|
|
| Did anyone happen to see the recent article in the Star Tribune about the declining walleye population? Article link - http://www.startribune.com/outdoors/story/1478810.html
Below is an excerpt I found potentially telling about the future of muskie fishing on the pond.
“Bruesewitz said another factor in the walleye decline could be the loss of tullibees, also called ciscoes, which walleyes eat. The tullibee population, susceptible to warm water, has dropped dramatically in recent years.”
“Historically, big tullibee die-offs occurred on Mille Lacs every 10 years or so, and then the populations would rebound. But a major die-off occurred in 2001 and again in 2006, "and we probably would have had another this year, if there were any," Bruesewitz said.”
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 1243
Location: Musky Tackle Online, MN | Interesting quote. Haven't been out on Mille Lacs much this year to notice them. But last fall the tullibee could be seen in huge numbers out on the reefs. Being that Mille Lacs is already near the southern edge of the tullibee range, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before we'll see a significant decline. But for now (even if the population has dropped off) I have to believe there's still plenty of them out there based on what I saw last fall.
Aaron
Edited by AWH 10/12/2007 12:32 AM
|
|
| |
|
| Here is what I seen first hand last year and this year.... A large die off of Tulibees in the summer months of 2006, as well as lots of walleyes, some northerns and a few muskies... However, last fall the tulibees were thick enough at times that you could not run a lure through the water without snagging a fish every single cast... This year, even with warm water temps, I have seen 1 floating tulibee that appeared to be biten in half.. We did not have one tulibee wash up on the shoreline this year, last year we would fill (2) 5 gallon buckets in the morning and 2 more in the evening of just tulibess... I persoanlly feel there is a good population and very few died off this year... |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2089
| Decline in walleye population? I have read about this and saw the piece on the news last night. Just because they weren't caught in nets, doesn't mean they aren't there.Typically the water temps are much lower during the sampling and especially where they sampled.2 seasons of off the chart catches/harvest, and now they're gone????This has to be the most intensively managed lake I've ever seen.Lots of people involved.The issue I have, is that this spread to the media so fast. It's made to seem like there is this major problem/mystery.Temps have been in the upper 50's/low 60's for 3 weeks. Perhaps this has something to do with walleye LOCATION as opposed to a decline in population.Between the gill netting and angler harvest , The DNR has a prety good idea of what comes out, I would think.Ciscoes? They apparently left with the walleyes.LOL. I just hope they leave my baits alone this Fall. Apparently they're pretty dumb and try to spawn with anything that looks close and subsequently get skewered on the hooks.I've heard they're really good smoked and pike like 'em dead on a QS through the ice. May have to actually use the live well . Steve |
|
| |
|
| I just read the article and I think I can tell you the source of the mystery... First is greedy people that need to keep every single keeper fish that is caught, no matter if these people already have 100 fillets in the freezer.. Generally these are the people who complain the most about not catching fish, "Fishing use to be so good we went 25 days Between May and June with 3 people in the boat catching their limit every day, I can't understand where the fish went too, muskies must have eaten them!" With the heavy fishing pressure and the many greedy people, most of the "slot" population has been caught by mid June.. The decision is then made to tighten the slot limit, even though the water temps are at a dangerous level.. The walleyes are deep and the water temps are high and very few fish are left in the lake that can legally be taken home to eat.. But guess what, everyone is hammering the big walleyes on the mud flats, and ripping these fish up from deep, warm water, gotta feed them lots of line on that lindy rig and let them swallow it, make sure you snap a picture of every 24" walleye in the boat and than throw them back into the lake so they can turn belly up.. I think most of those fish are probably dead before they hit the net... My above post talks about few tulibees washing up to our shoreline, notice I did not mention how many walleyes we picked up this year... |
|
| |
|
Posts: 401
| It just seems hard to believe. We enjoyed one of the best early season walleye bites in history again this year. There seemed to be fish eating on every spot plus a large amount of bait fish. What scares me is that we could have that much of an impact on a population of fish through hooking mortality and harvest on a lake that size in such a short amount of time.
