http://www.twincities.com/2016/03/22/mu ... t-capitol/
Highlights;
The DNR wants to stock muskies in four new lakes.
A House committee Tuesday moved ahead with a plan to block that.
By Dave Orrick | dorrick@pioneerpress.com
March 22, 2016 | UPDATED: 2 weeks ago
Minnesota’s controversial muskie stocking plan hit a snag Tuesday at the Capitol in St. Paul.
Following a spirited debate, a House committee Tuesday approved a ban on the state’s planned expansion of muskellunge stocking.
The bill, which now heads to the full House for a potential vote, would ban muskie stocking on six lakes, halting a plan by the Department of Natural Resources to introduce the popular sport fish into four of those lakes. The lakes are: Big Marine Lake in Washington County, Gull Lake near Brainerd, the Fairmont Chain in Fairmont, and one of three lakes in Otter Tail County: Lizzie, Loon or Franklin.
The measure would not affect the 99 lakes already managed for muskie populations, including 44 lakes where they’re stocked and not native. Without legislative action, the DNR has the authority to stock the lakes. But the bill, if approved and signed into law, would trump that.
The measure was approved on a voice vote, so there’s no tally, but a number of voices could be heard in opposition.
The vote followed a hearing in which the same arguments that have simmered for months — years in the larger context of muskie controversies — were hashed out.
Supporters of the ban (opponents of muskie stocking), including representatives from several lake associations, cited the potential for muskies to damage walleye and panfish populations, risk of increased boat traffic from tournament anglers, and a general distrust of the DNR.
Opponents of the ban (stocking supporters), including the DNR, said there’s no evidence muskie stocking harms anything, and there’s popular support for the new lakes.
Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar, who chairs the Mining and Outdoor Recreation Policy Committee, chastised DNR fisheries Chief Don Pereira for the agency moving ahead over objections from lake homeowner associations. “The people who live along those lakes take very good care of those lakes, and then you don’t listen to them,” Hackbarth said.
Pereira said the majority of public comments the agency has received are in favor of the stocking expansion and described muskies as “ecologically benign” at the low densities planned to result from the stocking, generally one adult for every four to 10 acres of water.
Some of the grit behind Minnesota's muskie stocking controversy
.
God, help me be the man that my dog thinks that I am.
God, help me be the man that my dog thinks that I am.
Re: Some of the grit behind Minnesota's muskie stocking controversy
"Muskies and muskie stocking is now the one fight surging to the leading edge of conservation issues in Minnesota. When it comes to muskies you normally either love them or hate them and there is usually very little in between."
Scott Rall: Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting
Posted on Dec 10, 2015 at 2:37 p.m.
Daily Globe outdoors columnist
How many old Westerns start out with a rancher dynamiting the stream to divert the water away for the neighboring rancher and then needed a knight on a white horse (called a cowboy) to come and save the day?
There must have been at least 30 Westerns with this theme. Water is still being fought about today, but in Minnesota it is certainly not the only fight.
Muskies and muskie stocking is now the one fight surging to the leading edge of conservation issues in Minnesota. When it comes to muskies you normally either love them or hate them and there is usually very little in between. The battle between those who love them and hate them is best generally described as the dark house spearing community generally hates them and the hook and line angling community usually loves them, and there are certainly exceptions on both sides.
This tug of war has existed for decades and has more than a few originating causes. In the past, in most cases when muskies were stocked in a lake, spearing for northern pike was then banned. Some worried that spear fisherman would accidentally spear a muskie when they thought they were actually spearing a northern pike.
The fish are similar in general shape and size with the exception that muskies can grow bigger in most cases. A 40-inch northern pike is a giant and a 53-inch long muskie is a giant. With every lake that was stocked with muskies there was another lake removed from the list available to spear fishermen.
Another regulation that impeded spear fisherman but is not associated with muskies or muskie stocking is special regulation northern pike lakes. Many lakes in Minnesota have thousands and thousands of little pike called a hammer handle. These pike are so small that when you clean them and remove all of the bones there is almost no meat left to eat. Most spear fishermen and hook and line anglers do not harvest fish of this size to eat.
In order to change the make-up of the pike size structure, hundreds of lakes added special regulations that were designed to reduce the amount of small fish and increase the population of larger northerns.
