This letter shows that legal and illegal gill netting is going on all over the state. The DNR doesn’t pay much attention unless there is a lot of ruckus raised. Typically most everything goes under the heading “allowed in the treaties” whether or not that area is treaty-specific.

Doug
President, PERM

Letters to the Editor
Outdoor News, Vol. 52, No. 23 June 7, 2019

What’s so special about the gill nets in Boulder Lake?

Wow. So the DNR is finally going to look at gill nets in Boulder Lake? Well, what’s so special about Boulder Lake? What about the other lakes, like Leech, Cass, Portage, (south of Bena)? I could go on, but you get the point.

I live on Leech Lake, and I have seen numerous gill nets. I have taken pictures of the gut piles […]

Update on the Tribal Related Litigation

By Randy V. Thompson, Esq. Mille Lacs County Quarterly – April 2019

Even occasional readers of this newsletter have likely noticed that a federal lawsuit – brought in November 2017 by the Mille Lacs Band against the County, the Sheriff and the County Attorney – is a frequent topic in these pages. The Band wants a judgment that the 61,000-acre Mille Lacs Reservation, an area established by the Treaty of 1855 that includes the three northern townships of Kathio, South Harbor and Isle Harbor, still exists. It also seeks a declaration that the County, the Sheriff and the County Attorney interfered with the Band’s law enforcement authority. The County and the State disagree: the reservation was disestablished long ago.

What is less often discussed, though, is the […]

Joe Fellegy has some choice comments about another ‘C’ word. He quotes Steve Johnson (Johnson’s Portside on Mille Lacs) “Stop using the C-word!”, the Mille Lacs walleye population is in no crisis!”

Fellegy highlights the misleading vocabulary being used to set a up straw man excuse for a “downward swing of the Mille Lacs walleye population.” That explanation is a cover for “sudden dramatic and continuing plunge in the political walleye quota.” Then he details the fallout from “the corrosive state-tribal co-management,” which Fisheries personnel dismiss as merely being “cautious and conservative.”

Fellegy mentions “unprecedented distrust” and “ongoing uncertainty.” These are hallmarks of the “playing out of ‘treaty rights’ and related management.” They also serve a warning for the “treaty rights” claims coming out of litigation deliberately initiated over the 1855 Treaty […]

After one year, abandoned gill net investigation closed

Tribal/GLIFWC game warden loading a gill net full of wasted Mille Lacs walleye

The following story is being reprinted with permission of the Mille Lacs Messenger.
By Vivian LaMoore, Mille Lacs Messenger, Wednesday, April 3, 2019

It has been nearly a year since an abandoned tribal gill net was found in Mille Lacs Lake and officials have now announced the investigation is closed.

The gill net was found last May containing 67 dead walleye. Fond du Lac tribal officials conducted a lengthy netting investigation. Officials have now said two people have appeared in tribal court and were penalized. Names of the guilty parties have not been released, nor has […]

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It’s a shame the DNR and tribal DNR can’t recognize the true number of walleye in the lake.

DNR News Release
March 12, 2019

Walleye harvest will be allowed in May on Mille Lacs Lake
Mille Lacs regulations for walleye and other species announced

Anglers on Mille Lacs Lake will be able to keep walleye during open water fishing for the first time since 2015. An improving walleye population has been protected by conservative fishing regulations in recent years, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Mille Lacs anglers will be able to keep one walleye between 21 and 23 inches or one walleye over 28 inches from Saturday, May 11, through Friday, May 31.

“It’s good news that anglers get to keep some walleye this May, but we are being cautious,” said Brad Parsons, DNR fisheries […]

The Mille Lacs Fisheries Advisory Committee will meet from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, at Appeldoorn’s Sunset Bay Resort, 45401 Mille Lacs Parkway in Isle. The agenda will cover open water fishing regulations and discussion around lake management planning. Members of the public may attend and observe these meetings, and 15 minutes at the end of each meeting is reserved for public comments and questions.

PERM encourages its members, and concerned citizens to attend. Been the lookout for more on what “cautiously allow anglers to start keeping some fish” might mean for Mille Lacs anglers. See post below

Outdoor News February 14, 2019, Minnesota DNR Reports

Anglers on Lake Mille Lacs will have an opportunity to keep some walleye during the open-water fishing season this year, the Minnesota DNR said in a news release Thursday, Feb. 14.

This follows several seasons of catch-and-release fishing on the lake. But last year, state anglers stayed well under the lake’s safe-harvest allocation for walleyes, the DNR said. So, with an improving walleye population, the DNR will allow some walleye harvest when the season opens Saturday, May 11.

That number will be announced in mid-March with the Mille Lacs walleye regulations for the upcoming season.

“We’re happy to announce that, with some very conservative fishing regulations over the past three years, walleye are now at a level where we can cautiously allow anglers to start keeping […]