169Sportsman wrote:
Btw Mille Lacs cyclically crashed before there were slots. My opinion is you will never get away from this. Simply because as soon there is a hot bite people flock there from the metro and fish it out.
Exactly! Nets and slots have nothing to do with the cycle. It is all about the perch. When the perch do not have good hatches the baby walleyes become target number one. The walleye fishing is pretty awesome during these periods (think 2-4 years ago) and catching 50+ walleyes a day isn't too hard, they hit anything. During these periods those 27-29 inch fish only weigh about 5-6 lbs because they are literally starving. When the perch have good hatches and come back (think now) the baby walleyes are able to survive to adult hood because they aren't getting gobbled up by big walleyes. The fishing is a little tougher (normal) because the fish aren't starving. When you catch those big fish now they will be nice and plumb from gorging on perch. Mille Lacs is a walleye factory, always has been, always will, but if there are no perch those baby walleyes are food and the chances of them making it to breeding size are pretty low. If you talk to the guides and resort owners who have been on this lake for decades, most of them will tell you the same thing.
If the DNR wants to protect the walleyes when the perch are down they should put a mandatory catch and keep law in place to prevent the large amount of fish from dying from C&R. North Dakota has this law on some waters where they know people are going to be pulling fish up from deep water where mortality is very high. The amount of floaters on the lake a few years ago was a little disturbing.
Red Lake is a walleye factory as well and I don't think slots are going to do much, if anything, especially when you can only fish roughly 1/4 of the lake. It crashed before due to irresponsible netting. Keep the nets in check and there is no need for a slot IMO.
