Pelican Draining...

[RumRiverRat]

Anyone else kinda excited to see what hidden treasures show up when they drop the lake levels? I know there are a few lower units laying around but it will be interesting to see what else is under the water

Farm land, farm machinery probably more than a few decoys have sank on Pelican over the years.

Hey Jim stay classy!

You must be a real pleasure to pay to share a boat with.

Pelican needs to be drained. Allowing the lake to become what it has is an absolute tragedy.

When a tip up tournament with 72 people results in one 5 pound Pike I would say that is an awesome Pike fishery.

Drain Baby Drain.

[little chief]

I'd have to agree with river rat, I went and gave this awesome lake a try and all I can say is WOW! 2 days and multiple spots with 16 tip ups at each spot and we got 1, and it wasn't big by any means. Both days had people driving in the tips ups for no reason, we were set up away from everyone and even made our own trail to get there and had people follow us out and drive all over in our set up. This is the first and las time I will ever be on the ice there.

[20lbSloughShark]

Ok I wanted to stop, but seriously, have you ever fished the lake? 2 days with one fish? My worst day so far on pelican was about 10 fish in 8 hours. That's with 2 people and 4 tip ups. One day we had 2 guys, 4 tip ups, and got nearly 40. Unless you were doing something really wrong I'm throwing down the B S card on all of you. I went to Clearwater today, drilled 70 holes. I got about a dozen 5" sunfish, lots of baby perch, a bass, and a 5 pound pike. 1 pike for 6 hours, yep better than pelican. Post those 25 lakes better than pelican for pike, even if its not true. I can flood this forum with 5+ lb pike from pelican, and that's just this year.

[eyeguy 54]

LOL, don't let them get yer goat 20lb... 2 days, 16 tip ups and people driving on them... LOL let me repeat... LOL !

[RumRiverRat]

A 5 pound pike is nothing to brag about.

The best part is no matter how much whining and teeth gnashing takes place Pelican Lake will be drained and the fish will die.

In the end what should happen will happen and then and only then will the whining about ruining this mediocre fishery end.

I cannot wait for the day that Pelican is returned to its former glory as a shallow swamp unmolested by fisherman.

That day will be of the charts in Epicness.

[pikerliker]

I hope they pump water into it from the crow river and flood the entire county...

[expl]

I have caught alot of nice Pike in the Misissippi.None over 40" but quite a few very close.Plus Id much rather fish the river then Pelican.To each his own tho.The river is a whole lot different then a oversized swamp so I dont expect all to duplicate the success Ive had.I have also caught quite a few pike between 30"-40" out walleye fishing on a couple different Wright county lakes this winter and Im not targeting them.Might want to think a bit deeper for the big boys because they are there...

[eyeguy 54]

my best day on P was 7 under tip ups. 6 between 28 and 33. That was a fun day. If they drain it they drain it. Life will go on.

[20lbSloughShark]

Yep, no point arguing. I'll probably be out of the area and fishing far north of here in a few years anyway.

[GIANT1]

[jskeff]

cant wait til its drained and hunters start getting out there. then i can dam and moan about how dumb ppl are with guns. make up a bunch of stuff to whine about. then make it my personal goal to ruin duck hunting every year. weather its driving around in bright oarange on the lake or just plain messing it up any way any how. take away my fishing, i will take away you hunting. peace. happy draining. see all you hunters out there. ill be the one in my blaze oarange gear, yelling. drain it. drain it.

[eyeguy 54]

lol...

[Superduty]

cant wait til its drained and hunters start getting out there. then i can dam and moan about how dumb ppl are with guns. make up a bunch of stuff to whine about. then make it my personal goal to ruin duck hunting every year. weather its driving around in bright oarange on the lake or just plain messing it up any way any how. take away my fishing, i will take away you hunting. peace. happy draining. see all you hunters out there. ill be the one in my blaze oarange gear, yelling. drain it. drain it.

I assume you are kidding, but you can be arrested for harassing a person who is legally hunting or fishing.

[RumRiverRat]

cant wait til its drained and hunters start getting out there. then i can dam and moan about how dumb ppl are with guns. make up a bunch of stuff to whine about. then make it my personal goal to ruin duck hunting every year. weather its driving around in bright oarange on the lake or just plain messing it up any way any how. take away my fishing, i will take away you hunting. peace. happy draining. see all you hunters out there. ill be the one in my blaze oarange gear, yelling. drain it. drain it.

Stay Classy!

