Spring Survey is good news

Looks like what a lot of us thought last fall was true and that the Walleye Population is indeed in good shape.

Thanks for posting this Paul!!!!

You have mail from earlier this week

Paul, that's great news! Thanks for keeping us updated.

Good information Paul. Thanks for sharing. I can't 'til this fall!

Thanks Paul!

This helps clear a little smoke.

Someone should forward this to Channel 9, to show them the “Dead Sea” is not so “Dead”. As a matter of fact, I think I might do some investigating my self and send the reporter from that segment an e-mail with this attached .

Fish a little smarter and put your time in, you will get fish. You get skunked, go back and do something different.

Great news Paul. Thanks for posting this up. I am looking forward to coming up again this fall and possibly a couple more trips between now and then. We finally got Rob's boat running so we can cruise around now.

With gas prices so high & limiting peoples fishing trips this year, you would think that it should dramatically reflect in the increased numbers of fish. I know that the two trips we've made up there the lake was pretty quiet, granted we were there Sun-Wed so I don't see what it's like on the weekends.It will be interesting to see the numbers of the fall survey, could result in a relaxed slot in the future. Maybe?? Thanks for the article Paul. While we were up there we had alot of fun with the pike too, My son caught a 43"! What a beautiful fish! Got a photo for the wall & let her swim. The 36" minimum makes for fun fishing, I only wish we could have gotten the smallies to cooperate....Next time. L2f

I can't buy it. If things are that great can someone tell my why at all of the tournements this year, including the Wave Wacker that almost one third of the teams don't catch one fish and very few boats come in with a full 7 fish to weigh?

Sounds more like propoganda to me. The resorts complain about the lack of tourist since the DNR says fishing is bad, then the DNR says things are great hoping to get people to come up.

I have only personally heard of one great report of keeper fish. I don't feel that a bunch of 24" fish and a few 15" fish scattered around the lake makes a great fishery.

Maybe in a few years again, but not now.

Maybe there is enough forage base in there right now to make it that tough which would be great, but maybe it's not the forage base anymore....

i think the fishing was phenominal this year so far, best fishing i have ever had, catching hogs is a blast, there are many times i go up there and dont keep a thing because i just enjoy the fact of catching fish and learning, give it a few more years bud and mille lacs will be the trophy walleye lake that everyone will be at, few more years and those fish will be 28-30, then i bet no one will complain then..... well maybe some but not many....

Mille Lacs has always been a lake of cycles and streaks.It didn't get the nick-name "dead sea" for nothin'! She ALWAYS comes back and regains the "FACTORY" label in time though.
If you can catch them when it's tough you'll look like Al when it comes back.
Ignore the reports and fish when you can.

Good points dude!

I have found the same thing also

I haven't been on the pond this spring yet, but my dad has been out there a few times now. My dad is by no means a walleye angler and he has been doing alright out there with a few people he knows. Last Monday they went out after work for a couple hours, got 5 eaters and threw a bunch of fish back, lot of fish in the 20-26 range. It aint always about eating guys. Go up and catch some fish when you have a chance, and enjoy it. Thats what it is all about.

I know a lot of people that fished the lake this winter and saw tons of walleye on the cameras, but couldn't get anything to bite do to the over abundance of YOY perch. There are fish in the lake, and I had a hard time believing the bad report for the fall as I caught quite a few up there.

It was all an elaborate scheme. Biologists with the DNR took the time to individually make up tagging numbers and catch rates for individual gillnets. Muh-ha-ha (evil laughter). C'mon folks. To get a good walleye bite you need a good population of 'eyes and periods of shortages of forage....something to trigger the bite. Right now it sounds like we have a healthy population of fish and forage, so the bite may be a bit slow but at least the fish are there!

If the news was bad, the safe harvest level would have been chopped down and people would be all over the DNR. Instead the news is "It is what we thought it was" and all it gets is a small press release that is completely overlooked.

The reports I've heard and read in this forum make me believe the walleye fishing is stable...not lights out like the last two years but not painfully slow as some of the especially lean years before safe harvest levels have been.

I applaud the DNR and angler efforts. It was a team effort in estimating the population with various methods, mark-recapture being one of them. There were a lot of fish tagged this spring. Our boat caught one on opener and reported it.

I'm not saying that there aren't lots of fish over 20", there are. What I am saying is I haven't seen much for fish under 18", especially fish under 12". Now do the math, not many small fish means a pretty slim next few years. Yes, it is cyclical and yes, there are an abundance of yoy perch. What I'm saying is it's not great right now, and when the DNR says it has a fishable population, I'm asking compared to what? Is it comparable to Mille Lacs for the last 20 years or is it comparable to a "normal" lake? I also totally agree that it's not about keeper fish (I rarely keep fish) but I do realize that if you don't have keeper and smaller fish in the system now you don't have breeder fish in the future.


For those that say they are "killing them" or "doing very well", if I where you I'd be all over those tournements, or are you guys just catching 24" and 26" fish like everyone else?

Wow, I can't believe I said "just 24" and 26" fish". 10 years ago I would have killed for the chance at that. Guys, don't get me wrong here, I'm just not so sure the future is going to be so bright for this lake. I love the lake but I'm a little scared between the lack of small fish now and what the Zebra muscles are going to do to it.

I will add, I have not hit ML for open water yet this year . Any and all free time has been for cats down town. But!!!! Last year during ice season, from late winter into spring I had gotten into many small walleyes fishing for perch and crappie. Very shallow and crappie rigging seem to work best.

They are in the lake and I had seen no shortage of them