In the last couple days ice is starting to form on the bays on the south end of the lake. And with the weather getting as cold as they are predicting there might be some walkable ice in those area in a week or so. The main lake has a long way to go yet.

On thing about freezing up this early, (at least from past experiences with it the last 40  years), is that a lot of the times it doesn’t stay cold enough to really get some ice depth out there and it increases the  chances of getting snow on it which can slow it down even more. But there’s nothing we can do about it so we’ll take what we get..

This is Important!!   On Nov 20th at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 100 at the Minnesota Judicial Center,  at 25 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, in St. Paul.  A three judge panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals is going to listen to oral arguments in a Mille Lacs related lawsuit.

Basically what it is about is that in 1998 the State of Minnesota passed a constitutional amendment protect the heritage to hunt and fish for it’s citizens.  Since then about 25 other states have done so also.  Two citizen’s groups, a resort, and two individual’s are charging the MN DNR in failing to protect our Mille Lacs fishing heritage based on that amendment.

And as most will agree. During the last 15 years of “treaty management” , Mille Lacs has been bombarded with miles of gillnets in the springtime spawning season, before most fishermen arrived  Millions of Walleyes and other species taken, spawning grounds disturbed by nets, jet powered boats and pontoons going up and down the shoreline spooking Walleyes of the rocks with their powerful lights, etc.   “Our DNR” is trying to blame the decline of the fishery to zebra mussels, spiney water fleas, water clarity, etc.  Everything but, They say they have studies saying reproduction is the same.  Do they have studies with numbers before the gill netting to compare? ( haven’t seen any yet!)   And meanwhile our MN DNR has sat by the wayside saying there is nothing they can do. (which is totally false.)

This court case might force the State of Mn to take action.  When the treaty rights were granted by the US Supreme Court by “one” vote, the court let the State of MN and the Bands decide quotas, methods, etc.  All of that can be changed by objection and going to court. The problem has been is that there is so much tribal lobbying money in the Capitol.  And everyone knows what lobbyists and their money does down there.

The more citizen’s of Minnesota that show up for this court appearance will show the judges how important this is to all of us.  If anything, go there to educate yourself on what is happening.  This is not a”treaty rights case”. It’s about protecting a resource that belongs to all of us.

Keep a Tight Line!

Eddy