Walleye fishing in Alex!! waste of time??

[Kicker]

I know there are going to be guys out there that say they catch fish...and certain times of the year I have great fishing myself. But how come for the most part the fishing around the area so-so at best?

I hear of a lake that has a good bite going, go there and there's 150 trucks at the landing. within a couple weeks the bite is done and the lake is shot for years to come. Take lake Reno for instance, or minnewaska...even Red Rock.

is there too much fishing preasure on these lakes? Do we need a mandatory slot limit to help these lakes keep a healthy population of walleyes that can reproduce? (i say yes)

Any ideas? i'm not trying to complain to everybody...just frustrated and courious as to why this area, with all it's different bodies of water, couldn't be a more successfull area to target walleyes.

What does everybody think?

Kicker

[AWarrior]

Kicker--

I was not an advocate of slot limits when they were put on Kabetogema, Namikan, and the whole lake system. The slot has been in place for many years now and a person can see it is working. There are many fish for people to catch. Many do not like the slot, but a person can catch many fish--even though you cannot keep them--it still is fun to catch fish rather than go for a long boat ride. I am in agreement with slot limits because we cannot conserve ourselves we are all greedy.

[bigbucks]

I hear what you're saying & understand you. I'm kind of in the middle on this one I guess. I've had plenty of good days on the Alex lakes & plenty of bad days, for the most part I'm okay with that. When it's super easy to catch walleyes, or any fish really, I don't appreciate it as much, in some respects. For instance, yesterday we fished 4 different small lakes for panfish, lakes that I know are good panfish lakes, & haven't been fished out. We didn't do very well fishing with techniques that normally work this time of year, in spots that should be holding fish & in most cases were. We didn't do very well, to me that's fishing. Sure we probably didn't hit the right spot or our technique was flawed in some way for this particular day, & obviously the fish weren't suicidal, but they will be sometime when I go & that's half the fun.

I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't be opposed to more slots, as long as they don't make it so restrictive you can't keep hardly anything if you want to. I also don't think the problem is as bad as people make it out to be. Lakes have up & down cycles & when they get down people go elsewhere which helps the lakes recover. I go through stretches where I think it's horrible & there are no fish anywhere & then I hit stretches where every place I go we do well, some of that's just related to weather & the fickle nature of fish in general.

[wackywabbitt]

I personally would be in favor of seeing some changes. Even a 4 fish limit would be fine with me. How often for most of the Minnesota lakes does anyone actually cath their limit. Slot limits would be fine too. Go to many Canadian lakes and the walleyes bite like sunnies or bullheads.

[hoggs222]

The chain is especially hard to catch walleyes. You have to basically know when & where to catch em. There is so much structure on these lakes & when you have so many lakes connected together, it's anybody's guess! I still wouldn't build a cabin in any other area but Alex!

[oilguy]

it's not just your area thats fished out. If special regs had to be imposed on LOW because of the ice fishing take, what about the other 9999 lakes in this state. Even lakes that HAVE special regs can get vacuum cleanered. i.e. Norway Lake near Underwood. It has a 5 gill and 5 crappie limit, but 30 fish houses on a 400 acre lake for 3 winters in a row cleaned it out.

[love2fish4ever]

I'm from southern MN. & fish the Faribault/ Waterville/Elysian area & there are a number of lakes around there & we run into the same problem. It doesn't take a math whiz to figure the number of people fishing the waters these days vs. the numbers of fish & the time it takes to grow them & figure out that the limits or size restrictions (slots) need to happen. I only wish it was as easy done as said. I think most would say it's the size & action that counts, cause I don't know of anyone who eats fish often enough to warrant having three or four limits of a single or mixed species. We love fish very much, but a good meal every couple weeks is sufficient & it doesn't take alot of fish to do that. Granted not everyone would agree, but I think you're right, the mentality needs to change if we want to have the fun fishing that we're looking for. Just my two cents. L2f