Side note. The band did take 100,000 pounds of spawning walleyes this year. I believe this is one of the first years they have done that.
Mille Lacs has not always been what we know of it today. There were lots of bad years.
Keith |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2091
Location: Stevens Point, WI | Maybe it's the locals propagating this to keep the amount of outsiders coming in. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 3147
| Decline in the walleye population!!!!!
I havent been waleye fishing since 99
went there on a whim for opener
despite being rusty, including EVERY hook and jig in my unopened walleye box for 6yrs
we caught walleye after walleye and it sure wasnt due to my skill 
Edited by happy hooker 10/12/2007 9:27 AM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 670
Location: Otsego, MN | The DNR just missed them with the nets, I suck at walleye fishing and tried it out there 3 times this summer and it was a blast! There's tons of them in there. |
|
| |
|
| One thing that is not mentioned in the story or these posts is that the water level is very low on Mille Lacs. I wonder how much of an impact that makes on the biology of the lake, thereby causing the ciscos to become floaters?
When you get on those rocks in the fall, it is hard to believe there is concern about the cisco population. I've got the smoker read for next month. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | One might think its impossible to decimate a huge population of fish. In actuality its quite easy. Look at the Lake Trout fishery of Lake Superior and how we crashed that, and Lake Michigan, oh yeah and Huron.
Am I saying that this is the case with Mille Lacs, no; but there is always that possibility. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 382
| Lambeau,
I think you are the right track. Been fishing the big pond for 19 years and do a ton of ice fishing out there. In the mid 90's you couldn't keep them off your jigs ice fishing. Seemed like early 2000-2002 we didn't get near as many or even see them on the aqua-view screen. The last couple of years we have been seeing and catching a ton! The shack is always in the same spot too, they just really seem to cycle for some reason at least on the east side of the lake. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 8781
| http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fwt/back_issues/december99/cisco.html |
|
| |
|
Posts: 699
Location: Hugo, MN | Consider the source on this one. The Star Tribune is just looking for a new angle to perpetuate the Global Warming myth. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 2089
| Here's a theory on all the dead ciscoes last season. There are HUGE bug hatches in Mille Lacs. The cisco are a pelagic fish, meaning they cruise open water for forage.They eat lots of bugs. As the bugs rise toward the surface in the hotter Summer months, the cisco follow."Danger Will Robinson!!!" The warmer temps nearer the surface are too warm and they die. Nice theory huh? No, I'm not a biologist and I don't play one on TV.Perhaps someone could shed some light on the subject. Steve
Edited by Steve Jonesi 10/12/2007 3:40 PM
|
|
| |
|
| Quite a few lakes with cisco's don't develope a thermocline. when the surface temp gets that hot its almost as warm on the bottom. so essentially they have no place to hide. i agree that the low water had a bit to do with that. less water to heat. No walleyes left though lol |
|
| |
|
Posts: 40
Location: Baxter, MN | Hey, I was just reading my new ODN weekly and guy from Deerwood has all the answers to your questions.
THE MUSKIES ATE THEM ALL!!
Oh yeh, he also admits to being a FISH HAWG for most of his life harvesting tulibees by the bucket full to fill his smoker. I am sure that has nothing to do with the tulibee population.
Give me a break!! |
|
| |
|
Posts: 618
Location: Bloomington, MN | It is a shame that the walleye and tulibee population crashed! What few lure shy starving muskies remain will be gone soon. It was fun while it lasted.
 |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1243
Location: Musky Tackle Online, MN | Clark A - 10/12/2007 10:33 PM
It is a shame that the walleye and tulibee population crashed! What few lure shy starving muskies remain will be gone soon. It was fun while it lasted.
: )
The muskies are all gone too? Well, at least the word is out. Now we don't have to waste our time there. And it now makes sense why I didn't see any the last time I was there. For awhile I was thinking it might have something to do with my anglng abilities on that lake. What a relief!!!
