w/e netting/spearing set

[Lee Borgersen]

 Minnesota tribal walleye netting, spearing take set to expand.

   04/14/2015


 

Minnesota lakes are poised for an increase in Indian netting and spearing for walleye this spring.

 
  ........
Topping the list of waters likely to draw attention is Lake Vermilion near Tower, where members of two Native American bands are planning to net walleye shortly before Gov. Mark Dayton fishes the lake on the May 9 Governor's Fishing Opener.

The increase in activity -- up to 77 other northern and central Minnesota lakes could conceivably see tribal spearing for walleye -- is at least partly the result of stricter protections for the walleye population in Lake Mille Lacs, according to state and tribal officials.

State officials say they plan to monitor the activity but have no plans to change regulations.

Tribal officials are pledging that the number of walleye killed will be so low that hook-and-line anglers won't notice any effect, and there will be no need for the Department of Natural Resources to alter bag limits as a result -- as has happened in Wisconsin.

"We're using very conservative numbers," said Brian Borkholder, fisheries biologist for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, which plans to take up to 2,500 pounds of walleyes from the eastern portion of Vermilion, a 39,000-acre forest- and resort-lined lake that boasts a robust walleye fishery.

In addition, the band has notified state officials that members might spear on up to five other northeast Minnesota lakes where Indians retain off-reservation fishing rights in accordance with an 1854 treaty with the United States.

"We're not going to be pushing the envelope," Borkholder said. He said he suspects more than 2,500 pounds of walleye are unintentionally killed during many years by sport anglers releasing fish in the heat of the summer. "Our assumption is you'll never be able to notice."


PARTICIPATION UNKNOWN
Borkholder emphasized that Fond du Lac Band members have never netted outside Mille Lacs before, and participation on that lake and the five others is unknown.

Similarly, participation rates are unknown for 72 central Minnesota lakes where eight Chippewa bands have declared their intent to spear or net in territories ceded in an 1837 treaty. Among those lakes are East and West Rush Lakes, a combined 2,823 acres in Chisago County; 1,674-acre Platte Lake in Crow Wing County; and 210-acre Bone Lake in northern Washington County -- at the southern edge of the 1837 territories.

Last year, one of the 1837 lakes, aside from Mille Lacs, saw tribal spearing and no fish were killed, said Charlie Rasmussen, spokesman for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, which represents the bands who signed the 1837 treaty. Under 1837 treaty agreements, only lakes larger than 1,000 can be netted, while all others can only be speared. Both practices are generally done at night in shallow water shortly after the ice is out when walleye begin to spawn.

Rasmussen noted that bands in Minnesota and Wisconsin often declare quantities of fish could be taken that never actually are. "You see these huge declarations, or seemingly big declaration, but the actual harvest is a fraction," he said. "The tribes want to give their members the opportunity for harvest, but it's up to the members whether to make that trip."

Don Pereira, head of fisheries for the DNR, made the same observation.

"They always declare these other lakes, but the amount actually harvested has been very small," Pereira said. "We're not planning any regulatory response this year until we know how they did."


WISCONSIN PROCESS
For years across northern Wisconsin's ceded territories, tribal declarations have created a complex regulatory process. The tribes declare their take, and the DNR reduces walleye bag limits to accommodate that potential. Then after the spring tribal harvest, often mid-fishing season, the agency reviews the Indian take and re-adjusts limits, usually relaxing them slightly. In some cases, regulations have been tightened after higher-than-expected tribal kills.

The process has long been criticized by anglers and resort owners as unpredictable, and now the system is getting simpler.

On Thursday, the state's Natural Resources Board approved a DNR plan to set a three-walleye daily limit across nearly all 900 or so affected lakes, an increase of one fish from the most common regulation across the region.

In most lakes, it will play out like this: In the past, most lakes had a two-fish daily limit with a 15-inch minimum -- that was subject to change with the tribal declaration and harvest. Nearly all those lakes will now have a three-fish limit with an extra layer of size regulations: All fish between 20 and 24 inches will be thrown back and only one fish longer than 24 inches may be kept daily.

"It'll be a little bit of a learning curve this year," said Joe Hennessey, fisheries treaty coordinator for the Wisconsin DNR. "But people were used to looking at new bag limits twice a year."


VERMILION REACTION
On Lake Vermilion, business and property owners, while hardly celebrating the announcement, don't appear to be rising up in protest.

"I almost hate to say anything because it's such a political issue," said LeRoy Forstrum, owner of Glenmore Resort on the eastern side of Vermilion. "It's not favorable, but there's really nothing we can do about it. It's in the 1854 treaty, and they are allowed to exercise their treaty rights."

Forstrum noted that the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, which owns land on Lake Vermilion, has for years netted on Vermilion. The band has regarded that practice as an on-reservation harvest, and has not reported its take to the DNR. The band who plan to harvest off-reservation, including on Mille Lacs, are generally required under tribal rules to report every fish taken.

"Every fish will be weighed and measured, and our band members are accustomed to that," said Borkholder. "They know they have no choice."


MILLE LACS EFFECT
With Mille Lacs' walleye population at a historically low point, the number of fish that can be netted from massive Mille Lacs has plummeted. This year, American Indians are afforded 11,400 pounds of walleyes, a fraction of the maximum of years past, when the haul could often exceed 100,000 pounds.

As a result this year, all or nearly all of the other bands with 1837 treaty rights to net on Mille Lacs have essentially donated their portion of the 11,400-pound limit to the Mille Lacs Band.

"It's a sign of respect," Rasmussen said.

That means tribal members who want to spear or net fish will have to seek them elsewhere, and that's why this year is poised to see an increase in off-reservation harvest outside Mille Lacs.

Borkholder said the Mille Lacs scenario coincided with Fond du Lac's longstanding plans to net and spear walleye in the 1854 waters of northeast Minnesota. "I was hired in 1993, and we've been gathering data on these lakes ever since," he said.

He said the amount of fish that can be taken from any one lake will be based on the health of the walleye population and will use "pulsing" tactics: Smaller lakes speared one year will be left alone for the next three to five years. In the case of Vermilion, nets will be allowed in the eastern basin this year, but next year they'll move to the western basin.

He said the goal is to provide opportunities to band members who have court-upheld rights to the fish, not pick a political fight.

"Our tribal council has committed to the state that we will be out of all the waters by the seventh of May so we will not be there on the governor's fishing opener."



Wednesday, April 18 , 2006, Members of Red Lake Band of Chippewa sort walleyes during a survey conducted by the bandâ s fisheries biologist. After determining the sex and number of walleyes in the trap, the workers return them to the Blackduck River. Sorting fish, from left to right, are Herb Mountain, Kevin Spears, Charlie Barrett and Herman Lussier.


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