Some Feedback on M. Lacs

[Lee Borgersen]

    Some Feedback about Mille Lacs


For at least the last decade, the walleye situation on the lake has been getting more grim each year. Some have said it might need to bottom out entirely before things can possibly start looking up again.

Well, this is about as flat-lined as it can get.

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Most everyone has their own theory of why walleye numbers have been suffering at Mille Lacs and what can be done to return the state fish to prominence at the lake.

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 Some say it has something to do with overfishing and the tribal netting that has been a part of the Mille Lacs landscape for as long as most folks there can remember. Or, the boom of yet another predatory game fish population in the lake — last summer, Mille Lacs was rated as one of the top-10 smallmouth bass lakes in the country. Or, maybe it’s that the lake, too, is home to a healthy population of two other major predatory game fish — Mille Lacs is thought to hold some of the biggest muskies and pike in the state.

“What chance do walleye fry have?” said Gary Roach, among those who believe that the burgeoning population of big smallmouths is adversely impacting those smaller walleyes and the population as a whole in the lake. “They (smallmouths) eat anything that moves.”

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Roach knows a thing or two about both species in Mille Lacs. Better known as Mr. Walleye, he’s regarded as one of the premier walleye aficionados in the country and has fished the species in Mille Lacs for about as long as they’ve been a major factor there. In recent years, though, as the walleye population has struggled, he’s turned his attention to smallmouths in the lake.

“Are they trying to make it a bass lake?” Roach wondered, shaking his head. “I mean, do you want bass fishing or walleye fishing? Let’s get the (bass) population where they (smaller walleyes) have a chance.

“There are too many different species (of predatory game fish in Mille Lacs) . And it doesn’t do any good to net spawning fish. And they (the DNR) don’t want to stock the lake.”

And while Mr. Walleye, like many, is disappointed by the dwindling walleye-fishing opportunities on the lake, it’s those whose livelihood hinges on the species there who are foremost in his thoughts these days.

“How about the bait stores (on Mille Lacs)? Those poor guys,” Roach said. “I don’t know what they’re going to do. There’s no hope for those business people there.”

But is there hope for Mille Lacs as a walleye-fishing destination? Roach doesn’t know. When asked if he thought there was something, anything, that could be done to turn this thing around, he sat silently, again shaking his head.

If you know anything about Gary Roach, a man who loves talking walleyes and fishing about as much as he loves talking about most anything in this world, that’s not a good sign.

[gophergunner]

There's no coincidence to the decline of the walleye population in Mille Lacs.  It started since the tribes began netting.  The netting needs to stop, and stop now. 

[snow1]

We understand our Minn ojib's have been netting for culture and cerimonies ever since I was a kid and before my time,the issue at hand is the 6 tribes pillaging our lake during spawn,this all started when thay killed off their lakes in wisc and came here in 1999,they could careless about the future of our premier walleye fishery or the community surrounding the lake,they bring ZERO to the table,no cash,no tax money no license$$4etc.this debachle never should of started in the 1st place,after all we are all natives as our parents and grand parents,but we have special rights for a select group,its long past due to cut the head off the snake.

Further they sit back and let us tax payers do the fix just like red lake and all the others before red.This includes leech,cass,winni and LOW.