Do you think ice fishing is damaging open water fishing?

[hawg]

Great, start a war between open fisherman and ice guys. In Minnesota we do both and I can tell you open water fishing is way easier.

[Da' Walleye Assassun]

Originally Posted by welll

Fishing is hurting fishing. The fact that so many people view a day on the water as a meal opportunity puts extreme pressure on populations. Even more so when open season coincides with the spawn and so many fish take pre-spawn fish home to fry.

Dead fish don't spawn and make more fish...take a few but leave the rest.

Unless a fish is spawning it is a pre-spawn fish.

[Wallychowder]

Originally Posted by hawg

Great, start a war between open fisherman and ice guys. In Minnesota we do both and I can tell you open water fishing is way easier.

Of course it's easier ! You can't troll ice fishing 🤣

[Wallychowder]

Speaking of ice fishing ? Anyone seen my post on the ice fishing category........thanks

"It doesn't help that a 16oz. Wagyu ribeye is $198.00 No wonder why they don't want a fresh fish meal ?"

I buy Wagyu ribeye for $88/lb here in MN. Worth every penny. Apparently you are not an astute shopper.

As far as the OP's question? Depends on the lake. More walleyes are caught on LOTW ice fishing than open water fishing. Red Lake is also heavily ice fished and it has affected limits for open water fishing. Here on Lake Vermilion there is very little ice fishing pressure and it has virtually no effect on open water fishing. I do both and don't see one as the enemy of the other.

[Jethro]

Do I think ice fishing is hurting bluegill populations on 50,000 acre middle of nowhere lakes like Vermillion? Err, only if they are dumping oil tankers of fish poison in the upriver end and collecting them at the other.

20-100 acre small lakes? Might be on to something there. Have never got the "limited on big gill at pond x" phenomenon on some sites.

[Sportdog]

Until you take politics and economic impacts out of the equation those things will dominate hunting and fishing seasons/regulations. I respect the management teams but they can only do what the higher ups will sanction. Just my opinion worth every cent you paid for it……….

[Kevin23]

Heck yeah. Ive noticed ot where I am. lets face it, its easy to ice fish panfish these days... Unlimited access to water, electronics, and the new ice jigs and rods. Man its easy, almost too easy to be fun anymore honestly. A few years ago on the local 400 acre lake it was nothing to see 60-80 guys all with 20-25 crappies both days every weekend. Add those numbers up, then the 15 or so guys every week day as well. This went on for 3 years (they were keeping 9" fish by the limit every day), and now its hard to even find a good number of crappies anymore. Most guys quit ice fishing it because its so hard to find fish there. The whole time the DNR biologist was saying that keeping limits would be good for the lake. Iowa does not believe in possession limits on inland panfish, just daily.

[Agronomist_at_ia]

Originally Posted by Kevin23

Heck yeah. Ive noticed ot where I am. lets face it, its easy to ice fish panfish these days... Unlimited access to water, electronics, and the new ice jigs and rods. Man its easy, almost too easy to be fun anymore honestly. A few years ago on the local 400 acre lake it was nothing to see 60-80 guys all with 20-25 crappies both days every weekend. Add those numbers up, then the 15 or so guys every week day as well. This went on for 3 years (they were keeping 9" fish by the limit every day), and now its hard to even find a good number of crappies anymore. Most guys quit ice fishing it because its so hard to find fish there. The whole time the DNR biologist was saying that keeping limits would be good for the lake. Iowa does not believe in possession limits on inland panfish, just daily.

Hopefully you get one good crappie spawn to really bump a year class.

It is kinda different listening to guys from areas like MN complain about people fishing and keeping fish when they have 10,000 lakes and more fishing areas then just about anywhere......but when I fish with people from Minn it seems like if they aren't catching fish within 15-30min they think the fishing sucks.

Not sure what lake you are talking about Kevin, but I do wish they would cut down on the amount of panfish numbers a guy can keep on the Iowa Great Lakes chain. This winter I started out catching a few decent Perch....has the season progressed.......by Feb. a 7in perch was the best a guy could find. With the non stop cities out on the ice, I wish they'd reduce the limit and put a freaking minnimum length on the perch....I don't think some of the fish people keep can even produce a potato chip filet. Seems like the fish never get to a decent size either, due to everybody keeping the small ones.

[thump55]

Facebook laughs while open water and ice fishermen battle each other...knowing it does more damage to fish populations than any of us realize.