DNR NEWS IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Lee Borgersen]

  ...    DNR NEWS - For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 Waiting for ice to support you? You can support walleye fishing.

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Ice thick enough for fishing may be on the wish lists of many anglers heading into the holiday season, but there is another present anglers can give themselves that makes fishing better all around the state - a walleye stamp.

"Walleye stamps can be purchased any time of the year, even if you already have a fishing license," said Neil Vanderbosch, fisheries program consultant for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. "We use the funds from stamp sales to support walleye stocking."

A walleye stamp validation costs $5 and can be purchased wherever Minnesota fishing licenses are sold. For 75 cents more, the DNR will mail the stamp as a collector's item. A walleye stamp is not required to fish for or keep walleye.
 
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The DNR uses walleye stamp proceeds to buy walleye from private producers, which are stocked in lakes that don't have naturally reproducing walleye populations. Stocking lets anglers catch walleye in a more geographically wide range of the state.

Because of stocking, walleye can be found in around 1,300 Minnesota lakes spread throughout the state. However, most walleye are caught in large rivers or about 260 large walleye lakes where they naturally reproduce.

More information on the walleye stamp is available at www.mndnr.gov/stamps under "Walleye Habitat Stamp."

[Gunner55]

I've been doing this for the last few seasons. The way I look at it is maybe they can use at least some of the funds the way they want instead of having someone in St. Paul decide for them how to spend it. Besides after 40 + years of buying a non-resident license, what's another $5?