Walleye Season will close August 3rd on Mille Lacs

[SwimbaitChucker]

No fishing for Walleys effective August 3rd.

Signs have been ordered and will be in place this weekend.

 

No fishing for them at all.

Closed season.

 

 

[crappieflop1212]

So when will this be official?

[BlackArrow1]

I hear there was a meeting today concerning the state of the lake. Lots of views given. Not sure if my info read is accurate fully. Our band(Mille Lacs) plans to suspend 2016 netting to assist lake preservation. I think this is great! I truly hope the other bands follow suit. The lake needs help. In the future- safe, more conservative allotment quotas should be regulated by the DNR. The local resort communities deserve a more extensive relief effort on fish management than what has happened. It didn't happen over night. I have no idea on the DNR's calculations on hook and line harvest/mortality either. I've never been checked by a Warden on the lake or coming off. Checked a couple times by DNR survey leaving, but that's at public landings. I fished Red Lake during its critical points and Wardens were out checking like crazy. Why not Mille Lacs? I don't understand this half A$$ shoreline monitoring/math calculations of lake planning on fish populations?? 

[jay83196]

It's not been decided yet, spoke to several people at the meeting and not official (not on website either)  maybe for resorts sake will go to catch and release  only.

[BartmanMN]

So when will this be official?

You have until 10PM tonight to fish for walleye's.

[Juan Grande]

Why didn't they ban live bait fishing as well?  Launches and other fishermen "bobber fishing for smallies" will still hook a fair number of walleyes. Doesn't make much sense if hooking mortality is a big concern to the DNR.  

[Bandersnatch]

Walleye Season will close August 3rd on Mille Lacs for Non-Band Members

 

Fixed that.

 

[delcecchi]

Walleye Season will close August 3rd on Mille Lacs for Non-Band Members

 

Fixed that.

 

The bands haven't killed their quota yet.  If the rest of us hadn't killed our quota, our season wouldn't be closed.  

How come you have such animus towards the natives for taking a share that they are legally entitled to? 

[broodwich]

The bands haven't killed their quota yet.  If the rest of us hadn't killed our quota, our season wouldn't be closed.  

How come you have such animus towards the natives for taking a share that they are legally entitled to? 

It's because he is a good ol' red-blooded American who has to hate on a group of people, and since Muslims, Mexicans, African-Americans, and Obama had nothing to do with this issue, than it must be Native Americans that ruined his good time. I would love to hear his biased, non-factual reason why this situation is all the bands fault.

[delcecchi]

I try not to atribute unseemly motives to folks.  It now seems likely that the unforeseen consequence of stockpiling large walleye due to reliance on slots to limit harvest together with poor forage hatches was cannibalism that nearly wiped out the hatches before they were able to get to catchable size.

At least that is my understanding. 

[Kyhl]

That is the recommendation of the blue ribbon panel.  The panel also commented that they did not agree with the DNR's protected slot.  The DNR ignored the panel and nine months later, look where we are.

Bold added by me.

 

we also note that the fixed exploitation policy of 24% of fish over 356 mm that was established when state and tribal co-management was put in place does not necessarily provide for a conservative level of fishing or prevent substantial year-to-year fluctuations in the actual impact of fishing. Furthermore, our analyses treat Mille Lacs walleye as being "typical", but the high mortality of young walleye may have led to an atypical stock-recruitment relationship. Thus, the harvest policy should be revisited.

Edited August 14, 2015 by Kyhl

[delcecchi]

That is the recommendation of the blue ribbon panel.  The panel also commented that they did not agree with the DNR's protected slot.  The DNR ignored the panel and nine months later, look where we are.

Bold added by me.

 

But wasn't the "blue ribbon panel" sort of late to the party?  Closing the barn door after the horse got out?  Like last year, not at the beginning? 

[ANYFISH2]

Kyle, what should have the DNR done In your opinion?

Nothing, done 9 months ago, would have changed things today.

I do think the DNR made mistakes with the slots and safe harvests.  However, they hadn't dealt with the treaty issue before either.  Intentions where in the right place, consequences were greater than expected.  

I Feel, if the 1 over 20" would have been kept, and only the limit dropped.from the beginning a lot of the problems would have been avoided.  That is assuming the forage base fall is attributed to the slot and increased large predators.  Unfortunately, that may not have been possible because of using a % based allocation, instead of a hard number like 50,000lbs allocated to the bands, and let harvest fall where it may like it had always been before.  But that wouldn't have been "fair" I don't imagine.

The lake was forced.to be managed to hit a number every year instead of allowing for the " natural " ups and downs of the exploited population.  This I believe caused extreme highs in catch rate and extreme lows in population.  Instead of more drawn out peaks and valleys. 

