DNR puts temporary ban on night fishing on Lake Mille Lacs
Posted: 03/25/2014
Updated: about 9 hours ago
This is an update.....
Night fishing on Lake Mille Lacs will be banned nearly all year this season, Minnesota wildlife officials announced Tuesday.
The ban -- the most stringent ever employed on the lake -- is among several changes announced by the Department of Natural Resources as it grapples with a declining walleye population in one of state's most popular and legendary lakes.
But some resort owners and guides were outraged:
-- "It's like a dagger to the economy up here," said Bill Eno, owner of Twin Pines Resort in Garrison.
-- "They're going to have to figure something else out because this is blowing up right now," muskie guide Jason Hamernick said. "My phone won't stop with calls and texts."
Meanwhile, others shrugged.
"I don't think it'll really affect our business," said Justin Baldwin, whose family owns Nitti's Hunters Point Resort, which operates cabins and launches. "I think what hurts us most is the publicity."
The ban will prohibit fishing of any kind from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. starting May 12 -- the Monday after the walleye opener -- until Dec. 1.
For years, a night ban had been in place on Mille Lacs in north-central Minnesota after opening weekend, but it had generally been lifted by early June.
Other changes for the lake include extending the seasons and loosening restrictions on northern pike and smallmouth bass, as well as lifting the ban on spearing pike through the ice.
The daily walleye limits remain unchanged: Two fish 18 to 20 inches long can be kept, or one fish of that size and one longer than 28 inches.
Given those tight restrictions, as well as an increasing amount of baitfish for the walleyes to eat, fisheries biologists believe the action will be slow this year for walleye, a trend that began this winter when ice anglers reported finding fish on sonar but having difficulty coaxing them to bite.
Still, DNR officials said they couldn't risk having too many fish taken.
The problem of Mille Lacs walleye is that for several years, they have not been surviving into adulthood, and scientists are trying understand why.
One generation of fish, those hatched in 2008, constitutes the only abundant class of adult fish -- and as such that generation is carrying the hopes of lake observers. Protecting those fish, the DNR said, is the primary goal to ensuring the lake, which is not stocked with walleye, can recover.
Fish hatched in 2013 appear to be coming on strong -- natural reproduction is as high as ever -- but there's no guarantee.
Complicating matters are treaties with Indian tribes that have rights to take fish from the lake. Biologists say only 60,000 pounds of walleye can be safely taken from Mille Lacs, including 42,900 pounds by nontribal anglers. That's the lowest safe harvest level enacted under the modern treaty regimen.
Without the night fishing ban, DNR models predicted a 1-in-3 chance that nontribal anglers would come too close to breaking the 42,900-pound allocation.
The night fishing ban reduces that likelihood by about 20 percent, officials estimated.
But they know the night ban will be painful.
"I don't think we can thread the needle on this without somebody giving up something," said Don Pereira, the DNR's fisheries chief. "But I feel for these guys who are getting dinged."
Eno said 75 percent of his business is evening launch cruises for walleye. His normal evening cruise costs $35 and runs from 8 p.m. to midnight. He said he'll redo his schedules, but he's particularly worried about weekend anglers from the Twin Cities.
"We're going to have to leave at 6 p.m., and nobody can get off work Friday and make it up here by then from the Cities," Eno said.
Hamernick said all of his muskie bookings involve an evening component -- often casting until past midnight -- because muskies on Mille Lacs bite better when the sun is low or down.
"This is terrible," he said. "This'll push a lot of muskie guys to other lakes."
Muskie anglers catch few walleyes, but Pereira said it would be too difficult to enforce a selective night ban. As such, nobody will be allowed on the lake with any fishing gear aboard after 10 p.m.
Meanwhile, the northern pike population is at a record level and might be affecting the walleye. So this year, 10 northern pike can be kept per day, with only one longer than 30 inches. That's up from three daily last year.
In addition, ice fishing for pike has been extended from mid-February until the last Sunday in March. And, for the first time in years, the ice-fishing spearing ban on the lake will be lifted.
Smallmouth bass restrictions on Mille Lacs will be loosened for the second straight year, this time in both the size limits and season length.
The smallmouth bass season will open May 10, the same date as walleye and pike fishing, instead of May 24 for most of the state.
The daily limit will be six fish, with no more than one over 18 inches. Anglers will be allowed to keep smallmouth bass throughout the entire season, which runs until Feb. 22.
The rest of the state is under a catch-and-release season after Sept. 8.
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Topic: Lake Mille Lacs: update (Read 2567 times)
