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Posts: 714
| Walleyes taste good...that is the problem.
Muskies on Millacs... Lots of big fish caught in very warm weather years and miss-handled was the biggest cause for the decline IMO. Take all those fish (many hundreds) that liked the sand on the north end and wack them and mostly what is left is the basin dwellers who come into possible contact with anglers for a couple weeks in spring and a couple in the fall. That and Gene the pontoon puke and muskie slayer "there's lots of them so why worry about killing them". |
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Posts: 32800
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I remember sitting on the shore in the early of the night listening to the Conga Line Jingle and watching the nav lights go by in amazement at the numbers of anglers out there. That pressure was immense, and the effects were pretty predictable. The pontoon harvesters did some serious damage as well. I was at a resort covering a walleye tournament one weekend, and 3 over 50 were harvested off a trolling pontoon in that three day period. |
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Location: MN | People have been harvesting walleyes at a high rate out of the lake for years. It's a true walleye factory. When the perch crashed the walleyes were eating all their babies. Perch had a good hatch and baby walleyes came back. Scary part is I don't think the perch will do as well as they used to in the lake in the future. The drama surrounding this lake in recent years is unreal. |
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Posts: 1000
| Just spent a week in Canada. I (and everyone in my group) agreed that pike tastes much, much, much better than walleye. People prefer walleye because they're easier to clean. The home fries were finished before the walleye |
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Posts: 52
| jonnysled - 8/14/2015 8:20 PM
Doc Obvious - 8/14/2015 12:28 PM
As far as the muskie population goes, all you have to do is look at the past 15 years of stocking on Mille Lacs to answer that question. Keep in mind that fry and fingerlings have an almost 0% survival rate and the natural reproduction is almost 0 (according to the DNR). I've read all the previous post about how the DNR KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN....It's pretty #*^@ easy to say that the fishing is going to drop off and then stop stocking the lake. Stocking is what created it and the lack of stocking is destroying it. The DNR giveth and DNR taketh away. The reason their are fewer and fewer +50 inchers being caught is because they only live so long. There is going to be a near collapse of muskies on Mille Lacs until the DNR begins stocking again...then in 8 to 10 years we'll all be having fun again. The merger natural reproduction and the one or two fingerlings that manage to go to adulthood will not sustain this fishery. If you think it's slow now, just wait about 2 years.
click on the guy's photo in the article ... you are ill-informed.
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/millelacslake/index.html
how folks think it will recover in a year is what baffles me but i think it is what it is thanks to Governor Mumbles stepping in to help out.
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | sworrall - 8/13/2015 11:57 AM
I remember when the MN guys here were proclaiming the MNDNR as the most amazing, forward thinking fisheries managers in the world. Funny how a single lake's population dynamic issue can change public opinion so fast. The MNDNR fisheries folks are still some of the best....anywhere.
The DNR 20-30 years ago they were very forward thinking. In the past 10 they (decision makers) have been complacent with their success. Today they are coming around to what some have been telling them for several years now that we need to keep adding opportunity as well as move our management style to that of a mature fishery instead of an new introduction. Like most Gov't agencies they were slow to react, but seem to be moving in the right direction again.
In the meantime I just want to get on the lake whether I catch one or not... |
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