew from the Red Lake Band’s Department of Natural Resources to watch

them stock walleye fry in tribal waters on the western side of Upper Red not far

from Ponemah Point.

The tiny fry, which had hatched only hours earlier at the state DNR hatchery

near Bemidji, were about the size of carrot seeds. Tribal crews carried 97

5-gallon jugs filled with the fry that rainy afternoon.

At about 50,000 fry per jug, that worked out to more than 4 million tiny

walleyes.

“A boatload of hope,” I referred to it as the time.

The stocking that spring marked the first step in a recovery plan state and

tribal officials had signed off on barely a month earlier, in April 1999, to

replenish a walleye population driven to the point of collapse by years of

commercial over-netting in tribal waters and too much hook-and-line harvest in

the state’s 48,000-acre share of the lake.

Red Lake is actually two basins. All 152,000 acres of Lower Red and 60,000 acres

of 108,000-acre Upper Red lie within the Red Lake Indian Reservation and are

accessible only to band members.

The 1999 agreement called for a moratorium on walleye harvest until stocks

recovered, and as many as five stocking efforts during the next decade. The

common thought at the time was that both sides of Red Lake would be off-limits

to walleye fishing for 10 years.

In reality, no one knew for sure how long it would take — or if it would even

work.

I was fortunate enough to be able to empty a couple of jugs of walleye fry into

tribal waters that day in 1999, and I couldn’t help but wonder about the fate of

the tiny fish that quickly disappeared in the big lake’s dark depths.

I also was struck by the fact I was in a boat on a part of the lake that’s

traditionally off-limits to everyone but enrolled members of the Red Lake Band.

How could something so small, I wondered, survive in a lake filled with pike and

perch and other fish ready to gobble up the tiny walleye fry? And how could

crews stock enough walleyes to replenish this huge body of water?

The answers became apparent faster than anyone could have imagined, and walleye

populations recovered to the point where fishing in state and tribal waters

reopened in 2006.

Given a jumpstart, Red Lake showed an amazing resilience.

That resilience also was apparent during our recent trip, this time in a boat

off the big lake’s eastern shore in Waskish, Minn. Despite the weather, which

was cold and rainy but not too windy, this was the kind of walleye fishing one

expects to encounter on a Canadian fly-in trip.

It reconfirmed the success of that initial stocking 10 years ago and the ensuing

efforts to restore Minnesota’s largest inland lake.

The hope of 10 years ago is the reality of today. That’s a very good thing, and

hopefully the next 10 years hold more of the same.

Grand Forks Herald 375 2nd Ave. N., Grand Forks, North Dakota 58201 | Phone:

(701) 780-1100

© 2009 Forum Communications Co. — All rights reserved

[luvin2fish]

Great history information!

[fish-n-fool]

In the Fargo Forum today:

Walleye fishing rules tightened for Upper Red Lake

BEMIDJI, Minn. — Anglers will have to settle for smaller walleyes on Upper Red Lake this winter.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has adjusted slot limits on Upper Red Lake. Starting Dec. 1, all walleyes from 17 to 26 inches long will have to be released. The protected slot is currently 20 to 26 inches. Anglers can still keep four walleyes from Upper Red Lake, and one may still be longer than 26 inches.

Gary Barnard, Bemidji area fisheries supervisor, says they're adjusting the slot because winter angling pressure has been consistently higher than open-water fishing pressure on the lake. But he says Upper Red Lake holds good numbers of walleyes shorter than 17 inches, so anglers should still have good success.

The change will remain in place through the end of February.

[randyfaas]

Hey Johnny P, have you read the book called "We have a right to exist" by a guy called Wub-E-Ke-Niew? It is a MUST READ for all people who live on or visit Red Lake. Red Lake was CHOCK FULL o' fish for thousands of years until relatively recently. (*not trying to be inflamatory*) The book talks about Red lake when it was still inhabited by the local Aboriginal Indigenous People: the Ahnishinabaeo'jibwe (NOT the Chippewa), and how that land transfer took place. EXCELLENT READ ABOUT THE HISTORY OF RED LAKE!