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Posts: 291
Location: Madison, WI | Crawford - 2/9/2010 1:34 PM
Just voted again and it says that 6450 people are in favor of it and 111 oppose it! Obviously something is a little screwy! The most important thing that any of us can do is show up at the meeting in a very large number and get this thing stopped. Showing up in great numbers is much more effective than some bogus poll that is obviously being cheated with those types of numbers. Mike Hope to see yah all there.
Yeah, I noticed that one too. I voted this morning and it looked pretty legit. Me thinks someone at the ole' Cass Lake Times might be "adjusting" the numbers or someone figured out how to fudge the numbers. So Im guessing they would take that poll down "immediately" because that cant be right. Just like they did yesterday when it favored the No crowd. Right.
Does that site even get 6450 hits a day? Funny stuff. |
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| Wow, that is a rigged poll.  |
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Posts: 444
| I was watching the poll close, bored at work, and it jumped up to the 6000 votes in ten minutes.
Unreal. |
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Posts: 256
| I was watching it as well and I was shocked at how fast it went up. Definately something screwy was going on. |
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| I assume the straw poll information will be shown to those that are lobbying for the ban to be lifted. They will see the 6,000 plus votes as the general public in favor of having the ban lifted which will give them incentive to make the "majority" happy.
If the Cass Lake Times is behind this it is pretty sad. I will stop in there after work tomorrow and try to figure this out.
Cochran |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Are there even 6000 people in Cass county?
Horse crap politics, is the poll ! |
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| Human Body's, Calls, Letters and E-mails.
Internet Polls are cartoons in a cartoon world. |
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Posts: 100
Location: Bemidji/Cass Lake | Looks like you may get some response form the website creators or supporters on their blog. I posted a comment and probably will do more. I set up an account thru google very easily, if you wanna write something you'll see what that means. Go to www.clifs.org if you wish to do so.
Edited by Sackett 2/9/2010 11:46 PM
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Posts: 256
| I've already found two different ways around the once a day voting restriction. This poll was clearly hacked. All you need to do is either clear your cookies or use a webproxy. But based on the numbers of votes so quickly (and the complete lack of votes since) I'm guessing they used a voting bot program.
Edited by kustomboy 2/10/2010 7:42 AM
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Posts: 189
Location: Barrington, Il | Why don't the resorts get together and push ice fishing for the big northerns? At least they can be released. |
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Posts: 256
| I honestly don't know what the resorts expect to gain from this. Last year only about 4,000 spearing licenses were sold state wide. It may get them a few extra bookings during the winter but those bookings could be made up by actually promoting and advertising the ice fishing season. I go to numerous sports shows and honestly don't ever remember seeing any resorts from Cass Lake. The means don't seem to justify the ends in this instance. Plus, the resorts pushing this will most likely lose any muskie fishing business as a result of this. I know that I will never stay at any of those resorts if I go to Cass Lake and will make sure everyone I know boycots them as well. |
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Posts: 256
| So this has obviously really gotten to me....
Doesn't anyone find it weird that more people have voted in this poll for the opening of spearing than bought spearing licenses last year? |
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Posts: 1243
Location: Musky Tackle Online, MN | kustomboy - 2/10/2010 9:49 AM
I honestly don't know what the resorts expect to gain from this. Last year only about 4,000 spearing licenses were sold state wide. It may get them a few extra bookings during the winter but those bookings could be made up by actually promoting and advertising the ice fishing season.
That 4,000 number in the article was not correct, it's higher than that. Here are actual annual license sales in the state through 2008.
http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/rlp/licenses/historical_licenses.xls
But either way, I completely agree with your assessment.
Aaron |
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| Hey fellas, I'm a Virginia musky nut and just read this thread. Please explain to me how this spearing is done. From what I'm reading, you sit around a hole in the ice and throw a spear when the fish swims by. Is that correct? What do the spears look like? Thanks and good luck stopping this in Cass. |
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Posts: 1243
Location: Musky Tackle Online, MN | Guest, you've got the idea. Here's a video that will help give you a better picture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWXFBT9gC5c
Aaron
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Posts: 256
| Aaron:
Thanks for the link to the license sales info. It always helps to have the correct numbers. |
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Posts: 100
Location: Bemidji/Cass Lake | Most spears look similar to a trident but with a couple extra tines. Throwing the spearing takes some skill and practice. A big hole, usually square or rectangle is cut inside a darkhouse. Spearing usually takes place in fairly clear water in less than about 12ft of water. A hookless decoy(giant daredevil perhaps) or large live sucker is used to call fish in. Typically when pike approach they size up their prey a bit and it's during this time a shot presents itself. The fish doesn't know you are above them and are very vulnerable.
