article in outdoor news

[Pat Burch]

Wow, I can hardly believe what Steve Carney wrote in the outdoor news about Mille lacs. He said Mille Lacs has not had small walleye in it the last two years or different year classes and is worried about the health of Mille Lacs. Most of us that guide Mille Lacs have put more under 18 fish in the box then we have in a long time for the last couple of years, not to mention all the 10-11 inch walleyes all over the place. For example on todays trip on the the same spot within 40 minutes of each other we caught a 28 and 1/2, a 16 1/2, a 20 incher and 5 fish under 12 inches we threw back. That is a pretty wide array of year classes if you ask me and this is pretty common for me all over the lake. I have spent time on the sand, rocks, gravel and mud and I find these 10-11 inch walleyes everywhere I go. At landings I hear from people about the number of small walleyes they are catching this year. I have had some 40 fish days this year were over 30 of them are under 18 inches. Many under 12 inches. I am sure the resort owners and the other guides on Mille Lacs are as dissappointed as I am that this stuff goes into print, especially from the usually reliable outdoor news. So for those of you that read the outdoor news rest assured Mille Lacs is in great shape and will be for years to come. So don't be afraid to come and wet a line on the big pond.

Just to confim what I am saying I attached a photo. I hope it comes through. The Photo is from June 29th of this year a very windy day 30mph nw winds which limited or fishing areas. My client group of 9 guys along with us guides kept 44 fish under 18 inches that day and most of the season has been this way.

[CrowRiverRat83]

I was thinking the same thing when I was reading it. To be honest I have never liked Carneys articles at all. Most of the time his view of things is really wacky.

[jltimm]

Carney is a poor writer at best. They should find someone else to replace him.

[rodmaker]

My thoughts also. Wish we could call Outdoor news and have them post some results here or your Post. I'm seeing more smaller fish being caught the last two weeks up there.

[gizmoguy]

In my fishhouse this winter the last 2-3 weekends we had small walleyes swimming around on the camera constiantly. They were 4-5 inches long. Had to be last years hatch. We were on deep gravel. With all the small walleyes i have caught this year there had to be a decent hatch the last 3 years. I see no issues.

[Mo Gator]

I couldn't believe what I was reading either. It's been a long time since we've seen as many 10-12 inch walleyes as we have this year. I'm surprised the Outdoor News even printed that stupid article.

[MuskieSlayer]

Unfortunately, this is nothing new. People have been saying there are too many big fish and not enough younger year classes for a long time. The only problem with that assertion is that the big fish are there year after year.

[FlyingV]

From what I am reading and hearing, there are a lot of people having trouble catching fish on Mille Lacs, period! Carney is obviously one of them. I don't know why these people are having trouble. My boat has caught over 100 keepers and and around 100 released big and small fish and I have only fished one mud flat!

[nblasin]

You would think someone would do a little more research before writing an article than just a weekend or week of fishing on a specific body of water and think they have the lake make up figured out. Any fisherman knows that short of time frame isn't going to give you an accurate account of what's going on. Poor article at best, and poor decision to print it.

[123fish]

You have to take into account that this is the guy who suggested in one of his columns many years ago that the way to hunt Hungarian partridge was to flush the covey and start flock shooting as fast as you can. Yes he received many letters to the editor for that little gem of advice.

[Troy Smutka]

This just confirms the old addage that "you can't believe everything you read." We have boated literally a hundred 10 to 13 inch walleyes on Mille Lacs so far this year. Our ratio of fish over 20" to fish in the 14 to 20 inch range has been about two or three to one, which is as good as that has been for a long time. I am seeing all sizes of fish in the lake, with fish from 10" to 29" coming into my boat so far this year. Even people that I have talked to on the lake who were only catching a few fish were remarking about the wide range of sizes in the fish that they had caught. Hopefully the word gets out that Carney's article is not supported by the facts. Good luck out there, and let's keep putting those fish under 14" back--those are the future.

[ozzie]

I haven't even wet a line on Mille Lacs this open water season and while I was reading that article I was chuckling because all the reports I get from friends that hit the lake hard always seem to catch alot of fish either "too big" or "too small" with a couple keepers.......the lake seems to me that it is very abundant with multiple healthy year classes.....

[HunterWinfield]

...I am sure the resort owners and the other guides on Mille Lacs are as dissappointed as I am that this stuff goes into print, especially from the usually reliable outdoor news.

Disappointed is an understatement!!

[rodmaker]

Is there anyway you could contact Outdoor News, and make them do a follow up article stating what is really going on as far as the slot size fish being caught.

You , at HunterWinfields would have more luck in getting this done than if I called.

[pegleg]

I have a felling there will be a fair amount of letters to the editor when this week's edition goes to print. What a dumb article. I seldom read Carney's articles because it normally has zero value but being it was about Mille Lacs I decided to read it. I couldn't believe what I was reading.

[IFallsRon]

Carney only writes about lakes that someone has paid him to (word used loosly) guide a trip. His copy is perfect shopper filler.

