Tribal w/e take underway

[Lee Borgersen]

Tribal walleye take underway on Lake Mille Lacs!

5/21/18

  .....
Aitkin, Minn. — Tribal and state fishing has commenced even without an agreement between state and tribal fisheries managers on a safe allowable harvest quota for Lake Mille Lacs.
State anglers are working with a quota of 76,450 pounds of walleye (after deductions for overages and winter harvest), based on their share of the 150,000 pounds of walleye that state fisheries managers said was the safe allowable harvest.

Tribal fisheries managers had pushed for a shared quota of 120,000 pounds of walleye, which, if the bands stick to that number, would amount to a 47,200-pounds walleye harvest.
Under that calculation, they receive 30 percent of the first 64,000 pounds of harvest (19,200 pounds), and then 50 percent of the rest (28,000).

  .....
Tom Jones, Minnesota DNR’s regional treaty coordinator, said tribal anglers had reported 18,272 pounds of harvest through Sunday, May 13.
That involved the harvest of 9,415 walleyes.
Jones said tribal anglers began fishing on May 2.
Tribal anglers on Mille Lacs had also harvested 60 northern pike through that period, for a total of 280 pounds of pike.

  ....
There was also a minimal yellow perch harvest reported, but there was a math error in the numbers, though Jones said he believed the harvest to be under 20 pounds of perch.
Jones said tribal anglers had done some of the harvest by netting and some by spearing, but he did not know yet what the ratio was between the methods.

Brad Parsons, DNR’s central regional fisheries manager, said at a May 7 meeting with the Mille Lacs Fisheries Advisory Committee, which was detailed in the last edition of Outdoor News, that this wasn’t the first time the two sides hadn’t reached an agreement.

“And the season moved forward just like this season is going to move forward,” Parsons said.
The sides are bound by court protocols that they developed following the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which affirmed the fishing rights of eight Chippewa bands that were party to the 1837 Treaty.


Despite the lack of an agreement, the state is pushing ahead with a 150,000-pound shared quota, which DNR managers say will not harm the lake’s walleye population.
But state anglers may not keep any walleye this year. Their part of the quota is deducted via estimated hooking mortality, which is based on creel surveys.
State fisheries managers said that even allowing for a one-fish bag would have come with too high a chance that the quota would be met before Labor Day, ending walleye fishing for the season.

[Rebel SS]

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[Lee Borgersen]

  https://m.popkey.co/a5a556/zJmq7.gif

  if I hath offended thee. I received dis story wit today's date as posted. Maybe I should run my posts directly to ya foyst for approval.

http://www.outdoornews.com/2018/05/21/tribal-walleye-take-underway-lake-mille-lacs/

[Steve-o]

Yep, the tribes have all the trump cards when it comes to fishing rights.

In a related note...

Since the Federal Supreme Court opened the door to state-sponsored sports gambling, I wonder how MN will respond relative to its current gaming framework.

[snow1]

Total Bullsheeet!  hooking mortallity my arse...

And guess what folks tribal ghost netts which abound every year on mille lacs  mostly due to natives placing netts before complete ice,wind shifts pushes the ice flow around the lake pulling placed netts under water all the while snagging more fish,mostly walleyes,another nett was pulled this weekend with over 100 dead walleyes rotting,found the story/pic on another outdoor site but it looks the same as this~from past years,13 other netts like this were found that spring all loaded with dead walleye,northern and musky....and the kicker here is all these dead walleyes did not/donot count against tribal quota.



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[Steve-o]

....and the kicker here is all these dead walleyes did not/donot count against tribal quota.

Worse still...

They prolly count against the MN Sportsman's quota.

[LPS]

That figures... 

[Lee Borgersen]

Abandoned net of 67 dead walleye on Lake Mille Lacs angers conservation group!

May 27, 2018 at 2:24 p.m.

  .....
LAKE MILLE LACS, Minn. — A tip from a local resident led officials to an abandoned gillnet on Lake Mille Lacs on May 20 that contained 67 dead walleye weighing 112.4 pounds.

Mille Lacs is co-managed between the state and eight bands of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians with court-affirmed treaty rights to net a portion of walleye. Each side agrees to a maximum amount of walleyes it can kill each season.


Charlie Rasmussen, spokesman for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission said that he and the Fond du Lac Conservation Enforcement Department were aware of the find and have begun an investigation.

"Fond du Lac is committed to the enforcement of its codes and regulations, and will take appropriate enforcement action when the investigation is complete," Rasmussen said.

Non-tribal members are under strict catch-and-release-only fishing rules, while tribal members are allowed to net.

"All of the fish that were found in the net will be counted against the Fond du Lac Band's overall walleye quota for this fishing year," he said.

The incident is almost certain to inflame long-simmering tensions on the lake, where tribal netting has been a flash point of controversy for years.

Many resort owners and non-tribal anglers on the legendary central Minnesota lake blame tribal netting for a long-term decline in Mille Lacs' marquee walleye population — and the specter of an abandoned net and wasted walleyes provides evidence for those who distrust netting — including Proper Economic Resource Management (PERM), a conservation group that has unsuccessfully sued to change how the lake is managed.

"Mille Lacs co-management does not work," said PERM's president Doug Meyenburg. "What makes this waste especially offensive is how it highlights the failure of co-management. That failure is leaving non-tribal anglers, resorters and related businesses in the Mille Lacs fishery feeling as trapped as those wasted walleye."

Rumors of abandoned nets are frequent, but irrefutable evidence is uncommon.

Scientists studying the lake have agreed that the nets are not to blame for the dropping walleye numbers, but resentment remains.


A conservation officer pulls an abandoned tribal gillnet full of dead walleye from Lake Mille Lacs Sunday, May 20, 2018. The net, registered to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, was recovered by officers from an American Indian band and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. (Courtesy PERM, Proper Economic Resource Management)

               
 

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[LPS]

No one wants to be the first non-tribal person to refute the netting issue for fear of starting something.

[Lee Borgersen]

No one wants to be the first non-tribal person to refute the netting issue for fear of starting something.

Ya mean like dis?......

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[snow1]

Doesn't take a bio degree to figure out the collasps of mille lacs walleye fishery~

this statemant is TOTAL BS~~~


Scientists studying the lake have agreed that the nets are not to blame for the dropping walleye numbers, but resentment remains.
 

[glenn57]

Wouldn't that be considered wanton waste??? Go after that tribe in general vfir fees and fines and no betting for three years like they do yo everyone else.

[LPS]

Kickbacks payoffs anything else?  The low walleye numbers and projected numbers are all to get the current resort owners to sell out to the INDIANS.....   Anyone who thinks differently does not own a resort on Mille Lacs and isn't trying to make a living on that great lake.  PAYOFFS is huge on this issue.  Makes me sick how we have muddled these waters.