Finally things are starting to look like we might see summer. Trees are starting to bud, ice is starting to melt on the shorelines where it piled up two weeks ago, and the grass is green! Since opening weekend on May 11th, it has been pretty quiet up here compared to Openers of the past. Now with Memorial weekend approaching it feels more like the Opener, especially at my marine shop. Now finally, people are picking up their boats and getting ready. Unfortunately, somebody, ( the refinery owners?) decided that they needed to raise the price of gas in the upper Midwest while all of us are planning to travel and enjoy things after a long winter, how ironic…sounds like greed to me…. Anyways, with the imbalance of bait fish to predators the Walleyes are hungry. Guides that I’ve have talked to average about 30 Walleyes a trip and despite the narrow harvest slot they are keeping about a 10 percent ratio. Which is good. A couple 18-20 inch Walleyes make a pretty good meal.
There are some major conflicts on the horizon with Mille Lacs despite all it has went through already. Now there are fishermen out there that are starting a “Save Mille Lacs Smallmouth Alliance”. Why don’t fishermen look at a lake and see what was in it before and take care of it for what it was before any of you showed up, and “decided” to make it better for their own enjoyment? What happens to all the fishermen that didn’t go to Mille Lacs this winter after the ice fishing season to fish for Perch for a day or two in March. (because there wasn’t any here to catch) Finally…. the MN DNR has realized how important Mille Lacs is for what is for the “average” fishermen, and the economy around this lake that has been here for over a century. Times are not changing so fast that we need to forget and abandon the Walleyes and the Perch! Why doesn’t anybody get that when you mess with things you shouldn’t,and change it for your own liking, it will screw things up. Most of us that have been here for years already know that, and the proof is in the pudding… apparently greed will screw it up again….Wake up people!
Keep a tight Line!!
Eddy