Letís quit whining,
enjoy great fishing
on Mille Lacs Lake

By TERRY MCQUOID
Posted 8/16/02

Editorís note: Terry McQuoid has owned McQuoidís Inn at Isle for 10 years. He has competed on the professional fishing circuit and worked on Mille Lacs Lake as a guide. This article is reprinted from the July 31 Mille Lacs Messenger.

********

Headlines of "Somethingís fishy at Mille Lacs" and a photo caption that said, "You canít fish for walleye on Mille Lacs" in the Brainerd Dispatch on Sunday, July 21, has prompted me to share my viewpoint of the Mille Lacs fishery.

Iíve fished Mille Lacs all my life and guided for the last 28 years.

Dead fish floating on the lakeís surface is nothing new. It happens every year when water temps reach the mid and upper 70s. Itís natureís way of eliminating the old and weak. Tullibee, perch, burbot, suckers, northerns and walleye are all affected by this. Their dying and floating to shore has happened for the last 150-plus years and will happen for the next 150-plus years, no matter what happens with the slot limits or any other regulations or fishing pressure on Mille Lacs. Over half of the fish floating have nothing to do with hooking mortality.

As for Linda Eno and her kids placing dead fish on the shoulder of the highway, I would like to know why they shouldnít get a ticket for littering. If she put half the energy used fighting the DNRís rules and regs into running and promoting her resort, she probably would have a hard time keeping up with all the business.

Customers get tired of hearing all the whining and complaining. They are here to have a good time.

Dick Sternberg is another person who is blowing this issue totally out of proportion. He hasnít been a DNR biologist for 20 years. It doesnít take a rocket scientist to see his stake in this issue. PERM paid him for his report on Mille Lacs. What would you expect him to say? Over the last several years Dick has used up more of the DNRís time (several million dollars of it) than any other single person. This is time the DNR could have been working on getting more accurate population numbers so we could safely harvest more fish, instead of gathering research for his book.

Sternbergís statements of starving walleyes and a fishery on the verge of collapse are vastly overstated. Whatís he going to say these next few weeks as the young of the year come back into the food chain and slows the bite? One of Mille Lacsí biggest forages for the fish are all the different bugs. The fish can live off of them alone. They just donít get as fat as when there is an over-supply of bait. The best thing for Mille Lacs is for Dick to stay on Minnetonka and let the DNR manage the lake.

Our walleyes may be slender this year but they arenít supposed to be shaped like footballs. They definitely arenít on the verge of collapse. They are already fattening up with all the new minnows that are coming into the food chain.

The DNR biologists have been given a very tough job to do. First, they have to accurately figure out how many adult walleyes are in the lake. Until five years ago, it really didnít matter. Now itís the most crucial number because biomass, harvest quotas and everything else comes from this one number. Their estimates of 600,000 walleyes (about four fish per acre) are probably low and they agree. Collecting more and better data is important. The tagging study, more deep water test nets, and a few more years will contribute to more accurate numbers. Weíve got some very good people working on this. Letís give them a chance to do their job.

Every angler has their own answer to our current situation. Iím no different. Iíve guided through some of the "good old days" when we would leave the dock and I would tell the clients if we get five bites today, weíll be doing great. Since the slot limits were put in effect, we have had consistently good quality fishing every year and there is no reason it wonít continue.

A couple of my thoughts are there are many more fish in the lake ñ maybe as much as twice the four fish per acre the DNR claims. But even with only one more fish per acre (133,000 fish or 400,000 pounds), this would allow another 100,000 pounds of harvest which could be used to take one fish above the slot for the first three weeks of the season when most of the fish we catch are males.

Somewhere between 25 and 35 percent of this group of fish shouldnít be charged against our quota because, according to the DNR, 25 percent of these older fish are going to die naturally and 6 to 10 percent from hooking mortality.

This would be a great way to harvest mostly older males. For the last five years we have not harvested any fish above the slot legally. Most males grow to between 19 and 24 inches and never get any bigger. At our current regulations, there is no provision to harvest any of these fish. They have to die of old age or hooking mortality.

The slot limit is a good way of limiting the harvest and still allowing unlimited fishing pressure. Today we have more people spending more time with better equipment and better fishing knowledge. Some people say the slot will stop people from coming to Mille Lacs. Well, look at all the landings. Theyíre overflowing even though they know most all of the fish caught will be released. Fishermen are coming in record numbers because of the fun of catching.

The courts decided Mille Lacs is to be a shared resource with our neighbors. The sooner everyone accepts this, the quicker we can move on to what is really best for the lake and the economy around it.

In the meantime, enjoy the great fishing because it will be slowing as more of this yearís minnow crop becomes available food for the walleyes. Also, be sure to send in your tag fish information. The more times we catch and release these tagged walleye, the lower our mortality rate will go.