Fishing Reports-Archive

The Archive of Fishing Reports

name: Allen
city: Grand Forks
Date: Monday April 21, 2003
Time: 11:18:20 AM

Fishing_talk

Brad,

I'm with you on the "JUST BECAUSE THEY SAY WE CAN DOESN'T MEAN WE HAVE TO" philosophy. My wife and I catch plenty of walleye and on most days we release many more than we keep. I personally like to say: Catch and keep what you want up to the legal limit just so long as you don't let any kept fish go to waste.

One thing I am personally afraid of is the degree of micro management we sportsmen would really be willing to put up with from an agency that is only funded well enough for macro management. This would only encourage blanket regulations that should not apply to every body of water. The Red River is a pretty good example of micro management and it is a result of cooperative work with MN-DNR where we have let MN take the lead role. Will the spring conservation season have an effect on the walleye population in the Red River? Perhaps, but the renovation of the low-head dams is going to have a MUCH larger effect on reproductive success.

I hear a lot of people saying that they throw back everything over 18 inches. I personally have had several days in the last couple of years where fish under 18 inches were more difficult to catch than a pile of 20-24 inch fish (Sakakawea, not DL). What I would really hate to see is me having a great day of fishing and then not being able to take anything home for a meal. I truly don't believe anyone who knows me would say that I need to catch and keep a stringer of 5-8 lb fish to have a great day fishing, but I do know if I went fishing and only caught three 4-6 lb fish and I wasn't allowed to keep any of them for a meal would be considered something other than successful. Me? I have no problems eating a walleye greater than 18 inches, tastes just like a 14 inch walleye with a thicker filet.

My whole philosophy is: Let the professionals make the decisions based upon sound scientific evidence.

Have the professionals been wrong before? Sure, but I think they will tend to get it right more than the average Joe. Having biologists make these decisions for us is every bit the same "common sense" as taking your car to an auto shop for repairs, your kids to hospitals, and your dogs to veterinarians.

name: Brad Durick
city: Grand Forks
Date: Sunday April 20, 2003
Time: 11:32:53 PM

Fishing_talk

I have thought about this a little more and I think we could argue about this for the whole fishing season if we want to.

The experts say we can keep the big fish and won't hurt the resource. JUST BECAUSE THEY SAY WE CAN DOESN'T MEAN WE HAVE TO. I am not going to change my mind on this issue but just in case I am right, please throw back the big fish unless you are going to keep a once in a lifetime trophy.

name: Brad Durick
city: Grand Forks
Date: Sunday April 20, 2003
Time: 11:13:42 PM

Fishing_talk

First in the responses. Allen, my day is coming for the big walleye. When the day comes I am not sure that I will mount the fish anyway. I can think of alot of fish and animals that I would rather have on my wall than a walleye. Everyone seems to have one and I think they have gotten overated.

You may be right in that the really big fish eggs are less than perfect but now what about the 3-6 pounders that are the real breeding stock. They are in the same situation. Even in those fish I can't remember the last time I kept a walleye that was over 18 inches.

My feelings are even a slot protecting the spawning fish could only help the populations. Even if the slot was only enforced from April 1 to May 15. Experts say that we can catch and keep what we want and not hurt Devils Lake but wouldn't it be cool if most big fish went back and you could catch a 3-10 pounder on every trip.

name: Allen
city: Grand Forks
Date: Sunday April 20, 2003
Time: 05:01:55 PM

Fishing_talk

Fishchaser, Now you're making feel bad. I never meant to hurt your feelings on FBO, nor do I remember anyone wanting to see "unlimited fishing regulations".

My position put forth on FBO, is still unchanged. We (the common sporstmen) can not let a few believers in unfounded, unsubstantiated "common sense" management philosophies dictate management of our wildlife any more than we can allow the guides and outfitters to dictate hunting seasons. Just because we live in a democracy, does not mean a democratically chosen path is always the best just because we choose to place political pressure on the biologists. If I sit idle, then I am every bit to blame for unnecessary regulatory restraints as you would be. It was "common sense" fishery management that brought the carp over from Europe, and in my book, I don't ever want to see "common sense" fisheries management again.

We agree, keeping our resources are better than ever being able to say "I told you so". But, since all we have done over the last 200 years is make the restrictions tighter, why should we think continuation of our historically chosen path of tightening size/quantity restrictions will by itself turn around the effects associated with loss/degradtaion of habitat?

