Pelican Draining...

[RumRiverRat]

I will be incredibly happy once this lake is drained and most if not all fishing ceases.

Fisherman are responsible for a lot of unnecessary traffic during the spring and fall migration of waterfowl.

Waterfowl never get a chance to rest.

The draining is the single greatest event that will occur in regards to restoring waterfowl habitat in Wright County.

[20lbSloughShark]

Do you even know how ridiculous that sounds? Your turning a slough into an even shallower slough. If you can drain a huge lake like that, and fill it back up a little, you can make a swamp anywhere. I know you can, road construction has to do it all the time.

[jskeff]

so when the hunters pour on to the lake for hunting, who is responsible for all the unnecessary traffic then? not to mention the annoying sounds of shotguns blasting away at the sky for no reason at 500 in the morning. and water fowl dont rest anywhere where there is a dump load of ppl waiting to blast them. have fun sitting in your blind staring across the pond at another blind. sounds fun.

[RumRiverRat]

When the lake is drained it is going to reduce pressure, every Tom, Jack and Harry with their red lunds will not be able to hunt.

The current access will be several hundred yards from water. The old access will be 50 to hundred yards from open water.

Going to be a muddy mess to drag a boat through.

Access to pelican is too easy, when a guy can drop in a 24 foot Blind Boat with a 250 Outboard on it things are too easy to access.

Make accessing the lake harder, put a HP restriction in place and pressure will be a fraction of what it is now.

I still want them to close the entire grassland, wetland complex to human activity for at least 5 yeats after the draining.

Drain Baby Drain!

[RumRiverRat]

Do you even know how ridiculous that sounds? Your turning a slough into an even shallower slough. If you can drain a huge lake like that, and fill it back up a little, you can make a swamp anywhere. I know you can, road construction has to do it all the time.

That is not the point.

Why go through all that work to make another slough someplace when we have a perfect one waiting to be restored to its former glory?

[GIANT1]

I myself don't like the big crowds and I quit fishing pelican ten or some years ago and the quality of fish on a lot other lakes is way better IMO just have to put your time in and find em !! Pelican is like shooting fish in a barrel and they taste like $h!t IMO . The DNR can do what they want to it ! Its not what it used to be anyway !! A lot of guys should just quit whinning as ther are only another 9999 or some lakes to fish !!

[rockman]

Pelican is like shooting fish in a barrel and they taste like $h!t IMO .

Milkingman covered that already, and in addition there was old farm equipment that ended up being underwater years ago when the water levels kept rising. So who knows what may have ended up leaching into the water from those farm implements. I'd rather not eat fish out of a pseudo-sewer, thank you much. There are too many other lakes close by to get a decent meal out of, so I don't see the need to cry over this one.

[fishersofmen]

I'd rather not eat fish out of a pseudo-sewer, thank you much. There are too many other lakes close by to get a decent meal out of

Nearly every lake left in existence is a pseudo-sewer. I prefer Buffalo myself...the city drain pit.

[rockman]

I'm not laughing at ya, I'm laughing with ya.

[JBMasterAngler]

I like the HP limit. Make it no motors allowed at all, not even electric!

[eyeguy 54]

gonna fish it while I can.

[jigginjim]

Burn it every three years to promote new weed growth. Go to Devils lake bring in 5,000 gallon of fresh water shrimp, plant wild rice, Close the lake to every body for three years. May be you could get more divers to come in.

That will not happen either. too much like work. Check out Marsh lake near Big Stone some of the best hunting ever had was there.

[knoppers]

to start, I did not read all the posts on this subject, so if this has been said or debated, oh well.

if they are going to drain this lake, and it is going to happen no matter what we all say. why don't they open the lake to liberalized fishing? they draw lakes down to kill fish species and to allow weed growth. any draw down would certainly cause a fish kill due to winterkill.

[pushbutton]

Not to worry Knoppers, unofficial liberalized fishing of crappies and gills started about 4 years ago. This year it is Pike

[mrklean]

Not to worry Knoppers, unofficial liberalized fishing of crappies and gills started about 4 years ago. This year it is Pike

Ha only 4 years

[knoppers]

Not to worry Knoppers, unofficial liberalized fishing of crappies and gills started about 4 years ago. This year it is Pike

[jigginjim]

Limits where counted in summer. We all know the people that fish pelican the most during open water season.

[GIANT1]

We all know the people that fish pelican the most during open water season.

WOW

[jigginjim]

It's not a slam, those poor guys not the only ones that get checked the most. Just cause you stand by the road fishing, while the guys with seasonal jobs sit on the lake day in, day out, hauling more pails of fish off the lake than all those people.

I know guys that get layed off in fall, then that's all they doing.

[robbo17]

This is all so stupid. I was at that meeting in St.Micheal 3 or 4 years ago. That was a joke. IF the Minnesota DNR, USFWS, and Ducks Unlimited are so concerned about improving Duck Habitat and Shallow Water Lakes in Mn. Why do they not Explain a comprehensive plan. It was stated at the meeting they want to drain Pelican to clean up the water clarity. What about the lakes just in Annandale local area. Such as; Swart Watts, Albion, and Edwards. All would be good habitat for ducks, But these do not have a public access on them. So, nobody is really concerned about them. Cleaning up 1 lake "will" not improve the Duck habitat, For the Central Mn Area.

[jigginjim]

Great point. Many lakes are wildlife areas, why not put in access to these lakes?

