Friday nite the Walleye bite was good for those in the rentals. This morning was quiet, but by afternoon the bite started again.  Best depths were 16-19 ft. for most reports I heard. there was a lot of happy fishermen out there today. It sure makes our job easier when the fish are biting.

Its sounds by the weather reports that we are on the edge of the snowfall coming Monday and Monday evening.  With just a few inches and the wind behind it the houses out there will probably have some pretty good sized drifts and will flood some. We might just move them out of the drifts to make things easier.  I’m glad we didn’t pull any more houses for this weekend with the ice we have.  With the cold coming this week we will get “over the hump” so to speak on ice depth and I will be pulling as many houses as I can to get everyone that wants to be out for next weekend out there.  So call the office and confirm it please. if your not coming up, it’s not going out.

Hopefully 2017 will be the turning point for Mille Lacs and it’s Walleye dilemma we were put in with “treaty management”.  With the Walleye population recovering by the lack of harvest in the spring by the Bands and anglers not harvesting has shown that if left alone the Walleye can recover despite the claims of decline by invasive species, global warming and numerous other “reason”. I’m not saying that some of those changes are not going to change the lakes fishery in time, but it was not the case this time. This decline boiled down to over harvest of spawning Walleye in the spring and poor management by the MNDNR to accommodate anglers wishes of numbers of fish for their bag limits. All that was created was a big fish eating machine that ate their own and with the lack of reproduction of Walleye fry we ended up with a decline. As they are recovering the proof will be in the pudding so to speak.  And who knows, with the new administration in Washington and changes in Minnesota’s government could just maybe be the beginning of some big changes in government policies that might change the whole picture.

Happy New Year!!     Eddy