Me thinks that the only people out there who can say "I told you so" are the ones who have been telling us to better the habitat over the last 30 years. Increased restrictions are a short-term fix to a long-term problem that can and do provide relief to a fish population when it is severely stressed and is no longer reproducing very well . Please refer to many of Minnesota's lakes of when this does work. Red Lake is currently rebounding after several years of unregulated commercial fishing, Mille Lacs and similar to unbelievable sport harvests and habitat degradation (too many boats and cabins hurt the ecosystem when your septic systems drain into the lake). Conversely, Devils Lake is a great example of where a "bettering" of the habitat has done more than anything imagined in the most restrictive of Minnesota's lakes. Too bad humans can't take credit, or learn from this example where Mother Nature has taken over to a point where artificial stocking is no longer required (and DL is arguably the most pressured of our big bodies of water).

I've got a really bad idea, why don't we fire everyone at NDGF and just put all management decisions up for referendums? If we don't want people dedicated to studying what makes a quality fishery, taking this knowledge and using it to make fisheries management decisions, then perhaps we should get rid of them and lower our license fees.

I'm all for C&R, but it's not the answer to everything. Fishing is supposed to be fun, don't let people who you don't even know ruin your day just because they may have killed a fish you wouldn't.

name: Allen
city: Grand Forks
Date: Sunday April 20, 2003
Time: 04:59:23 PM

Fishing_talk

Brad, sorry you haven't caught an 8 lb walleye yet, hang in there though because they do exist. Think of it this way, if every other fish you caught was an 8 lb walleye then your "once-in-a-lifetime" walleye scale would just have to slide up to 9 lbs, then 11 lbs etc. I think the biggest I have ever caught was between 10 and 11. Never even got it or any of the 8 pounders mounted (been a couple years since I got an 8 though, maybe 'cause I don't live on Sak any more). I'm looking for a 13+ before I cough up the cost of mounting a fish. And yes, biologists have shown that eggs from the bigger walleyes are less viable than those from the mid-size fish. Must be the equivalent of menopause for fish???. I believe this is why NDGF dump all their older and bigger trout into the Turtle River each year (someone can correct me if I'm wrong though).

name: fishchaser
city: Mayville
Date: Sunday April 20, 2003
Time: 11:24:41 AM

Fishing_talk

Brad: To guys like you and I, some of this stuff is common sense. I don't care what the "experts" think. You simply cannot take an unlimited number of big spawning females out of a system year after year without it having some impact on the fishery. I also agree with you on the point that keeping the big ones for the frying pan during the pre-spawn when they are most vulnerable, reduces the numbers of big fish in the system to be caught by someone who would consider the fish a trophy. I am not saying that you can't catch a trophy fish for the wall during the spawn. I don't care when you catch it, a trophy is a trophy. I hate seeing all the "meat fishermen" catching the big ones in the spring when they are vulnerable and taking them home to the frying pan, when those same fish would be considered trophies for someone else. The more big fish that end up in the frying pan, the fewer trophies there are in the lake. And it just so happens that the big fish are easier to catch in the spring, and that is when most of the "meat fishermen" are out in full force. Like I said, this whole thing sounds pretty much like common sense to you and I.

I am not sure if you visit the Fishing Buddy website (I know its a dirty word here - Sorry), but go there and check out the fishing talk forum. Look for a section called Spring Fishing Regulations. I said the exact same thing there. Look at the tone of where the conversation went. Look at how I was condemned. Look at how others were constantly putting words into my mouth to make it sound like I had some evil agenda in mind. All I tried to do is raise the conservation issue, and look at what it got me. Everyone seems to want unlimited fishing without regualations, but who would be the ones to complain first if all the fish were gone due to lack of conservation?? Yup, you guessed it. It is truely sad, but unfortunately true.

name: Brad Durick
city: Grand Forks
Date: Saturday April 19, 2003
Time: 07:28:24 PM

Fishing_talk

Fishchaser, thank you for reading my article. It is now about two years old but I still feel that it is as relevant as the day I wrote it. I do have some new things to add however.

First of all I think people are respecting the resource less now than even a couple of years ago. More big fish being taken and more people being critical of us who feel it is important to release the big fish. I have spoken to biologists who say keeping the big fish is ok. Now think about this. I to date have never caught a walleye over eight pounds. For every big walleye that is taken out of the lake is one less for someone else to catch. Also, It is my belief that fish born to a big healthy fish will have better genes that that of a smaller fish. Biology may prove that differently but that is what I believe.