Aaron |
|
| |
|
Posts: 47
| Two weeks ago the southwest end had ciscoes for about a mile and a half maybe 2, ranging from 10' to 30'. Quite thick the whole way. Granted that is only one corner of a very large lake. Certainly no shortage there. Caught 3 walleyes on muskie baits all over 26". No muskies though, my conclusion; Walleyes are eating the muskies. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 3147
| Did anybody hear 'bear facts and fish tales" last night???
thier slyly hinting it may be due to the muskies and smallmouth bass why walleye and small ciscoes are disapearing
because these fish are not harvested and walleyes are harvested
dont be surprised if this swings against muskie stocking they have always maintained why stock has many muskies now when they get released anyway
Edited by happy hooker 10/15/2007 9:42 AM
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 376
Location: Lake Vermilion Tower, MN | The myth of global warming??
What are your thoughts on evolution??
Walk into the light and open your mind.
"Ace"
Edited by guideman 10/16/2007 8:53 AM
|
|
| |
|
| Ciscoes have declined in Mille Lacs, as they have in all but one of the 8 largets walleye lakes in MN where ciscoes are regularly recorded (the one exception is Cass, which has a hard thermocline and a large cool water refuge for fish like ciscoes.)
Ciscoes do go through cyclical population swings due to hot summer die offs on Mille Lacs and other lakes. Anyone remember the cisco die-offs on many MN lakes in 1987? On lakes with no thermocline and no deep, cool water refuge like Mille Lacs, when die-offs occur, it can be huge - like last summer. On lakes with a thermocline, high water temps create a temperature/oxygen squueze - the water with enough oxygen is too warm, while the water that's cool enough has too little dissolved oxygen. Either way, if those conditions persist for very long at all, die-offs occur. And it doesn't take long. (An example from Gord Pyzer to illustrate this point: Think of your house...it's an ideal habitat for humans. But suppose someone sucks all the oxygen out of it and turns the temperature up to 150 degrees for 12 hours. Even if it's an ideal habitat for 364 1/2 days of the year, you're still dead...)
Most often it's the mature adult ciscoes that die from thermal stress. Smaller juveniles are more tolerant of higher water temps and lower oxygen levels, and more of them survive than adults. The issue with many of the large lakes that have shown a marked decline in cisco numbers is that the die-offs caused by high water temps are becoming more frequent, which means less time in the intervening seasons for numbers to recover. Fewer growing seasons for surviving juveniles to mature and spawn, or surviving adults to spawn, adding year classes to the population to buffer against the next die-off.
As far as the smallies and muskies eating them all... How do you then explain nearly identical declines in cisco populations on the other lakes in MN? Declines that began concurrent with one another on lakes hundreds of miles apart, starting in the late 1990s? You can be in denial over climate change all you want. Argue about the root causes of it if you must, but the biologists I know well are seeing the effecs of it on the lakes they study already, because the water IS warming up. Georgian Bay has warmed 3 degrees in the last few decades.
That doesn't sound like a lot but in terms of the average temp of a body of water that size, it's a massive change - and it keeps going up. Go find the article on climate change Gord Pyzer did in the In-Fisherman last spring (March, I think.) and read it. This isn't a political issue at all - or it shouldn't be. It's a very real issue of concern for our fisheries though. Many lakes on the fringe of the cisco range will lose their cisco populations if things continue as they are now. Inland lake trout are already at high risk on some lakes. On some parts of Lake of the Woods, lake trout in mid-summer are limited to a band of water 18" thick that has the right combination of water temp and oxygen levels.
There are winners and losers in every case. Smallmouth may win over walleyes on some waters. Muskies may win over pike. But what happens to muskies if the ciscoes lose too? Tom Jones, the Large Lake Specialist for Mille Lacs, is very matter of fact about the likelihood of ciscoes disappearing from Mille Lacs in the next 25 years. Call him and ask him what that might do to the lake...
Cheers,
Rob Kimm |
|
| |