Edit: AWH's posted video is perfect
Edited by Sackett 2/10/2010 11:05 AM
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | AWH - 2/10/2010 10:48 AM
kustomboy - 2/10/2010 9:49 AM
I honestly don't know what the resorts expect to gain from this. Last year only about 4,000 spearing licenses were sold state wide. It may get them a few extra bookings during the winter but those bookings could be made up by actually promoting and advertising the ice fishing season.
That 4,000 number in the article was not correct, it's higher than that. Here are actual annual license sales in the state through 2008.
http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/rlp/licenses/historical_licenses.xls
But either way, I completely agree with your assessment.
Aaron
Hey thanks for this spreadsheet. Very interesting stuff. Fishing & outdoor activities are definetly on the decline.
Edited by dtaijo174 2/10/2010 11:27 AM
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| Hello
I am from Pa. Spearing is illegal, but after watching the spearing video it does not seem any different than ice fishing really. Am I missing something on this subject. |
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| As I see It u drill holes in ice set bait and wait for prey. But u can elect to throw the spear where in ice fishing u cannot elect to hook unintential species. was looking for explanation not confrontation. |
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| simple fisherman - 2/10/2010 11:34 AM
Hello
I am from Pa. Spearing is illegal, but after watching the spearing video it does not seem any different than ice fishing really. Am I missing something on this subject.
First, I would say the major difference is a speared fish won't be released, won't spawn ever again and will never be enjoyed by another angler. That is the first and major difference.
Second, not all fish that come in and look at a sucker on a quick strike rig will eat. Take the first fish in that video. Came in and looked and then left. I have heard it takes some skill to throw a spear, but from that video it looks like the fish came under the hole and he threw the spear straight down. Seems pretty straight forward to me.
Thrird, with spearing they can selectively harvest the largest fish in the system, though most will convince you that they only spear to eat and maybe a trophy if it comes through.
Couple weeks ago a guy speared a 25lb pike and 22lb pike w/in a couple days of each other. What exactly is the point of taking those two fish? Can someone please explain that to me? I guess I am probably asking the wrong group. You can count me in to be at the meeting at the end of February unless something major comes up. |
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| We will need all the help we can get on this subject. I am meeting with the reporter from Cass Lake sometime this week in an attempt to clarify a few things. The more people against spearing that show up to the meeting in February the better.
After this weekend there will be a plan developed to combat this issue. Look for a plan of action on here soon.
Cochran |
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| Aaron and Sackett, thanks for the video and info. Obviously spearing is harvest and ice fishing can be catch and release or harvest...big difference there between the two methods. I'm glad we don't have to contend with spearing down here on the rivers I fish. |
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Posts: 256
| Spearing is a very touchy subject in MN. There are many who would like to see it banned completely and many who feel that their rights are being violated because they can't spear on approximately 50-70 lakes out of over 10,000 lakes and there are some inbetween those two positions. The strongest argument I've heard is that spearing should be allowed because of its long standing tradition. The simple fact is that just because something has been done for a long time does not necessarily make it right. |
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| Not 50 to 70 lakes that have a spearing ban try 26.
Now they want those 26 lakes. If Cass falls then everything that touches the Mississippi will eventually. Huge problems if this goes through. |
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Posts: 3147
| isnt anybody gonna jump in and say
"lets work with the spearers" with the background music of John Lenons "Imagine"
like in years past,,or have we finally learned our lessons |
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Posts: 256
| Unfortunately, it seems like its time to take the gloves off. I know that compromises were made in the Long Range Plan to keep the spearers happy and it seems like while the muskie groups have lived with those compromises the spearing associations have no intention to stick with them. |
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Posts: 734
Location: Watertown, MN | Kustomboy, there were no compromises made in the long range plan, Muskies Inc took the stance that we were not going asked for additional waters to be added to the list of lakes that cannot be speared, and we were not in favor of removing this ban on any of these lakes.
Troy |
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Posts: 256
| Thanks for the clarification Troy. I had heard that in exchange for getting the new muskie lakes the compromise was that no additional lakes would be added to the no spearing list. |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | We thought by adding that statement they would be less likely to stand up against the stockings. I may have by a small amount, but it raised more issues then it really solved whether we would have pursued a ban or not. |
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