We have pulled all of our houses off as of last Sunday and we are closed for the winter. If you still want to fish for perch, I think you would be better off going out of a resort who stays open and maintains roads. That way if you have problems there will be someone either at the resort or on the ice to help you.
We would like to thank all of you for making this a great winter. The fish bit very well, although we could not keep very many. We got out early and for most people it was 10 or 11 weekends of ice fishing. It does not get much better than that. We had some snow issues with all of the drifting and we know some of you had a great deal of frustration with the snow pushed up by your doors. We will try placing houses a little different next year and plow driveways past the doors instead of right up to them. We apologize for the inconvenience.
We attended the meeting with the DNR last night. I am a charter member of the Mille Lacs Fishery Input group and I do not think I have ever missed a meeting. We are in a tougher spot this year because of the test net results from last Fall. The nets showed a very low population of walleyes in the lake and the DNR has to base their harvest numbers on those results, even though I believe they think there are a lot more walleyes in the lake. They cut the harvest number in half and the band cut their allowable harvest in half also.
Without this low allowable harvest, we could work to get rid of some of the big walleyes in the lake. Everyone around the lake believes that there are just too many big walleyes, along with the number of northerns and smallmouth bass. The large number of predators are eating all of the small walleyes before they get a chance to grow up. The DNR is going to open up the slot and bag limits for northern and bass. If you want to help the walleyes, fish for northerns and bass and keep what is allowed. We need to get rid of some predators and take some pressure off the walleyes.
The DNR is going to do a tagging study this summer to see how good their test net results were. I believe it will show a lot more walleyes than the nets did. If this is the result, I believe the DNR must reevaluate how they gather their data. The limits and slots affect too many people way too much to be using Questionable data. These decisions affect people's lives.
When they are done, hopefully we can set some slots which will allow some harvest of the walleyes between 20 and 26 inches. Under the present rules and system, male walleyes are protected for life as soon as they reach 17 inches because they will never exceed 28 inches.
Next year's regs were not set last night. The DNR sets those by themselves and they can listen to the comments and do what they want. It seems like they want a 2" slot from 18-20 inches with either a 4 fish limit or a 2 fish limit early and then changing to a 4 fish limit later in the year. We will still be allowed one over 28"
They also put forward some radical ideas for additional regs mostly designed to cut down on the hooking mortality which could be a huge factor this summer, especially if we have a warm summer. The ideas included extended night bans, live bait restrictions, and requiring the use of circle hooks with live bait. A few of the resort owners were very much against all of the ideas and the DNR dropped them quickly. Too quickly in my opinion. The DNR estimates that the 2" slot will still put us over our allowable harvest and the people who spoke up want to gamble that we will not hit it. Maybe if we go to the 2 fish limit early and then change it later to 4 fish, that will be enough to keep us under the limit. Otherwise maybe we should have discussed the ideas further. Would we be better off with a night ban that ran thru the July 4th weekend and get a 4 fish limit all year or maybe a night ban that ran from 9:00 or 9:30 rather than 10:00? I do not know and neither do they because the discussion was halted. Should we have considered circle hooks? Maybe, it can not cost that much to change hooks and the DNR estimated a reduction of 20% in hooking mortality nwith their use. What do you think? I would like to hear from you if you have an opinion. Email me please.
