tribal and non-tribal fishing to coincide?

[mrmillelacs]

i am concerned about the late ice out here in minnesota, especially at mille lacs lake.Since the supreme court ruled in favor of indian spearing and netting, there has been early enough ice outs to permit most tribal "fishing" to be completed by the time walleye opener begins, negating the possibility of the two factions meeting on the water. My main concern is that the dnr will impose last minute regulations on non-indian anglers to accomodate the spearers and netters. Perhaps someone rreading this post, perhaps from wisconsin where this has been going on longer, can shed some light on this for me. What happens around opener when opening night anglers have to share the water with the spearers? How do the wisconsin authorities deal with this?

[Russ Warye]

A couple of answers to your question. However, in Wisconsin the Chippewa bands have only speared, and not gill netted, other than an experiment or two. On those seasons with late ice, tribal and
sport anglers have shared the water. In recent years this has only occurred occasionally, and largely without any difficulty on the water. No special provisions, size limits, bag limits, etc., have been imposed by the Dnr because the two groups were sharing the same waters. However, our situation is different, because we have large numbers of lakes where the fishing pressure is spread out...and no gill netting.
Hope this helps....