[river rat316]

I haven't been on Clearwater in a couple years but it WAS a better pike fishery than Pelican, unless things have changed my vote is still clearwater than pelican, I have fished the river hard for years and have a couple decent pike to show for it but honestly I don't fish for snotrockets in the river so it is possible there are bigger ones in it.

All the whining about Pelican be drained is wasting your energy though, it is going to happen, so it really doesn't matter what fisherman think.

[GIANT1]

All the whining about Pelican be drained is wasting your energy though, it is going to happen, so it really doesn't matter what fisherman think.

+1

[eyeguy 54]

yer just a bass junkie... what do you know??

[going4it]

Stupid question but how can they drain infested water? Where is the water being drained too and how did it "get so high." Is there a dam somewhere? Sorry if I should already know this or of it has been discussed.

[fishersofmen]

cant wait til its drained and hunters start getting out there. then i can dam and moan about how dumb ppl are with guns. make up a bunch of stuff to whine about. then make it my personal goal to ruin duck hunting every year. weather its driving around in bright oarange on the lake or just plain messing it up any way any how. take away my fishing, i will take away you hunting. peace. happy draining. see all you hunters out there. ill be the one in my blaze oarange gear, yelling. drain it. drain it.

Was that you in the fishing boat that almost hit my decoys last fall......

[a47mlb]

cant wait til its drained and hunters start getting out there. then i can dam and moan about how dumb ppl are with guns. make up a bunch of stuff to whine about. then make it my personal goal to ruin duck hunting every year. weather its driving around in bright oarange on the lake or just plain messing it up any way any how. take away my fishing, i will take away you hunting. peace. happy draining. see all you hunters out there. ill be the one in my blaze oarange gear, yelling. drain it. drain it.

Yeah, good luck with that:

HUNTER/TRAPPER HARASSMENT PROHIBITED

A person may not prevent or disrupt another person from taking or

preparing to take a wild animal. A person may not disturb wild animals with the intent to prevent or disrupt another person from hunting.

[little chief]

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Rumor has it this came out of pelican! I'm now a believer in this lake, where do I sign the don't drain petition!

[20lbSloughShark]

Oh my god, that is a beastly bluegill. If it did come from pelican, it is a fluke and could have come from any lake. Pelican has a good amount of sunfish, but they are on average small. It has a good population of crappie, but over fishing has basically killed any really big ones. Pelican is all about numbers of big, chunky pike.

[pikerliker]

It didn't come from Pelican. I've seen that pic before. It's from some lake out of state further South.

[JBMasterAngler]

Yeah, that's not from MN. It was caught a couple years ago. I believe it was a new state record hybrid sunfish from one of the southern states.

[Hester]

Clearly a fish from a farm pond down south.

[JBMasterAngler]

Just looked it up. It's the world record redear sunfish. 5.5 pounds! Lake Havasu, AZ.

[little chief]

Oh man, I just finished puting spring bobbers and tear drops on all my heavy rods!

[GIANT1]

Oh man, I just finished puting spring bobbers and tear drops on all my heavy rods!

FUNNY MUCH

[jbell1981]

Stupid question but how can they drain infested water? Where is the water being drained too and how did it "get so high." Is there a dam somewhere? Sorry if I should already know this or of it has been discussed.

It is being drained through Regal creek (basically a ditch) which goes to the Crow river then the Mississippi, that later two are already infested.

No, there is not a dam, if there was it would be much easier to drain. Once of the reasons it got high was years of farm tiling allowed a lot of runoff into the lake. Also, much of the natural drainage buffers didn't exist any more. Thankfully the amount of land the USFWS and MN DNR have bought around the lake should substantially improve that.

It seems like most opponents like to say that the hunting will not be that good because of all the people or the encroaching urban areas but what seems to be forgotten is this isn't being done "for" the hunters. This is being done for the ducks and some of its biggest impacts will be in the spring as a resting area after a long migration and to be used for nesting. Right now it doesn't get its ultimate usefulness of these because of the degraded water quality. After the drawdown, water quality will be immense and natural food will return which will be huge for migrating ducks in the spring and will have a significant impact in waterfowl numbers.

[GIANT1]

It seems like most opponents like to say that the hunting will not be that good because of all the people or the encroaching urban areas but what seems to be forgotten is this isn't being done "for" the hunters. This is being done for the ducks and some of its biggest impacts will be in the spring as a resting area after a long migration and to be used for nesting. Right now it doesn't get its ultimate usefulness of these because of the degraded water quality. After the drawdown, water quality will be immense and natural food will return which will be huge for migrating ducks in the spring and will have a significant impact in waterfowl numbers.

smartest thing iv read so far