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- Walleye showing up after two years of no gillnets
DNR Blue Ribbon Panel dodges the gillnet problem on Mille Lacs

The walleye being caught in Mille Lacs this year are mostly in the 13 to 15-inch range. That tells us they are about two years old. That in turn tells us they hatched in the years when there was no gill netting due to weather conditions (late ice-out).

It is also logical to conclude that this year-class of fish was not adversely affected by water clarity, zebra mussels, global warming, spiny fleas, cormorants, muskies, northern, or high bass population. Observers should then surmise (with confidence) that the effecting variable was gill netting.

In this case, the lack of gill netting resulted in respectable levels of reproduction (despite the reduced population of spawning fish). Nature has provided us with the perfect scientific conditions that verify what many have long suspected. Gill netting during the spawn ruins a lake’s balance and targeting of a species results in near extermination.

Of course this same conclusion could be reached by looking at historical data from other lakes that have been gill netted. But now Mother Nature has provided us with irrefutable proof of a cause and effect relationship between gill netting and the walleye population's demise.

This also shows that the DNR's approach to improving the walleye population by targeting other species, such as northern or bass was misguided. Further, it is evidence that the DNR's "Blue Ribbon Panel" was far off the mark when they neglected to consider gill netting as a possible factor.

Nothing in their report, "Mille Lacs Lake Walleye Blue Ribbon Panel Data Review and Recommendations for Future Data Collection and Management," mentions the problem of gillnetting during the spawn.

The Panel started "by agreeing that the decline in Mille Lacs walleye began around 2000 ... which corresponded to a period of considerable change for both the walleye fishery and the lake itself."

"Significant changes" included going to a joint recreational and tribal walleye fishery in 1998, and introduction of harvestable slot limits the next year and protected slot limits in 2003. Then they add, "However, these changes in the fishery occurred against a backdrop of lake changes related to water quality, etc., etc., etc., (see the list above.)

Not once in the entire 31 pages of the report do the words "gill net" or "gill netting" appear regarding harvest of walleye! Surveys, data, assessments, yes, but never harvest, let alone "during the spawn."

The DNR has neglected to responsibly manage the resource in an unbiased manner for the people of Minnesota. The Tribes and GLIFWC are equally culpable in this mismanagement. There is no longer any need for debate.

These are my opinions and have not been reviewed or approved by anyone else.

Let me know where I am wrong.

Joe Ward, PERM Board Member

http://www.perm.org/