Spring netting is not ‘fine’
Tom Wolak, from Foley, has it right when he writes “I can’t believe [the DNR] still adheres to the idea that there is no correlation between spring tribal netting and the decline in walleye numbers.” We must remember that there is a short time period for the laid eggs to be fertilized! So not only do we lose the fertile females and their mates, but the netters and spearers are disturbing the process and huge amounts of eggs are scattered without being fertilized! See his letter below.
Doug
Douglas Meyenburg, President, PERM
Letters to the Editor Outdoor News April 7, 2017
After reading another article about how the DNR is closing Lake Mille Lacs to keeping any walleyes this summer, I can’t believe it still adheres to the idea that there is no correlation between spring tribal netting and the decline in walleye numbers. With that kind of logic, let’s have a spring deer hunt with hunters only being able to take does carrying fawns.
How can taking the big, egg-filled females out before they can deposit their millions of eggs not have an effect on a lake’s future? They claim by closing the lake to allowing fishermen to keep some walleyes they are somehow helping preserve the spawning class of fish. How many of those spawning class are gonna be taken in Native American nets before they can spawn?
The spring netting needs to stop. Compensate the tribes for not netting and allow the lake to return to how it used to be, naturally. The problem is those in power who don’t know squat about how a lake sustains itself. Mille Lacs doesn’t need anything but time and to be left alone – free of any spring netting – to return to being our premier walleye destination.
Tom Wolak, Foley