[Kyhl]

True, the panel's results were published last fall or winter and ML has been in crisis mode for years.

The DNR had nine months to adjust their policy and didn't.  They still haven't.  They are still overly protecting large fish to try to build a multi-species trophy lake.  We are seeing the results.  The analysis contends that the protected trophies are eating the small year 0 fish before they can survive to year 1 or 2.

How about some acknowledgement from the DNR that they panel was right or wrong?

How about the DNR work with the launches to find out what is really happening on the lake this year instead of modeling based off outdated assumptions?

The result is that the walleye has been shut down.  I am fine with that because hopefully nature will create equality in the numbers.  Unfortunately, if the panel is correct, it will take the current trophies to die of old age.  How long with that take?  Has the DNR stated that they are making changes based on the analysis that was published or do they plan to continue protecting the trophies?

I'm curious who even cares about the trophies.

[ANYFISH2]

I can't disagree with you on any of what you just posted.

I will say, however, there is a lose-lose here at the moment for the DNR.  If they would have allowed, say, 1 over 20"(of which I think we agree we need to harvest more large fish), our allotment would have been met MUCH earlier in the year. And the complaining would have started long ago, and the impact to surrounding communities would have been worse.

That is where they lose every time,  our biologists are afforded the responsibility of managing our resources according to biology and sociology.  They rarely please the masses.

I hope they/we can all learn from our past mistakes. 

 

[Kyhl]

Agreed, when they let it run in protected crisis mode for multiple years, by this point, trying to fix it this year would have caused backlash no matter what they did.  The truth is, they should have adjusted the slots 5 years ago instead of kicking the can down the road.  That sounds like politcs running the show more than science.

[wetaline1]

Any word on date it will re-open?

[delcecchi]

Didn't the original article say that a new quota year. begins in December? 

So perhaps then, depending on what the new quota is.

[Sculpin]

Correct, they will re-set the clock Dec. 1st. Should be interesting.

[millacsislandresort]

Walleye Season will close August 3rd on Mille Lacs for Non-Band Members

 

Fixed that.

 

The bands haven't killed their quota yet.  If the rest of us hadn't killed our quota, our season wouldn't be closed.  

How come you have such animus towards the natives for taking a share that they are legally entitled to? 

Walleye Season will close August 3rd on Mille Lacs for Non-Band Members

 

Fixed that.

 

The bands haven't killed their quota yet.  If the rest of us hadn't killed our quota, our season wouldn't be closed.  

How come you have such animus towards the natives for taking a share that they are legally entitled to? 

broodwich    1

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Posted 12 August · Report post

  On ‎8‎/‎5‎/‎2015‎ ‎9‎:‎34‎:‎42‎, delcecchi said:

The bands haven't killed their quota yet.  If the rest of us hadn't killed our quota, our season wouldn't be closed.  

How come you have such animus towards the natives for taking a share that they are legally entitled to? 

It's because he is a good ol' red-blooded American who has to hate on a group of people, and since Muslims, Mexicans, African-Americans, and Obama had nothing to do with this issue, than it must be Native Americans that ruined his good time. I would love to hear his biased, non-factual reason why this situation is all the bands fault.

 

This is to both of you.

How narrow minded of you to automatically assume he is a raciest!! That's disgusting. Yes the Native Americans are "legally entitled" to take their quota. At one point in this country business were legally entitled to have separate facilities for different races. Have you ever heard of "separate but equal". In the wisdom of our country we realized that treating different races differently was not only unjust but illegal. Shall I continue with only whites being able to vote? How about women not having the right to vote? We also realized how unjust those were. To treat "equal" citizens differently is not right and should be illegal. Maybe all he was insinuating is this is just another time American Indians have been given more rights than most other Americans. I do not want to speak for Bandersnatch.

All we can hope is that at some point they will through out this unjust treaty and give ALL AMERICANS EQUAL RIGHTS!!

Need I say more!

 

[Bandersnatch]

Walleye Season will close August 3rd on Mille Lacs for Non-Band Members

 

Fixed that.

 

The bands haven't killed their quota yet.  If the rest of us hadn't killed our quota, our season wouldn't be closed.  

How come you have such animus towards the natives for taking a share that they are legally entitled to? 

I don't have "animus" towards the tribal members taking their allotment.

 

Why is it that you seem to have been disturbed by my correcting the headline to be accurate?

[delcecchi]

Walleye Season will close August 3rd on Mille Lacs Non-Band Members

 

Fixed that.

 

The bands haven't killed their quota yet.  If the rest of us hadn't killed our quota, our season wouldn't be closed.  

How come you have such animus towards the natives for taking a share that they are legally entitled to? 

 

Walleye Season will close August 3rd on Mille Lacs for Non-Band Members

 

Fixed that.

