Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

Recommended Posts

Well .. if you keep catching those hundred crappies to keep that one 12" fish... your never going to have a 14" to catch either.

There are a lot more factors to the size of fish than harvest.. keep in mind crappies average a life span of 5 years with the occasional crappie living a year or 2 longer, but rare. If there is a very srong year class of 9" crappies now, they will be bigger the next couple years.

I dont mean to be rude.. but a limit(10) of crappies at 9" feeds myself, my fiance, and my 4 year old son just about right... this doesnt mean I am stocking my freezer, it means I like to eat fish, and I bought my license so I am allowed to harvest fish within the limits of the current regulations to eat.. and I will continue to do so when I choose to keep some fish on occasion.

As for gas at $5 a gallon? I will sell you as much as you want for $5/gallon for your truck, boat, heating fuel, etc.. the profit I make will help me buy some groceries to help support my 4 year old, and it might even pay for some of my gas to catch a limit of those 9" crappies at the *public* lake you are complaining about.

I strongly believe in selective harvest, but I also feel as strongly that people may act within the specifications of the regulations we are given... Your *venting* is getting pointed at everyone besides yourself, and may be directed mostly toward tourist(city folk)... well... it takes them a tank of gas to go catch some crappies in your lake.. the average truck is $60-$80 now for a tank .. I think that in itself deserves at least a meal of fish.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well put Fisher Dave. Just because all they are catching in this particular spot are 9" fish does not mean that there isn't larger ones in other areas of this particular lake. I do plenty of fishing on Waska and know for a fact that there are really nice crappies out there. As for keeping fish, I would rather see everyone keep those 9" fish and put back them 12", granted most of them probably would keep them also. But that is just me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dont get me wrong, I do care about the lakes in your area.. I care about all lakes. I dont like seeing anyone venting over their local fishing spots seeing things they dont like... I agree, people get carried away.

Right now the area you are in, the area population is shooting up dramaticly... More people, means more people fishing... fishing is becoming far more popular every year, and as you stated, technology is improving. Your greif isnt so much on the tourist(although easy to blame), but its more on the locals with poor fishing ethics... weekend warriors make it there for a day or 2, many of your locals are there every day pulling fish. The best thing you can do is go fishing with proper ethics, and hope it rubs off on some of the people observing your actions.

If you have 1000 crappies a day coming out of the lake.. I hope there are 100 anglers to take them(legal limit).. one thing you can do is keep track of people fishing regularly that are harvesting a lot of fish.. if you see people breaking the law with overlimits.. call TIP, especially if these are people you see fishing daily.. or more than once a day pulling limits.

I feel your pain .. I dealt with this on the inner Minneapolis lakes about 10 years ago when the state record Tiger Musky was caught at lake Calhoun... all of a sudden there was a TON of people fishing the metro lakes.. Muskies at 1st, then people discovered the quality fishery on other species.. next thing you knew the fishing pressure was 30X the previous pressure... there are still lots of fish here, but aggressive stocking to keep up fish numbers, and *educated* adult fish make fishing more difficult than years past... sometimes all it takes to get fish is to tread new ground for fish that arent pressured, and keep your mouth shut when you find them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fisher Dave, your last comment says the most.

"keep your mouth shut when you find them." i enjoy reading fishing reports as much as anyone, but when we complain about all the fish being taken off a lake and then continually spew about all the "big pigs" we catch and release... others catch on, and alot of those "others" don't C&R. look at lake emily.

I don't beleive many FMers are meathunters, but don't complain if the walleye fishing goes south in the future after all the talk about em.

and yes, i agree with most of the problem being a "local" one. it happens in the "cities", it happens in the "country." any lake with a population of easily harvestable fish is gonna get hit over and over by the same few people that usually live near it. happened on medicine lake (in the cities) this winter by someone that lived near the lake. i'm guessing that most of the overharvesting on minnewaska is a similar situation.

we all need to show others the benefits of selective harvest. alot of people haven't heard of it and don't understand it's concept. not going to happen overnite, but it will continue to catch on, if we continue to show and explain it to others.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see the points of all the arguments listed. I get frustrated though when people complain about people taking limits of fish. There's a lot of people that don't fish that much that do hit them in the spring from the shore spots & take a bunch of fish home. As long as those people aren't taking multiple limits a day or filling their freezer beyond what they can legally have, what's the problem? I agree word gets out on certain lakes & they get fished down for a while & then another lake benefits by getting less pressure. These things go in cycles.

I understand why someone who's catching lots of fish most times out & goes five or more times a week doesn't keep a lot of fish, but it's not reasonable to expect others to do that. If I get big fish I'll put them back. I might keep a bigger fish, say walleyes up to 24" once in a while if that's what I catch & it's been slow, but those people aren't hurting the fish population. Just because someone chooses to keep a different size fish than you would, doesn't mean they've done anything wrong or unethical.

I do agree with those who've said don't put it on this site if you find a hot lake. It's good to give successful reports, talk about how you caught the fish, baits, the type of structure, etc. but other than the really big lakes where pressure doesn't have near the effect, it's probably best to keep your mouth shut about what lake other than to a few close friends.

It sure seems like anyone who dares keep a some fish to eat on here is going to get blasted by somebody if they mention the size. They're either too big or too small by somebodies standards. I guess eaters is the best term, because eaters can be whatever size "you choose" to eat, & it's the "eater" size of the reader as they're reading it, in their eyes.

Sorry for the length.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I heard the Dnr finally came down yesterday morning and did there job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just curious; is this Rodd C., Rodd E., or another Rodd with big bucks there in lp?

Big Julie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rodd G. is me, not sure if I know you or not. I lived in Alex until November of 2000, but I'm from LP originally.

I know two Rod E's from LP originally, not sure if one's the same one you're thinking of or not. One I'm thinking of is a relative of mine, late 40's, plumber. The other's late 30's, was in my class in high school, & I think is in the military now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Then I don't know you, sorry,

I knew plumber (and now restauranteer) Rodd and chicken Rodd.

How's fishin over there?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haven't been out much. Tried a couple of spots in the last 5 days or so & nobody was there yet. How about over there?

Plumber & restauranteer Rod is some type of cousin (& my plumber), our Grandmother's were sisters, our Dad's grew up on farms 1/4 mile apart. My folks live on my grandparent's place now, actually I grew up there too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.


  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.