New Regulations

[MikeR77]

Any idea when the new regulations will come out?  I found it interesting how the DNR stated they needed to reduce the number of spawning fish per acre and raised the limit.  From most of the reports I read, fishing seemed to be quite a bit slower this year  for most than in past year.

[kelly-p]

The Technical Committee met a little while ago. Their recommendations have been sent to St. Paul and the Tribal Council for approval.

21 hours ago, MikeR77 said:

From most of the reports I read, fishing seemed to be quite a bit slower this year  for most than in past year.

We harvested 112,657 pounds of walleyes this past winter season. That is the 3rd largest winter season harvest ever from the State waters of URL The 2014/2015 winter season harvest was the largest at 140,130 pounds of walleyes and 2013/2014 was 119,464 pounds of walleyes. For the 7 winters from when walleye fishing resumed until through the 2012/2013 winter season we averaged 57,763 pounds of walleyes each winter season.

1,639,913 hours of fishing pressure were put on the lake once again this past season 2nd only to 2014/2015 that was at 1,753,502 hours of fishing pressure.

Edited March 19, 2016 by kelly-p
Corrected numbers. I had put in 2014 harvest pounds when I had ment to put in 2015 harvest pounds.

[MikeR77]

4 hours ago, kelly-p said:

The Technical Committee met a little while ago. Their recommendations have been sent to St. Paul and the Tribal Council for approval.

We harvested 112,657 pounds of walleyes this past winter season. That is the 2nd largest winter season harvest ever from the State waters of URL The 2014/2015 winter season harvest was the largest at 119,464 pounds of walleyes. For the 7 winters from when walleye fishing resumed until through the 2013/2014 winter season we averaged 57,763 pounds of walleyes each winter season.

1,639,913 hours of fishing pressure were put on the lake once again this past season 2nd only to 2014/2015 that was at 1,753,502 hours of fishing pressure.

Kelly

I'm not trying to start an argument and respect your opinions on red lake as you seem to be the vice of reason on Red Lake issues. With that said however, shouldn't we look a little deeper into the numbers?

in 2014-2015 I believe they changed the limit to one fish sometime in December.  Had they allowed the 2015-2016 limit of  2 fish under 17" and one over 20" it is probably safe to assume a lot more than 119,464 lbs would have been caught. 

The percentage of hours fished probably like matched the number of pounds caught, but , in 2015-2016 anglers could keep one fish over 20" and two under 17 all season, about 12 weeks longer than they could have in 2014-2015. Looking at that, I would venture to guess the fishing was slower.  

Do you know the average hours fished per year for the 7 years where the average catch was 57,673?

 

Again, not trying to start an argument. I have a skid house on red and want to see it remain healthy as I do not have the option to pull it to another lake.  I would much rather see a 1 fish limit and catch 50-100 fish per weekend out of the house like we have in the past years than have a 3 fish limit and catch 25 fish per weekend.  

[kelly-p]

The only Creel census reports I have here right now are 2011/2012, 714,706 hours of winter fishing pressure and 2013/2014 that had 1,080,987 hours of winter fishing pressure.

[kelly-p]

 

Fishing pressure

year                     Summer                Winter

2006                    192,402

2007                    131,580                698,266

2008                    120,811                855,098

2009                    208,950                698,160

2010                    140,822                745,499

2011                    123,627                597,304

2012                     68,742                 714,708

2013                    109,538                796,799

2014                    182,873              1,080,987

2015                    93,947                1,753,502

2016                                               1,639,910

[rustysetter]

9 hours ago, kelly-p said:

 

Fishing pressure

year                     Summer                Winter

2006                    192,402

2007                    131,580                698,266

2008                    120,811                855,098

2009                    208,950                698,160

2010                    140,822                745,499

2011                    123,627                597,304

2012                     68,742                 714,708

2013                    109,538                796,799

2014                    182,873              1,080,987

2015                    93,947                1,753,502

2016                                               1,639,910

Thanks for sharing your information it's always good to see it from someone so knowledgeable.

[bturck]

New regs on Mille Lacs on the news tonight, C/R only on eyes. That should increase the pressure on Red, especially hard water if the regs stay in place

[gunner55]

2,000,000 hrs next winter? How do they anticipate this & protect that fishery.? Special regs up there as well?  

[kelly-p]

The winter pressure is getting a little scary to me. If we would have had early or even normal ice this past winter we could have hit 2,000,000 hours this past winter. 2015, 18 times more pressure in the winter then in the summer!  

[gunner55]

Couldn't agree more. Figured 2 1/4 - 2.5 million hrs might have been possible with normal / early ice this winter  season. Or 20 to 25 times the summer. WOW!

[ANYFISH2]

I still have the terrible idea that the operators up there should close the roads and just rent houses and transport anglers.  The houses would always be full yet limiting greatly the number of angler hours.

The explosion of wheelhouses as explained here by wise, informative people are increasing the effort on Red.  However, some want the effort to be limited some without limiting their benifits from the wheelhouse crowd.  I am afraid we can't have it both ways.

 

[jerkbait]

18 hours ago, ANYFISH2 said:

I still have the terrible idea that the operators up there should close the roads and just rent houses and transport anglers.  The houses would always be full yet limiting greatly the number of angler hours.

The explosion of wheelhouses as explained here by wise, informative people are increasing the effort on Red.  However, some want the effort to be limited some without limiting their benifits from the wheelhouse crowd.  I am afraid we can't have it both ways.

