2016 outdoors in review

[Lee Borgersen]

                    2016 outdoors in review

  ..
Muskies are planned to be stocked in the fall of 2017 in the Gull Lake Chain. Minnesota DNR stock photoWhile the Brainerd lakes area has always been a mecca of all things outdoors, the area found the spotlight even more than usual in 2016.

 
Here are a few of the highlights featured in the pages of the Brainerd Dispatch.

• Bass fishing boomed as the Brainerd Warrior Fishing Team put in their first full year of competition. The Warrior Fishing Team had two state champion teams in 2016. One state championship was June 17 on Whitefish Lake sponsored by the Bass Anglers Sportsmen's Society (BASS). Warrior teams took first and third at the BASS State Championship. The other state championship was July 31 on Mille Lacs Lake sponsored by the Student Angler Federation (SAF). Warrior teams took first, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh at the SAF State Championship. There were also six Warrior teams that qualified, at the state tournament on Mille Lacs, to advance and fish the SAF Regional tournament on the Ohio River. The Brainerd Warrior Fishing Team was started in 2015 by the head coach, Jason Bahr. The team now has more than 100 high school and junior high student anglers.

• Just up the road, Pequot Lakes student anglers were also making waves this year. Also in their second year, Northern Lakes Junior Bandits team member Hunter Wendt, scored the top place in the state and was the sole Minnesota angler to move on to the 2017 Forrest Wood Cup, the national junior fishing tournament.

• The professional anglers came to town for the 2016 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship Sept. 15-18 and found Mille Lacs Lake to have the highest catch weights of all B.A.S.S. tournaments in 2016. Minnesota angler Seth Feider came away with the top catch weight over three days with 76 pounds 5 ounces. The activity brought national attention to what many already knew was an outstanding smallmouth bass fishery.

• Bassmaster named Mille Lacs Lake No. 6 bass fishing lake in the country. But after such a finish at the AOY Tournament, some were calling for No. 1 status. The lake has seen a steady rise from 74th, 69th, 10th and sixth place. Many will be watching it's position next year. Resort owners have even started to prepare for a new base of anglers focused on bass rather than walleye.

• Mille Lacs Lake walleye continues to be in the spotlight. Even though anglers were targeting other species during the catch-and-release walleye season on Mille Lacs Lake in 2016, many anglers said they couldn't keep the big walleyes off their hooks. In a bizarre turn of events, a walleye shortage that brought closures to the season brought on an intense increase in anglers catching walleye—without trying. That topic continually came up at Mille Lacs Lake Fishery Advisory Committee meetings. Now anglers are able to keep one walleye and five northerns during the winter season.

• More bad news came on the aquatic invasive species front. As of August the Minnesota DNR confirmed zebra mussels in 121 lakes in Minnesota. About 5 percent of the states more than 11,000 lakes now have some form of invasive species present.

• Local additions to the list in 2016 included confirmed zebra mussels in Huntington and Mangan mine pits in the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area, West Battle Lake, Kimble Lake, Leech Lake and more. Starry Stonewart was confirmed in popular Lake Winnibigoshish. Even red swamp crawfish were been found in Tilde Lake in Clay County in northwestern Minnesota. It is the first time the invasive species have been confirmed in a Minnesota lake, according to the Minnesota DNR. The fight against those species raged on with more exposure of the motto "Clean, Drain, Dry."

• Muskies were the talk for the area for the past couple years during a public input period. A decision by the Minnesota DNR to stock them in Gull Lake was approved despite vehement opposition by many lakeshore owners. The plan includes stocking 2,000 every other fall in the Gull Lake Chain.

• While some Gull Lake anglers spoke of poor walleye fishing during much of 2015, a spectacular Fishing Extravaganza brought forth huge amounts of walleye in the dead of winter in early 2016. The top fish was a 5.33-pound walleye. That event was also marked by caution as ice-over for area lakes was setting records for latest dates thanks to such a mild winter. There was concern just weeks before the event that there may not be enough ice. Speaking of the Extravaganza, it's scheduled for Jan. 28.

As we move into 2017, we experienced another late onset of winter, but things are looking up for those hard up for hard water fishing.

Best of luck to all those heading out into the outdoors this year. Stay safe, introduce someone new to the outdoors and make excuses to get out to see more of the outdoors more often.