These special regulation lakes did not prohibit spearing, but for all practical purposes this is what happened. If the special regulation said that all pike between 24-32 inches in length had to be released, it was really hard for a spear fisherman to release a dead fish they speared that was only one inch on the wrong side of the regulation. Spear fishermen just could not take the chance of spearing an illegal fish. When the fish is in the spear hole eight feet below, there is not a tape measure attached to their back to ensure they are the right length for the regulations for that particular lake.
So for the past two decades the number of lakes with special regulations climbed and the number of lakes in Minnesota with muskies has also gently climbed. All of these things have made life for a spear fisherman harder.
Spear fishermen are not the only ones who have issues with muskies. More and more common is the die-hard walleye anglers and lake shore property owners who clamor against new muskie stocking for fear that a limited number of these top-line predators will eat all of the walleyes from their favorite walleye lake. I cannot find any evidence that this is happening, but the volume of these dissenters to muskie stocking is getting a lot louder.
All of this new robust debate can be traced to the DNR wanting to stock muskies in a few additional lakes, and one of those is Gull Lake. There are public meetings being held all over the state to allow the public to weigh in on whether additional stocking is the right thing to do.
The muskie fishermen are pretty well organized and are well represented at the meetings. I really don’t care much one way or the other. I have fished for muskies in the Iowa Great Lakes and have only caught one. That one was about two feet long and I caught it ice fishing.
When you listen to the arguments on both sides of the ticket you can really get mixed messages. The muskie folks say that muskie fishing is the fastest growing segment of open water angling. The anti-muskie foes will say that less than 10 percent of all anglers target muskies. Why should we care about such a small segment of the angling community?
Muskie proponents will say that less than 4 percent of all of the lakes in Minnesota has muskies but the anti-muskie people counter that because the lakes they are in are so large that over 40 percent of all the acres of water in the state have muskies swimming in them and that is enough. Others will say that their children are not safe and could be attacked by a muskie, although I have never heard of a single incident where this actually happened.
It is an issue that can get really heated. The DNR is involved as are the angling community and sportsman groups, and the new loud voice is lake property owners. They want or don’t want this or that happening in their lake.
This is a hard one for me because they might own the dirt on the shore but they don’t own the water, nor should they have any more or less say as to what swims in the lake than the angler that launched his boat into that same body of water.
The rules that prohibit spearing northern pike in lakes with muskies in them have been repealed. With the exception of one lake in the state, you can now spear pike in all designated musky waters. This has helped eliminate the heartburn for spearers.
I figured it would quiet the rhetoric, but this has not happened. The Legislature has limited the number of lakes that can have special pike regulations and this, too, should have helped calm the angst of spearers, and I think in some cases it has helped a little.
What I think I do know for sure is that muskies are a cool and giant fish. I also think spearing pike is super fun and I have done it every year for the past 5-6 years.
Seeing that big fish slide into view in a spear hole is lilke seeing and participating in the Hunt for Red October. These fish look like lake submarines and getting one in close is quite a treat.
There are good arguments on both sides of the issue, but in the end does every single lake in Minnesota have to be managed solely for walleye? Do we have room for bass lakes, pan fish lakes and in some cases muskie lakes? Just like so many other conservation issues, you will never get a solid consensus on muskies and when and where they should be stocked.
In the end it is a lot like whether you choose to drink whiskey or water. Like muskies I think it really depends on the day as to which one is preferred.
Scott Rall: Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting
Posted on Dec 10, 2015 at 2:37 p.m.
Daily Globe outdoors columnist
How many old Westerns start out with a rancher dynamiting the stream to divert the water away for the neighboring rancher and then needed a knight on a white horse (called a cowboy) to come and save the day?
There must have been at least 30 Westerns with this theme. Water is still being fought about today, but in Minnesota it is certainly not the only fight.
Muskies and muskie stocking is now the one fight surging to the leading edge of conservation issues in Minnesota. When it comes to muskies you normally either love them or hate them and there is usually very little in between. The battle between those who love them and hate them is best generally described as the dark house spearing community generally hates them and the hook and line angling community usually loves them, and there are certainly exceptions on both sides.
This tug of war has existed for decades and has more than a few originating causes. In the past, in most cases when muskies were stocked in a lake, spearing for northern pike was then banned. Some worried that spear fisherman would accidentally spear a muskie when they thought they were actually spearing a northern pike.
