"Taking on the "Sacred Cow" of Treaty Rights in Minnesota is risky for any writer but the silliness of worrying about a 1/4 of Walleye while a group with special status carries fish out in barrels is obvious."
Clancy also did not do his homework before he started complaining.
The Red Lake Band controls 82% of Upper and Lower Red Lakes, the state of MN controls the remaining 18%. The safe allowable harvest is 3.5 pounds per acre per year. ON ALL WATERS. Both sides of the line.
Using last winter as an example it was 1/2 of a harvest year so 1.75 pounds per acre was the safe allowable harvest. I repeat, on both sides of the line. On the MN side of the line there were about 40,000 angler trips. Roughly 1 trip per acre so there was about 2 pounds of walleye available per trip under the safe allowable harvest.
On the Red Lake Band side with over 4 TIMES as many acres and far less anglers. (from what I hear about 500 anglers) It works out to about 1 angler trip per 48 acres. That works out to approximately 84 pounds of safe allowable harvest of walleye per angler trip.
So all Mr. Clancey had to do to get more fish was to gain control of another 62% of Upper and Lower Red Lakes AND tell 39,500 of his fellow MN anglers that they could not fish so he could get more fish. I'm surprised he hasn't tried that.

Don't give him any ideas....

DNR Kool-Aid

LOL. Yer putting Clancy in the same league as Senator Larry Craig. Same variety of excuses.

Are you suggesting that Gary Clancy has a wide stance?

not at all. Both plead guilty and paid their fines. Then turned around and proclaim that their fates were the fault of over-zealous enforcement rather than accepting responsibility.

I am going to make to things clear hear. Gary is a relitive of mine and he would not break the law on purpose!! and two if he had a frabill measuring tube they are exsacly 1/2 ince off i ran in to the same problem but i mangaed to get out of the ticket becuase i showed the game warden that they measure 16 and 3/4 and he then measured my tube and it off we measured my second tube and it was the same as the first off by a half an inch. Be glad there are people that write articles for us to read while were working or fishing,, quit complaining about everything.. i am sure there is stuff in your life that i would sniker about.. PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL

maybe the moderators can do their job now and finally kill this thread. this is 6 pages of the same garbage written over an over. i've read his article 3 times now, nowhere did he say he should have been let off because he's "gary clancy". he got pinched and grumbled about it. big deal. i would grumble 2 just like most of you probably would also. he wasn't ranting or raving over the deal, just speaking his mind that's what he's paid to do. there's alot more to mr. calncy than this one article so maybe you all can just drop it. oh yeah, how's the fishing up there, isn't that what this site is supposed to be about

Mr Clancy was the one that did the complaining. He broke the law and got ticketed so he is not returning to this area because of that. I'm curious to see how many other people feel the same way.
What he wrote about the Red Lake Band was way off base and showed that he had done ZERO research before he wrote it.
I realize that Outdoor News has become more of an outdoor opinion paper then an outdoors newspaper but when an article is this wrong someone should to be held accountable.
I never lock any topic or delete anyone's post. I leave that to the powers over me.

Reading the original post, it seems as if this thread was commenting on his actions/comments after the fact, canceling his trip, not going there anymore, etc.

I don't think anyone cares that he might have had a fish out of the slot, it happens to a lot of people, especially if the measuring device is not accurate. I don't think anywhere in this thread did anyone accuse him of blatently breaking the law.

However....I think the main problem is how he reacted to it.

But you know what? That's his right to do that in his position. If he wants to use his article to voice his opinion and the ON editors are OK with that, then fine. But be prepared for people to give their opinons back then.

Being as I started this thread, I'll voice in again. Mistakes happen, but Clancy didn't need to write this article. He shed a negative light on the Red Lake area and that is not a classy or professional thing to do. The people who make a living up there need all the support they can get from people in news media, this article was sure to discourage some people from coming up there.

Henceforth the difference between journalists and columnists.

He was in violation, and got ticketed. This happens to the best of us, however his after the fact reaction dis-credits himself.

We have all made a mistake or 3, admit your wrong, pay the penalties and move on. Blaming someone/something else for your wrong should have started to fade after high school.

I's say that he has a pretty powerful voice and has gained a lot of respect over the years. I myself have always went out of the way to read Mr.Clancy's articles and have always enjoyed them. Now this has come up and it totally, in my opinion, has ruined his credibility and his respect. To rip on the area that you were caught in violation is just disrespectful and I'm glad he's getting his fair share of scoldings. I will never think of him the same now.