[workin4bait]

This is all so stupid. I was at that meeting in St.Micheal 3 or 4 years ago. That was a joke. IF the Minnesota DNR, USFWS, and Ducks Unlimited are so concerned about improving Duck Habitat and Shallow Water Lakes in Mn. Why do they not Explain a comprehensive plan. It was stated at the meeting they want to drain Pelican to clean up the water clarity. What about the lakes just in Annandale local area. Such as; Swart Watts, Albion, and Edwards. All would be good habitat for ducks, But these do not have a public access on them. So, nobody is really concerned about them. Cleaning up 1 lake "will" not improve the Duck habitat, For the Central Mn Area.

About 4 years ago Smith lake just west of Howard Lake was lowered and plants were planted and last year or the year before Malardi lake just north of Montrose was lowered also,so it is not just one lake.

P.S. this dead horse has been beaten.

workin'

[bigeyes]

I like to hunt ducks and to fish. I have been out on Pelican lots of times an been shocked at the large number of folks out enjoying the resource especially in the spring crappie timeframe and the ice fishing season.

I wonder if the DNR has considered that taking away the fishing opportunity that I would guess 10,000+ people enjoy every year to benifit a tiny number of duck hunters who shoot a couple teal and woodies makes good sense.

The part that I think is really sad is that this lake is already practically swollowed up by extreme suburbs and will for sure be overtaken the whenever the next big housing boom hits. At that point there will be no hunting in the city limits so it will be serve as a resting spot only. I live in Brooklyn Park very close to the river and am covered up in ducks and geese that can never be hunted because they never leave the city limits unless they migrate south.

I guess if the DNR wants pretty birds for extreme suburb folks and bird watchers to look at out their windows then the plan is fine, but long term their is almost no benefit to MN Duck hunting and we lose a well liked fishery.

[rockman]

The part that I think is really sad is that this lake is already practically swollowed up by extreme suburbs and will for sure be overtaken the whenever the next big housing boom hits. At that point there will be no hunting in the city limits so it will be serve as a resting spot only. I live in Brooklyn Park very close to the river and am covered up in ducks and geese that can never be hunted because they never leave the city limits unless they migrate south.

So, you live in Brooklyn Park, and you have how much knowledge about the land use around this lake? The City of St. Michael has zoned the land on SE part of the lake as city park. St. Michael has an approximate population of 16,400 people, so extreme suburb? I don't think so. The rest of the lake is in two other townships, and a considerable part of that shoreline is owned by the USFWS, a small area by the DNR, and the rest by private landowners. St. Michael has a small area of shoreline zoned rural residential on the NE part of the lake. Housing explosion there in the future- not likely. If your going to post an opinion on the draining, have at it, but at least get your facts straight instead of weaving in an inaccurate conjecture in a reply. An yes, I do live in the area. By the way, thank the government agencies for providing a place to hunt not too far from you, in light of the fact you can't in your own backyard. Just sayin'.

[GIANT1]

[little chief]

I wonder if the DNR has considered that taking away the fishing opportunity that I would guess 10,000+ people enjoy every year to benifit a tiny number of duck hunters who shoot a couple teal and woodies makes good sense.

I don't get why there are so many people that think this lake doesn't hold ducks? I hunt this lake a lot, well mostly after all the fair weather knuckle heads are done playing duck hunter towards the second half of the season. If you really think there is only a few woodies and teal out there you have no idea what you are missing. We hunt that lake till the ice is to thick to bust with my boat, which is why I had to get a new one this year. We shoot and see a ton of ducks and geese evey fall. Weather this lake gets drained or not I could really care less but I don't fish it and probably never will as there are ton of good lakes to fish in the area but if they want to make my "couple of teal and woodies" a better place to for the fall then go right ahead

[bigeyes]

West Albertville, South Monticello and West St. Micheal residential sub-divisions are already within 2 miles and in some cases much less. If you would like to argue about sematics of whether to consider Albertville/St. Micheal extreme suburbs or outer ring cities I guess that is your call.

Regardless of what you would like to call them or which 10 agencies/municpalities own the shoreline the fact remains that it will quickly be within city limits and hunting will not be allowed. I am glad you have some detail but you are missing the big picture.

If you want to claim that it is a good long term habitat in terms of resting spot or brooding pond with the understanding that longterm hunting is off the table then at least your assumptions are sound. Well sort of...resting pond yes, but probably too big of a pond for brooding and definitly too big for a pairing pond.

I see that you said part of the lake shore is a city park. I don't know of too many city parks that you can hunt in do you?

[GIANT1]

I don't fish it and probably never will as there are ton of good lakes to fish

+1

[WallyGader]

I like how theres people on here who bragged about the fishing out there, now act like there so excited to see the drain happen, and think there the only ONE that is going to be tough enough to make it out there after the drain and thinks theres going to be all kinds of waterfowl out there is seriously setting themselves up for disappointment. If your willing to be this Hardcore guy that's going to walk through 100 yards of muck, why not just swallow your pride make it easy on yourself and just go field hunting in North Dakota and shoot more birds in a couple weeks than you would in a year in MN?? Anyone who knows duck hunting knows there's not much for ducks in MN and 9 times out of 10 if you shoot them on the roost they are not coming back. So unless there closing the lake to all hunting, and you happen to own some land around it, I wouldn't expect anything different...

[pikerliker]

I think they should just make a separate forumn entitled "Draining Pelican".