The fish are similar in general shape and size with the exception that muskies can grow bigger in most cases. A 40-inch northern pike is a giant and a 53-inch long muskie is a giant. With every lake that was stocked with muskies there was another lake removed from the list available to spear fishermen.
Another regulation that impeded spear fisherman but is not associated with muskies or muskie stocking is special regulation northern pike lakes. Many lakes in Minnesota have thousands and thousands of little pike called a hammer handle. These pike are so small that when you clean them and remove all of the bones there is almost no meat left to eat. Most spear fishermen and hook and line anglers do not harvest fish of this size to eat.
In order to change the make-up of the pike size structure, hundreds of lakes added special regulations that were designed to reduce the amount of small fish and increase the population of larger northerns.
These special regulation lakes did not prohibit spearing, but for all practical purposes this is what happened. If the special regulation said that all pike between 24-32 inches in length had to be released, it was really hard for a spear fisherman to release a dead fish they speared that was only one inch on the wrong side of the regulation. Spear fishermen just could not take the chance of spearing an illegal fish. When the fish is in the spear hole eight feet below, there is not a tape measure attached to their back to ensure they are the right length for the regulations for that particular lake.
So for the past two decades the number of lakes with special regulations climbed and the number of lakes in Minnesota with muskies has also gently climbed. All of these things have made life for a spear fisherman harder.
Spear fishermen are not the only ones who have issues with muskies. More and more common is the die-hard walleye anglers and lake shore property owners who clamor against new muskie stocking for fear that a limited number of these top-line predators will eat all of the walleyes from their favorite walleye lake. I cannot find any evidence that this is happening, but the volume of these dissenters to muskie stocking is getting a lot louder.
All of this new robust debate can be traced to the DNR wanting to stock muskies in a few additional lakes, and one of those is Gull Lake. There are public meetings being held all over the state to allow the public to weigh in on whether additional stocking is the right thing to do.
The muskie fishermen are pretty well organized and are well represented at the meetings. I really don’t care much one way or the other. I have fished for muskies in the Iowa Great Lakes and have only caught one. That one was about two feet long and I caught it ice fishing.
When you listen to the arguments on both sides of the ticket you can really get mixed messages. The muskie folks say that muskie fishing is the fastest growing segment of open water angling. The anti-muskie foes will say that less than 10 percent of all anglers target muskies. Why should we care about such a small segment of the angling community?
Muskie proponents will say that less than 4 percent of all of the lakes in Minnesota has muskies but the anti-muskie people counter that because the lakes they are in are so large that over 40 percent of all the acres of water in the state have muskies swimming in them and that is enough. Others will say that their children are not safe and could be attacked by a muskie, although I have never heard of a single incident where this actually happened.
It is an issue that can get really heated. The DNR is involved as are the angling community and sportsman groups, and the new loud voice is lake property owners. They want or don’t want this or that happening in their lake.
This is a hard one for me because they might own the dirt on the shore but they don’t own the water, nor should they have any more or less say as to what swims in the lake than the angler that launched his boat into that same body of water.
The rules that prohibit spearing northern pike in lakes with muskies in them have been repealed. With the exception of one lake in the state, you can now spear pike in all designated musky waters. This has helped eliminate the heartburn for spearers.
I figured it would quiet the rhetoric, but this has not happened. The Legislature has limited the number of lakes that can have special pike regulations and this, too, should have helped calm the angst of spearers, and I think in some cases it has helped a little.
What I think I do know for sure is that muskies are a cool and giant fish. I also think spearing pike is super fun and I have done it every year for the past 5-6 years.
Seeing that big fish slide into view in a spear hole is lilke seeing and participating in the Hunt for Red October. These fish look like lake submarines and getting one in close is quite a treat.
There are good arguments on both sides of the issue, but in the end does every single lake in Minnesota have to be managed solely for walleye? Do we have room for bass lakes, pan fish lakes and in some cases muskie lakes? Just like so many other conservation issues, you will never get a solid consensus on muskies and when and where they should be stocked.
In the end it is a lot like whether you choose to drink whiskey or water. Like muskies I think it really depends on the day as to which one is preferred.
.
God, help me be the man that my dog thinks that I am.
God, help me be the man that my dog thinks that I am.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest