Photo: Doug Smith, Star Tribune
Anglers and businesses relieved after DNR sets harvest limit for Mille Lacs.
Having dragged his ice fishing house onto frozen Lake Mille Lacs for 15 consecutive winters, Kevin Scherber was elated Monday to hear that his cold-weather angling streak will continue uninterrupted.
“I like winter fishing on Mille Lacs more than summer fishing,” said Scherber, 46, of Otsego. “My fiancée and I go up there, sit on the ice, cook and snowmobile. We even caught a few nice walleyes last year.”
The Department of Natural Resources on Monday said Scherber and the tens of thousands of other Minnesotans who similarly relish winter walleye angling on Mille Lacs can again converge on the big lake when it freezes, beginning in December.
The announcement thrilled resort and other business owners around the lake who were hurt by this year’s early walleye season shutdown.
“We’re overjoyed to have the go-ahead for the coming ice fishing season and have it enough time ahead of winter to get the fish houses and trucks ready,” said Linda Eno of Twin Pines Resort. “It’s critical that they didn’t leave us hanging until the very end.”
Walleye angling was abruptly halted on Mille Lacs in August when anglers reached their 28,600-pound open-water quota. Until Monday it was unclear whether walleye fishing would resume on the lake when the winter season begins Dec. 1.
Monday’s announcement means thousands of anglers can again converge on Mille Lacs when it freezes in December.
Mille Lacs walleye numbers have plummeted to all-time lows in recent years, according to the DNR, and anglers this summer were allowed to keep only one walleye between 19 and 21 inches.
Survey justifies season
But a recently completed DNR Mille Lacs walleye survey justifies a winter season, said DNR fisheries chief Don Pereira — so long as a harvest cap of 5,000 pounds isn’t exceeded.
Last winter, Mille Lacs walleye fishing was extremely slow, and anglers kept an estimated 3,000 pounds of walleyes from the lake.
“This decision allows anglers and businesses to look forward to some harvest opportunity during the upcoming winter angling season that begins December 1,” Pereira said.
He said there was no overlooking that “winter fishing is very valuable economically.”
Though far fewer walleyes typically are caught and kept from Mille Lacs in winter than in summer, DNR data show winter anglers spend considerably more hours on Mille Lacs than summer anglers — 1.5 million hours in a recent December-through-March period, compared with 337,000 hours during a comparable open-water season.
The lake is known throughout the U.S. for the villages of ice shanties that pop up in winter as far as 5 miles from shore.
In September, before the walleye survey was complete, Gov. Mark Dayton unilaterally proclaimed walleye fishing on Mille Lacs would occur this winter.
DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr was left to explain the next day that winter walleye fishing on Mille Lacs would be allowed only if the mid-September survey justified a season.
Additionally, because the lake’s fisheries are comanaged with eight Chippewa bands — two from Minnesota, including the Mille Lacs band, and six from Wisconsin — any decision on winter walleye angling would have to be made jointly.
DNR regional fisheries manager Brad Parsons said Monday that 52 nets were set in different areas of Mille Lacs during mid-September.
A similar survey last September raised significant Mille Lacs walleye population concerns for DNR and tribal biologists and led to record-low harvest quotas.
The bands’ quota was 11,400 pounds — a quantity that wasn’t reached.
“After last year’s survey, we were worried not only about the spawning-stock biomass [fish] in the lake, but about the 2013-year class of walleyes,” Parsons said.
For the most recent nettings, an average of at least 10 pounds per net of spawning stock would be needed to establish a winter season, Parsons said, and 2.15 pounds of the 2013 walleye year class.
“Our spawning stock came back at 13.6 pounds per net, and the 2013 fish came in at 4.8 pounds per net,” Parsons said.
Size limit not yet set
Left unknown after Monday’s DNR announcement are walleye limit and size restrictions for the coming winter season.
“We’ll announce a final decision about the details of the ice fishing season by the last week of October, following an Oct. 21 meeting with the Mille Lacs Fisheries Advisory Committee,” Pereira said.
In the coming days, DNR biologists will evaluate the possible effects of fishing regulation alternatives. Results of the analyses and input from the committee will be considered when the DNR makes a decision for the coming winter.
“We will monitor creel data every two weeks during the winter and will assess in January whether we need to adjust the state’s harvest level for the rest of the winter to stay under 5,000 pounds,” Pereira said. “At the January State and Tribal Fisheries Technical Committee meeting, we will set the safe harvest level for the year, which will inform the open water fishing regulation to be set in late winter.”
Regardless of the winter limit on Mille Lacs walleyes, Scherber, the Ostego angler, plans to move his fishing house onto the lake as soon as ice is thick enough to support it.
“We can sleep three to four people comfortably,” he said. “If I could get up there every weekend, I would.”
Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.