As a last thought let me say I spoke to a man last week at Devils Lake that just couldn't understand why I would waste my time driving from Grand Forks to Devils Lake, catch 25 Pike and go home with no fish. He basically told me that if you're not going to try to keep a limit don't bother. I thought it was just fun to get out of the house for a day. Go figure

name: fishchaser
city: Mayville
Date: Saturday April 19, 2003
Time: 01:29:54 PM

Fishing_talk

I just read the Fishing Etiquette article for the first time. I was very impressed. I would ask that the author of this article submit it to a few of the local outdoor magazines as well. I think an article such as this needs as much publication as possible. It is great to see someone else who feels the same way on this subject as I do. I posted some similar comments on the FB website, and there were several people who were in a huge hurry to jump all over me and my position. I was called uneducated, uninformed, and basically ran off the site by some of the local "experts" who claim that catching all the big fish you can before the spawn will never hurt the population. It seems that in this day and age, if you are concerned about the conservation of any resurce, you are considered a radical and open to bashing, especially on the FB website. I hope all these "experts" are still around in a few years when they are proven wrong. Better still, I would like to see some common sense conservation laws passed now while the resource is still here. That would be much better than being able to say "I told you so" later when the fishing in ND is almost non-existant.

name: Fishin Freek
city: valley city
Date: Wednesday April 16, 2003
Time: 09:45:02 PM

Fishing_talk

I agree with dogman, stay away from the spirit water inn. Minnewauken has little to offer in the way of fine dining and bars. Any place in DL is in my opinion a good bet. Trying to stay at one specific spot is useless due to the high demand of lodging when the fish are biting.

name: Brad Durick
city: Grand Forks
Date: Wednesday April 16, 2003
Time: 10:24:53 AM

Fishing_talk

I just wanted to make a note about the fantasic customer service of Vexilar. I have now had two repairs done (V2 upgrade and transducer cord patched.) where I had to send the unit to them. Both repairs have been done and sent back to me within one week and I have not yet paid more than the shipping to get the unit to them. I thought people would like to know that there is a company out there with great customer service.

name: dogman
city: jamestown
Date: Friday March 21, 2003
Time: 09:22:16 PM

Fishing_talk

I recomend to all to stay away from the spirit water inn. He had written to Tony Dean about us ND residents being aligned with Peta. You can check out his stements for yourself on tony dean's website. he then those a sales pitch at the end. What a guy!! great buisness sense.

name: dogman
city: jamestown
Date: Thursday March 20, 2003
Time: 06:34:11 PM

Fishing_talk

Ron, stay away from the spirit water inn also the woodland resort. I like the Davis motel. It is old and not fancy but comfortable and cheap. Plus the people there are very nice. make your reservations early cause they tend to be busy in the summer. goodluck and stay away from the Cove at woodland resort. A guy that goes by the handle of cootkiller works there and he wants to sell our resources to the highest bidder. I hope you nail those eyes. In june the trees produce the best action.

name: dennis
city: valley city
Date: Wednesday March 19, 2003
Time: 12:02:19 PM

Fishing_talk

The ice really sucks, with the edges being the worst. water covers virtually the whole lake once the temperature hits 50 degrees. soon nobody will be fishing out there if the weather stays this warm.

name: paul
city: moorhead
: mnpaulski@aol.com
Date: Tuesday March 18, 2003
Time: 07:59:11 PM

Fishing_talk

would like to know ice conditions on pipestem +res

name: Ron
city: Adel,Iowa
: motormouth466@aol.com
Date: Sunday March 09, 2003
Time: 07:59:00 PM

Fishing_talk

We are coming to DL in June and just wanting to know where a good place to fish for Walleye was and a nice place for 3 to stay.

name: Paul Scott
city: Grand Forks
: pasasap2@yahoo.com
Date: Saturday March 08, 2003
Time: 06:25:56 PM

Fishing_talk

I am looking for someone to take two to four people out on the Red River at Lockport, Canada. We want to fish for twenty plus pound channel catfish for six to eight hours. We can be in Lockport any time from the 17 to the 27 of May, 2003. We cannot afford to pay the local guide service fee of $350 for two people or $500 for four so I am asking if anyone could take us out at a much lower price. We have our own equipment and will bring our own food, water, and bait. I am looking for someone who has enough room on their boat for five people and who will be fishing that day for catfish anyway. I plan to pay that person for the gas for their boat ($50 US) plus ($50 US) for their services. If anyone is interested please contact me at pasasap2@hotmail.com. Thank you and good fishing!

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