Pelican Lake

[boogityn]

      I spent the whole weekend fishing Pelican lake in Wright co., All three days we caught a very healthy amount of crappies and blue gills. While on the lake, I watched families enjoing  time on the ice together, dads taking thier sons and daughters fishin, quit possibly, for the fisrt time. I witnessed aprox. 4000 vehicels, yes 4000, come on and off the the lake. I grew up 4 miles from the lake, and have some great memories of duck hunting and yes, fishin crappies 25 plus years ago,on what was knowen as Pelican. Why would anybody want to killo this lake off, and put up duck houses? Ducks and fish can, and have, lived together since the begining of time.
      Isn't our country run by the all mighty dollar? At no time during duck season, will we ever see 4000 duck hunters enjoy hunting on this body of water in ten days. In this time financial dispare, we should be generating reveue, not trying to take money away from the communitys that welcome it there.
      Let's say I'm going to take my 2 sons fishing for the day on pelican lake, First thing we need to do is get some bait. we go to our LOCAL Bait store, and we buy ,say, 2 scoops of crappie minnows, and a dozen suckers, hoping one of the boys will grt a northern on a tip up.Bait $10.oo. well now we need some snacks,when fishin is slow, snacks will help this be a good learning experience for the boys. So we head down to our LOCAL food store and pick up,say, 6 sodas(2 each), some sanwich meat and some bread and cheese, 3 packs of those minni donuts, probly a big ol bag of chips,( I said we have to have snacks), and sadly, some dads smoke, so we better add a pack of smokes.Snacks $34.00. As we pull away from the store, I notice we'll need some gas for our truck and auger, so we go to our LOCAL gas station to get gas, I get 20 dollars in fuel, while I'm paying for the fuel, I notice the red depth finders buy the till,Thinking the boys will get a kick out of them, I get 2.Fuel and depth finders,$24.00 now we can go to the lake.
          $68.00 that quick, now take that times 4000. Thats a lot of money to take away from these comunities on a weekly basis. There is no better time so stop government from wasting money that is needed now. I sure hope the people in the towns around try one more time stop the draining and killing of Pelican lake to become a duck pond.

[kenhuntin]

Pelican was once a clear shallow lake with nesting grasses. the reason it is deep enough to hold fish populations is because of man made drainage ditches and dams. It is being restored to it's God intended purpose. Contrary to popular belief most ducks do not co exist with fish. They feed on the shrimp that fish devour and pondweeds like sago and celery which also do not thrive in deep lakes. If Pelican was restored to it's original state it is honestly only like putting a bandaid on a cut artery. Waterfowl and all the inhabitants of clear shallow lakes really have little left in Minnesota. I understand the hit to the economy. I personally would like to see more projects like Pelican. Clean shallow lakes without motor oil, discarded batteries and chip bags in them. I myself get a great feeling of peace from seeing a place without traffic jams and watching wildlife thrive. Places like that for me are difficult to put a price tag on.

[boogityn]

     I'm all for creating wet lands for ducks, but your looking at $250,000.00 a week out of the local economy. This will indeed end my affiliation with Ducks Unlimited. The metro has grown out, and so have the ducks. For the record, we've caught crappies on the slews there since 1977. Stop wasting our money for your cheap gain. You'll have to drive alittle farther out of the metro to shoot your ducks.    Where does DU intend on send the invitations to the ducks to invite them back. HUGE waste of tax payer money.

[Tyler Rother]

To each his own. DU donations go to all states if I'm not mistaken, not just Minnesota. Depends on their projects and what is priority, were the land of 10,000 lakes right? I drive out of the metro to hunt ducks, why can't you drive away from Pelican to fish? One sided it seems.

[boogityn]

Not one sided, it's all about the money. Plain and simple. A TRUE outdoors men wood not kill a lake that supports the fish that pelican does, and the amount of people that it would effect. Clearly this might happen for the personal gain of a few people.  Breaking news, looks like Our governor might be steping in! Great news! :fishing2:

[MTCOMMER]

Not to play devils advocate, because I know Pelican is a great fishing, and has been for a few years now, but it is heavily fished and the population cant be sustained for too many years.  Like you said, there are thousands of people fishing the lake each day.  Anyways, all it takes it one cold and snowy winter to kill a large majority of the fish in the lake, due to winterkill.  there may be enough oxygen, but alot of those fish would die.
But I dont agree with spending a large amounts of money (even though they are grants - still tax payer money) to drain out the lake.  I know that 100's of birds would come out of there a year, but I think there are better places that would also work for this project.
IDK, Like boog said, more people fish than they duck hunt, but then again, duck populations are low in the state.  So the debate will continue.
I think there will be enough metro fisherman that oppose the measure, where the DNR will reconsider. BUT WHO KNOWS.  If they drain some water out, they better open up the lake to liberalized fishing so the fish can be harvested and put to use by fisherman.

[Tyler Rother]

Yeah... Just remember with the DNR and Government in general. He who has money, has power. Not us little guys. But as well, numbers are power to. I am more opposed to people building on lake shore used once by duck hunters, then draining a once marsh, now lake, back to a marsh. I look both ways, I hunt and fish, but I have my own reasoning of what is killing fish populations, which I can't say here to be politically correct. Call the DNR's TIP line, and not a damn thing happens. Again, great government spending. Can't tell their head from their ass.

[kenhuntin]

I guess the blame goes to Ducks Unlimited biologists, Pheasants forever, The U.S.F.A.W.S. and the Mn D.N.R. All have a part in the Pelican project. These organizations are trying to accomplish what the outdoors minded people that fund them are asking for. From what I have been reading it sounds to me as if we may have condominiums around old faithful pretty soon. It should probably be capped off first so they do not get mist on their windows though.