 

The bands haven't killed their quota yet.  If the rest of us hadn't killed our quota, our season wouldn't be closed.  

How come you have such animus towards the natives for taking a share that they are legally entitled to? 

broodwich    1

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Posted 12 August · Report post

The bands haven't killed their quota yet.  If the rest of us hadn't killed our quota, our season wouldn't be closed.  

How come you have such animus towards the natives for taking a share that they are legally entitled to? 

It's because he is a good ol' red-blooded American who has to hate on a group of people, and since Muslims, Mexicans, African-Americans, and Obama had nothing to do with this issue, than it must be Native Americans that ruined his good time. I would love to hear his biased, non-factual reason why this situation is all the bands fault.

 

This is to both of you.

How narrow minded of you to automatically assume he is a raciest!! That's disgusting. Yes the Native Americans are "legally entitled" to take their quota. At one point in this country business were legally entitled to have separate facilities for different races. Have you ever heard of "separate but equal". In the wisdom of our country we realized that treating different races differently was not only unjust but illegal. Shall I continue with only whites being able to vote? How about women not having the right to vote? We also realized how unjust those were. To treat "equal" citizens differently is not right and should be illegal. Maybe all he was insinuating is this is just another time American Indians have been given more rights than most other Americans. I do not want to speak for Bandersnatch.

All we can hope is that at some point they will through out this unjust treaty and give ALL AMERICANS EQUAL RIGHTS!!

Need I say more!

 

The United States signed a treaty with the sovereign nations that were here and possessed the land in order to get them to give up their ownership of the land.  In return for giving up their claim to a big chunk of what is now Minnesota the treaty promised them some stuff, including the right to hunt and fish on all that land, subject to the discretion of the President.  

The courts found, after a lawsuit egged on by Wisconsin resident Bud Grant, that the Indian bands still had those rights to hunt and fish on that land.  It is granted by a treaty that ranks in power with the Constitution. 

If you don't like it all you have to do is get a president elected that will terminate the hunting and fishing rights of the Indians in that territory.  Let me say, Good Luck with that.

I can't help it that our ancestors or actually just your ancestors, since mine were still in the old country, made a bad deal.   And Rudy Perpich gave up any leverage we might have had when he signed the casino deal.
 

[Bandersnatch]

I don't like the new quote structure so I will put this here.

 

I felt that it was important to note the closure only affected sport anglers and not the bands.

If there truly is an issue with the lake then the DNR is not doing their job in not closing the lake to the bands Walleye take as well.

The MNDNR DOES have "conservation jurisdiction" in the ceded area.

[walleyeseeker]

Jurisdiction yes, balls to enforce it, NO.

[delcecchi]

I don't like the new quote structure so I will put this here.

 

I felt that it was important to note the closure only affected sport anglers and not the bands.

If there truly is an issue with the lake then the DNR is not doing their job in not closing the lake to the bands Walleye take as well.

The MNDNR DOES have "conservation jurisdiction" in the ceded area.

Do the bands even harvest this time of year?  Did they take their quota or do they have quota remaining? 

My understanding is they harvest in the spring, so they are pretty much done for the year anyway. 

[Kyhl]

They still fish from boats, or prior to the closure took launches.  It is fun being on a launch and all your walleyes are catch and release while the person (band member) next to you can keep everything.

[delcecchi]

Whatever.  They still are not the problem. 

[Bandersnatch]

I don't like the new quote structure so I will put this here.

 

I felt that it was important to note the closure only affected sport anglers and not the bands.

If there truly is an issue with the lake then the DNR is not doing their job in not closing the lake to the bands Walleye take as well.

The MNDNR DOES have "conservation jurisdiction" in the ceded area.

Do the bands even harvest this time of year?  Did they take their quota or do they have quota remaining? 

My understanding is they harvest in the spring, so they are pretty much done for the year anyway. 

They fish rod and reel year round with a limit of 10 per day, no slot, or size limit.

Hence my revision.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Bandersnatch

[Sculpin]

The launches out of Eddy's continue to be busy, mostly band members. It's a slaughter,  practically nothing is released.  Good stewards of the resource.

[Kyhl]

Whatever.  They still are not the problem.

I didn't say they were.  You were reading things into my answer of your question that were not there.

The launches out of Eddy's continue to be busy, mostly band members. It's a slaughter,  practically nothing is released.  Good stewards of the resource.

Have you been on the launches and seen it?  Since the closure I have smallie and pike fished next to Eddy's launches that are anchored around Indian Point.  I assumed they were also targetting smallies.

I've also seen them anchored on a rock pile north of Cove Bay, again assuming they were targeting smallies as I was?

Have you seen that they are targeting walleyes or just assuming that they are still targeting walleyes?

Edited September 22, 2015 by Kyhl