 

I partly agree with this and would like to see it on LOTW also. But, the lakes are public waters and all the tax payers have the right to fish them also. The road operators have the right to do what they want though since it is their property. Unfortunitely I don't think you would get them all to agree and there would be one that would allow everyone thru causing the others to do the same so they could make money too. The only way to me to protect the resource is thru limits and slots.

[ANYFISH2]

Yeah it agree!  I doubt all operations would ever agree to it, thus why it is a terrible idea.

It sure seems like our big lakes are no longer a daunting task to figure out, access, or fish anymore.  Just look at some of the comments on Mille Lacs,  it is like there are no walleyes in this state other than in Mille Lacs, leech, Winni, LOW, Vermillion, or Red.  I guess that is good for smaller lakes, but our big lakes are now getting just hammered, once too big figure out, are now sure things (at least some think they should be)for a limit. I sure hope we can keep the lakes healthy.

 

Just now, ANYFISH2 said:

Yeah I agree!  I doubt all operations would ever agree to it, thus why it is a terrible idea.

It sure seems like our big lakes are no longer a daunting task to figure out, access, or fish anymore.  Just look at some of the comments on Mille Lacs,  it is like there are no walleyes in this state other than in Mille Lacs, leech, Winni, LOW, Vermillion, or Red.  I guess that is good for smaller lakes, but our big lakes are now getting just hammered, once too big figure out, are now sure things (at least some think they should be)for a limit. I sure hope we can keep the lakes healthy.

 

 

[expl]

A lot of the problem is anglers.Guys want to go and catch fish non stop all day and leave with their limits which is relatively easy for anyone to do on the big lakes.Then when they do pound the big lakes and fishing is great and then slows the next season they wonder what is wrong?what happened?I bet a lot of guys would quit fishing all together if it wasn't for the big lakes.Guys want it easy and I can't say I blame them, I love to go out and pound the walleyes as well but it's way more fun to do so on lakes most have written off.

[leech~~]

On 3/23/2016 at 7:40 AM, ANYFISH2 said:

Yeah it agree!  I doubt all operations would ever agree to it, thus why it is a terrible idea.

It sure seems like our big lakes are no longer a daunting task to figure out, access, or fish anymore.  Just look at some of the comments on Mille Lacs,  it is like there are no walleyes in this state other than in Mille Lacs, leech, Winni, LOW, Vermillion, or Red.  I guess that is good for smaller lakes, but our big lakes are now getting just hammered, once too big figure out, are now sure things (at least some think they should be)for a limit. I sure hope we can keep the lakes healthy.

 

 

There are Walleye's in other lakes but the real issue now a days is accessibility for most people with bigger houses and dad's with kids and only cars. Since it is so costly to plow and maintain roads all winter most small resorts don't do roads anymore leaving only the bigger resort operations on the large lakes where people can pull their wheel house out or drive their cars out on a plowed road. I use a sled and porty so pretty much only fish the smaller lakes and only hit the bigger lakes every few years. I do pretty well and it's kind of nice being the only one out there most of the time.

Picture below is a lake in the Brainerd area I like to hit every winter and as you can see, not another person in sight!   Oh and the eye's can be bigger!

Edited March 27, 2016 by leech~~

[kelly-p]

Upper Red Lake anglers will be allowed to keep three walleyes when the open water season begins on May 14, the DNR said Monday.

The  bag and possession limit will be three walleyes, with one  longer than 17 inches allowed.

“The new angling regulation and the abundance of 13- to 19-inch walleyes in the population should combine for a great fishing opener on Upper Red Lake,” said Gary Barnard, Bemidji, DNR area fisheries supervisor.

Walleye harvest on Upper Red Lake is managed on an annual basis by a harvest plan, which was updated before the most recent winter fishing season.

“We will be able to continue into the 2016 open water season with the less restrictive regulations because the new harvest plan allows more harvest when spawning size fish are in surplus,” Barnard said. “We have heard reports that the ‘one over’ regulation has been a popular change from the previous protected slot limits.”

The DNR also said in a news release on Monday:

Creel survey information suggests that the regulation is also meeting the DNR management objective of distributing the harvest over a broader size range and removing some of the surplus spawning-sized fish from the population.

Future harvest adjustments could include increasing the bag limit this summer.

“Safeguards are built into the current rule package in case spring harvest is excessive. But given a lower winter harvest, a June 15 adjustment to a four-fish bag limit is very likely,” Barnard said.

Total harvest for the 2015-16 winter season was about 113,000 pounds, which fell below the 140,000 pounds harvested during winter 2014-15, even though less restrictive harvest regulations were in place for the 2015-16 winter season.

One likely reason harvest declined was that fishing pressure shifted to later in the season due to poor early season ice conditions. Catch rates are typically lower later in the season. Still, this was the third highest winter harvest in the past 10 years since the walleye fishery reopened in 2006 after being closed in 1999 due to over harvest.

The DNR has not made a decision regarding the early season fishing closure on the Tamarac River. This decision will be made in late April when biologists are able to assess the status of the walleye spawning run. The DNR closes the spawning locations to fishing only where habitat is limited and fish are very concentrated in one location.

The DNR and the Red Lake Band of Chippewa developed a joint harvest plan that governs walleye harvest, and harvest restrictions are necessary to comply with the harvest plan agreement. Upper Red Lake fishing regulations are available on the DNR website at www.mndnr.gov/regulations/fishing.

[Xplorer]

Thanks for the update Kelly!!

May have to try and make a trip up with Junior once school is out!