[Rick G]

I have a friend that works for the Outdoor news he/she will remain nameless and he/she shares the same love for Carneys articals as all of us. LOL.

[HunterWinfield]

Is there anyway you could contact Outdoor News, and make them do a follow up article stating what is really going on as far as the slot size fish being caught.

You , at HunterWinfields would have more luck in getting this done than if I called.

I have sent in my letter and I do know someone that works there/ owns it. Don't know him too well but I sent an email. I also sent one to Carney. That was a few days ago. I asked that they find someone who is qualified to assess the lake to print an article - Mille Lacs Messeger had a DNR guy write one...it should just be reprinted there.

[Chef]

It's about time. How irresponsible of Mr. Carney to pursuade pepole AWAY from spending time fishing on Mille Lacs. This hurts all commerce for resorts and Guides.

This might get yanked. I used to fish, hunt and guide with Carney. He has some serious issues, that's why we don't do anything together any longer.

He uses his personal opinion for his article content--it's either very biased--his latest article for example, or he flat out lies about his experiences and which lakes to target. He makes sure his so-called reports direct sportsman to the obvious lakes to fish while he saves the honey spots for his own use.

It took a letter to the Editor at Outdoor News to get Carney to stop bashing me(no names used, just our field and guiding experience together that only I would know who he was referring to in his articles).

My intent here is not to air dirty laundry. I can forgive and move on; however, it's obvious that this type of writing is reckless and does nothing to help anyone. If he wants to whine about his poor guiding, he should see a therapist, not use the Outdoor News as a platform to mis-direct and hurt your business.

[chris63]

Attention,letter to the editor,also a copy of this story and reply has been forwarded to the local newspaper(s)c63

[DREZLER]

In that same issue I noticed that Joe Fellegy was very disgusted with Carney's article, and IMO I have read two of Joe's books and he is a five million times better mille lacs mind than Carney.

Between me and my friends, Carney's articles have been a long standing joke. While the rest of us are hunting Coyotes and taking trips to Red Lake Ice fishing during the winters coldest months, he drops in with an article about river smallmouth fishing from shore! You gotta be kidding me. That doesn't sound like any fun at all.

[Chef]

And I can tell you from personal experience, that he doesn't do that stuff (wading the Mississippi in January/February) because it isn't fun! He's just fulfilling an obligation to write a weekly column.

He used to bash my buddies from Wheaton who Bow hunt from ground blinds, saying ["You can't be successful from a ground blind like you can be from a tree stand"], then he saw the 6 P&Y mounts these guys have collected ALL from ground blinds, over the years--then he writes an article about how he's been a ground blind hunter for "years" and goes about telling us how to do it right--my buddies all got a real laugh out of that one!

He is a fraud.

[JBMasterAngler]

So I just read carney's recent article about whacky rigging worms...am I to assume that was all info that was passed on to him?

[rodmaker]

Thanks for doing this. Hopefully there will be a new article in Outdoor News correcting this.

It's been an awesome year on the Pond. I've only missed two weekends so far.

[brdhunter]

We have had many 30+ fish nights out on mille lacs this year. 3-4 person limits more times than i can remember for many years, and literally high hundreds of fish under 14 in that were thrown back. The bite has slowed a lot for us in the past few weeks, but it has been a great year with many year classes of walleyes showing up in our boat. As long as we don't have another perch explosion, the next few years showed be just as good in not better than this year. This guy has written a load of [PoorWordUsage]. I would just like to remind everyone to abide by the slot limit and we should have excellent fishing opportunities for generations to come...

[harvey lee]

We fished Mille Lacs yesterday and caught probably 5-7 year classes of fish. From 8" up to 27 and many fish inbetween.

Seemed like plently of smaller fish for the future of Mille Lacs.

It was somewhat of a slow day for us but enjoyed a nice mess of slot fish for the box and a few larger fish also.

I have no worries from the many different sizes of fish we caught yesterday for the future of fishing on Mille Lacs.

[toughguy]

A few winters back I remember millions of little perch showing up on the camera. Is there a bumper crop of perch coming up?

[pinkfloyd4ever]

Thats funny about this report because the sunday strib (at least the online site) has 2 different articles about a good walleye bite on Mille Lacs

[Chef]

Not necessarily. However, there are many articles submitted that cover techniques or so-called experiences that are just not true. This is common among our outdoor writers. Many of them use "ghost" writers who do nothing but create fodder for the "celebrity" outdoorsmen.

TTT for one--he goes to all the big events with all of his patches on his clothes from sponsors, but he doesn't really spend time in the field actually adding fact and personal experience to his articles or his tips and tactics. It's just like politicians--all fluff and no substance.

[fishorgolf]

I remember goose hunting some years ago and in the next pit was a local outdoor "celebrity" and he stayed maybe 1 hour at the most. Most of the first hour was spent getting shots of him and after he left his photographer stayed the rest of the hunt and got the actually hunting shots.