Kabetogama Lake Survey

[KabMn]

A lower limit, either 13 or 14" is definitely needed. Way to many 9 and 10" walleye being brought in by the guides who want to go back and brag about getting 4 or 5 limits of keepers. Way to many small fish are being killed and not getting the chance to make even 14" The rarest beast on Kab is a 16-17" walleye. 14-18 with 1 over 20 would be good.

Originally Posted by overdalimit

For me a good day on Kab is when eveybody in the boat can catch their limit in say 6 hours. I have had many days when it was all I could do to get 2-3 keepers all day. I as well as many others (though not all) that fish kab feel that this has been a poor year. It is encouraging though to see many little fish this fall. perhaps 2011 will be a good year class. I personally don't see any change to the slot coming. I think that we should put back in the minimum size at 13 inches though to keep folks from taking out the "barely legals" just to say they got a limit. I therefore would vote for 13-18 and one over 28.

[GBS]

My group has done very well over the last three springs - well over 200 eye's for 5 guys during a week. (all sizes). Last two years has been the best for keepers, although we don't. But, the rest of our resort complains bitterly about "no fish"...so we apparently have the technique down for that time of year. However, I have also spent a few years in the same spot - no fish. Followed up a week of many, many "too bigs", with a period two weeks later where the only fish for a week for 2 of us was a 7". So it can be pretty variable......
It's not Canada, but for an easy to get to stateside lake, it's pretty good!

[REW]

Change the slot to 14-17 inches.
That slot works and it lets the little guys grow up and the bigger ones to spawn.

REW

[Flyin' Ryan]

Kab and Namakan are the only lakes i fish. I like the slot however I do agree that there should be a minimum length also. Lots of 10 and 11 inch catches for us lately. It's fun but not gonna keep em.

[Kevin R]

[QUOTE=REW;1352371]Change the slot to 14-17 inches.
That slot works and it lets the little guys grow up and the bigger ones to spawn.


Bag limit 2 fish 14-18 would be good for the lake. I know it not what meat hogs want but let's face it meat hogs don't help lakes. The least of my concern is keeping fish to justify the cost of catching them. The fish need to be protected from over harvest.

[JLDII]

This is just another lake falling into slot managment because the state quit stocking it while they restocked Red Lake. There is a long list of lakes in this group.

Minnesota is a frick'n mess when it comes to fisheries managment and stocking. The truth is that in the early 90's the sales of fishing and hunting licenses got diverted from direct funding of the DNR to funding the bankrupt states general fund. As a result fisheries stocking state wide dropped from over 220,00 lbs of fry a year to just over 80,000lbs. They let their rearing ponds turn to crap, got rid of all the needed equipment, and insisted they could manage the states resources with slot managment instead of stocking. Thank you Ron Payer. Now that stocking program is funded by a miniscule budget passed down by the legislature and our fisheries people are spending over half of it doing studies on computer stocking formulas and models instead of actual hard stocking actions.

Seperate the DNR from the state legislature, redirect all funds from license sales to the DNR, and get a DNR Commisioner that is not a string puppet to the special interest groups running the Capital in St. Paul. There is absolutely no valid reason elected idiots are directing the work of trained biologist. Stock the lake intensly for about 2 or 3 years till te fry grow, and allow mother nature decide what the lakes population levels will be. Then you can establish a workable slot limit.

Too many people actually believe human knowledge is superior to mother nature's laws. It just ain't so.

[Blackmacs]

Originally Posted by JLDII

This is just another lake falling into slot managment because the state quit stocking it while they restocked Red Lake. There is a long list of lakes in this group.

Minnesota is a frick'n mess when it comes to fisheries managment and stocking. The truth is that in the early 90's the sales of fishing and hunting licenses got diverted from direct funding of the DNR to funding the bankrupt states general fund. As a result fisheries stocking state wide dropped from over 220,00 lbs of fry a year to just over 80,000lbs. They let their rearing ponds turn to crap, got rid of all the needed equipment, and insisted they could manage the states resources with slot managment instead of stocking. Thank you Ron Payer. Now that stocking program is funded by a miniscule budget passed down by the legislature and our fisheries people are spending over half of it doing studies on computer stocking formulas and models instead of actual hard stocking actions.

Seperate the DNR from the state legislature, redirect all funds from license sales to the DNR, and get a DNR Commisioner that is not a string puppet to the special interest groups running the Capital in St. Paul. There is absolutely no valid reason elected idiots are directing the work of trained biologist. Stock the lake intensly for about 2 or 3 years till te fry grow, and allow mother nature decide what the lakes population levels will be. Then you can establish a workable slot limit.

Too many people actually believe human knowledge is superior to mother nature's laws. It just ain't so.

According to: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/...ownum=69084500 the MN DNR has stocked fry at least the last 3 years.

[REW]

I totally agree that a 14-18 - with 1 over 20 would be the perfect slot.

I also agree that I see way too many 8-12 inch fish being kept so that folks can say that they caught their limit.

REW

[MarkG]

Originally Posted by REW

I totally agree that a 14-18 - with 1 over 20 would be the perfect slot.

I also agree that I see way too many 8-12 inch fish being kept so that folks can say that they caught their limit.

REW

Absolutely right. There should be a MINIMUM keeper size.

The slot used on (most of ) the Wisconsin River has done wonders.
Bag limit 5. Walleye/Sauger combined bag.
and both treated exactly the same regarding slot.
Minimum keeper 15"
Keeper slot is 15"-20" and 1 over 28" in case you catch a trophy.

Only issue we have had on the river and associated reservoirs with this slot is that potential likely Wisconsin state record Saugers have had to be released unregistered,as they were well over the keeper slot,but still well under 28".

[JLDII]

Originally Posted by Blackmacs

According to: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/...ownum=69084500 the MN DNR has stocked fry at least the last 3 years.

That might be so, but how many times over the 10 years prior to that?