One over 30" on Mille Lacs

[AquaMan]

I was reading the paper today and saw that the DNR has agreed to allow one fish over 30". Did you all hear this or am I just on yesterday's news?

AquaMan~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.·´¯° --- "It all begins and ends at the water's edge"

Eric@crowncomputerinc.com

[rvvrrat]

I just rea it in the Star-Trib today also. I thought the DNR comments about being surprised that some folks told them they want the opportunity to "keep the fish of a lifetime" were hilarious. Did they really expect the 16-18 slot to be welcomed with open arms? Like it or not, some folks want to put that fish on the wall.

[Pitts]

I was there Sun. afternoon till 10 pm and when I came off the warden was there and he had the news of the regs change which took affect at midnight.
That be a wallhanger.

Pitts

[ebox]

Pitts how did you do? Was there on Sat. for the first half of the day and released a few nice ones, but no lunkers - the story of my life...

[wish2fish]

The DNR expects an additional 1000 lbs (100 - 30" fish) harvest with the 30+ rule. The largest Walleye I ever caught was 29". However, it was caught and released on Mille Lacs in 1998.

Have you seen the Louisville slugger bat with giant trebles on it?? Thats what I'm dragging around Saturday (Red and White), ya never know. }>

[David Anderson]

Simply BS!!!! Another example of the DNR with it's head in the sand. This ruling is nothing more than a feel good spin on what was a bad decision in the first place. So how many 30+ fish do you think are caught at Mille Lacs every year, maybe 10 or 20. I have fished for over 20 years and have seen many over 28, only a couple over 29 and zero over 30. I guess they figure 300 to 600 pounds of really big walleyes won't affect the total poundage that much seeings how no one can keep anything anyway.

[Pitts]

We did ok for the 5 hours we fished a couple of small flats on the NE side and hooked into 7 fish 1 went 5.5 and 3 were 4lbs.
I saw a buch of fish that were 3 to 5 ft off the bottom I was thinking of pulling some cranks with some weights but the kids liked what we were doing long lindy's with a red bead or hook and leech but it rained and we had 4 fters so we was content to sit tight and catch a few.
We were fishing alongside 2 other boats and watched them pull in 7 to 10 fish each some on crawlers and others on the leeches.
It was a good stop over from up north on the way to the cities.
I want to go again again again and again.

Pitts

[Tim]

I don't understand all the fuss over the DNR not allowing any big eyes to be kept on Mille Lacs. First of all, I assume your not wanting to keep them for the fine quality tasting meat of those big old eyes. Correct me if I'm wrong but they taste no good to me. If it's a wall hanger you want, what this big fuss on killing that big eye when you can get a graphite mount. Take a couple of good pictures and measurements and that's all you need. Release the fish and there you have it your wall hanger. Graphite mounts last much longer than a skin mount, a better money investment. I don't understand the fuss. My opinion, thanks.

[TBO/MN]

I have been fishing Mille Lacs for 35 years, and I have caught probably over a thousand fish, ONE over 30 inches. This "crumb" is dropped so the screaming stops. This isn't about someone keeping a trophy, it's about covering the DNR,s rearend. The people of Minnesota have been duped into believing that the DNR is on their side, it's not, it's just another place for the politicians to spend our tax dollars, and make us think we are getting something. I have always been in favor of protecting the fishery, and the 16 to 18 inche slot is going to do that, I can live with that, but don't lie and deceive us.

Sorry, but this latest move makes me angry.....
Good Fishin'
TBO/MN

[eye1]

My partner and I have caught 3 over 30" in the last two years , all of which were released.Personally , I wouldn't keep one that large except in a tourney situation.I have to agree though its a "feel good" type regulation which basically will have no effect on anything , kinda like when they were talking about lowering the limit to 3 a couple of years ago so more people would catch their limit.Give me a break.A bigger concern I see on Mille Lacs is a definite lack of fish 16"-18" long, in 4 days last week we put 80+ eyes in the boat and only one in the 16"-18" slot.With fish lacking in this range what happens down the line? There will always be that 2" gap where very few if any fish exist because now you can be assured that every fish caught in that range is going to be kept.On the plus side the lake appears to have alot of smaller 13"-15" as well as a healthy population of fish 18" plus.Why not consider a sliding type slot , like keep 2 14"-16" , 2 16"-18" , 1 18"-20" and 1 over 28" or something similar so that no particular size or age class gets hammered to the point where it no longer exists.
Sorry for being long winded but he whole deal with the netting and the way the big lake is being managed as a result is really lacking and needs to be greatly improved in order for this lake to continue to the great fishery it has become in the last 5 -10 years.

[drizz]

We fished all weekend and didn't see any 30 inchers but I'd also be surprised if there was even 200 pounds of fish taken off the whole lake. The ratio of slot fish was about 1 in 40. Now, we weren't there to fill coolers and go home with the max allowed by law, but we were up with our sons for a little Fathers Day trip and it would have been nice to have one little meal of fresh walleye fillets. What would be wrong with opening the slot and dropping the limit. Even if we had been able to keep one fish each up to 20" we could have eaten a meal. No, we didn't need to eat fish in order to survive the weekend. Yeah, I guy could find problems bigger than catching too many 20 to 26 inch fish, but it sucks to have your kid so fed up that he says "C'mon dad it's 2:00 in the morning, nobody will know." I'd be willing to bet that ten years from now the most vivid memory those boys have from the entire trip will be that we never got to eat a meal of fresh fish. My memory will be the waitress in the cafe,looking at an empty dining room, and muttering about the "dam@ DNR". I'll go back, but I still think somebody has missed the boat 'big time' on this one.