Could Raw Sewage Help Mille Lacs?

[Fish Felon]

Some pretty interesting findings from a Blue ribbon panel study and report release by U of M.

I found this particularly of interest...

The decline in Mille Lacs Lake walleye may also be due to changes in the environment of the lake itself. Of major significance is the water clarity. Due to the Clean Water Act of the 1970’s, nutrients that were once pumped into the lake via septic systems and run-off are no longer being pumped into the lake. The water is cleaner and clearer now than it has ever been.

http://m.messagemedia.co/millelacs/outd ... l?mode=jqm


There are many variables potentially affecting the lake out of our control. Zebra mussels aren't going anywhere. A trend in warmer water temps are here to stay. The Natives right to net was upheld by the highest court in the land (this one in particular bugs me when people bitch about it).

But if the clean water act really did cause there to be less nutrients in the lake, that's something we can fix...easily. Mille Lacs isn't a swimming lake so why not pump some raw sewage into it? As long as it isn't too concentrated it won't kill anything.

And to think I crapped in a bag the last time there. Next time I'll be sure to do my part and drill a shit hole to allow my vital nutrients to go into the lake. If we all do our part we can make a difference!

[Goldfish]

Seriously, trolling the whole site tonight

[Fish Felon]

Seriously, there's no bigger troll move than to make a quip about someone trolling.

Your response took little to no effort, provided nothing of substance, wasn't clever or funny, didn't further enhance or help foster the discussion, so who's trolling here Goldfish?

I post a well thought out opinion and showed how I came to it, even quoting and posting a link to a scientific study that reinforces what I'm saying.

WTH else do you want?

Here's a possibility you should strongly consider, maybe all the stuff that I say that you think is trolling, are actually my real phucking opinions!

Just because you're too narrow minded to think outside the box doesn't make me a troll for doing so.

And for the record, I do actually think that dumping raw sewage into ML might be beneficial. Read the findings from the study. Until the 70's all kinds of untreated human waste went directly into the lake.

Shit=Nutrients

The lake is starved of nutrients. Since 1+1=2 that means that dumping sewage into the lake could increase the nutrient level.

I'd love to see you debate my logic on that.

Is it an outlandish idea? Of course. Is it feasible, could it happen? Probably not. Mainly because of public sentiment from dweebs like yourself who probably piss into a bucket while fishing because 'it is wrong to pollute.'

It's too bad really. There's no shortage of sewage. And unlike zebes, spinys, milfoil, carp, etc., things that are impossible to remove that dweebs dwell on their subtraction, with this it'd be addition. Find a safe level and keep adding until you get there. In a year when those nutrients are filtered out of the system, add some more.

[Quack]

So they're also saying Mille Lacs water is warming and that might hurt walleye repro? Why would that be isolated to Mille Lacs? Bunch of factories or nuc plants dumping warm water in it? No they're saying CLIMATE. Wouldn't all lakes be warming then? Red is only 15' deep and it's producing walleyes like a factory!

[Nershi]

Red is only 15' deep

Check your facts. That is not correct. Red probably is warming but no gives a chit. Comparing Red to Mille Lacs is apples to oranges.

Wasn't Mille Lacs known as the dead sea back in the 80's? Maybe it crashed due to the lack of sewage from the clean water act.

[Fish Felon]

It's not isolated to Mille Lacs but ML will be one of the first lakes hit hard by a warmer climate.

What Red has going for it over ML is that it is so shallow. ML is just deep enough to have an abundant population of tullibees that have been an important forage species.

Since ML is the farthest South of the big lakes and because it's not very deep (42' max depth) and because tullibees are a cold water fish, the lake is going to lose a population of fish that have historically been very important.

I fished ML in August 2012 and the tullibee die-off was unreal. I never imagined there were that many in the lake.


As with most things people tend to be doom & gloom. I don't buy the notion that losing tullibees is a direct loss. Who's to say there won't be more perch, or some other baitfish, that will fill the gap?

I've said since 2013 that by summer of 2016 ML will be out of the bad news cycle and people will be catching fish. The lake will never be as good as during its heyday...too many different factors pulling at it. With the biggest one being zebes and water clarity.

[Quack]

I'll be the first to admit I'm not a knowledgeable fish ecology guy. Thanks for holding me accountable.

I recall hearing that lower red is deep. Is the west 2/3 of upper also deep ?

Never would have guessed Millax was only 42 deep.


Here I wanted to rant about walleyes in shallow lakes again. Oh well.

[Trigger]

It's not isolated to Mille Lacs but ML will be one of the first lakes hit hard by a warmer climate.

What Red has going for it over ML is that it is so shallow. ML is just deep enough to have an abundant population of tullibees that have been an important forage species.

Since ML is the farthest South of the big lakes and because it's not very deep (42' max depth) and because tullibees are a cold water fish, the lake is going to lose a population of fish that have historically been very important.

I fished ML in August 2012 and the tullibee die-off was unreal. I never imagined there were that many in the lake.


As with most things people tend to be doom & gloom. I don't buy the notion that losing tullibees is a direct loss. Who's to say there won't be more perch, or some other baitfish, that will fill the gap?

I've said since 2013 that by summer of 2016 ML will be out of the bad news cycle and people will be catching fish. The lake will never be as good as during its heyday...too many different factors pulling at it. With the biggest one being zebes and water clarity.

As I right now, I would say losing the tullibees is a direct reason for this decline, the fish have found another forage species... Baby walleyes.

[Trigger]

Red is only 15' deep and it's producing walleyes like a factory!

According to all of the recent studies on Mille lacs, it too is a walleye factory still, but the year classes are essentially wiped out by their second year. They think that the increase in water clarity, and an increase in sight predators that benefit from clearer water have started utilizing young walleyes as forage as a side effect to the loss of the tullibees.

[Nershi]

Quack, I believe URL does max out around 15 ft. LRL is much deeper. You said Red. That little gap on the map in between the two lakes is actually very wide so it is one lake with two names. Either way Mille Lacs and Red are two very different fisheries and shouldn't be compared with each other. Both are walleye factories though.

Lots of baby walleyes on Mille Lacs are surviving. I've actually heard people complaining about catching so many dinks this year. Now that the perch population exploded again the baby walleyes aren't target #1. Give it a few years and all the people who cried the sky is falling on Mille Lacs are going to realize they were morons. The lake cycles, always has, even before nets started getting put in the lake.