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 […]

In my Jan. 25 Outdoor News column, I reminded readers how, in August 2015, tribal gill-netters intentionally violated state law by setting a 200-foot gill net in Gull Lake, with encouragement from tribal attorneys and politicos. The intent: get charged, appeal based on “treaty rights,” and ascend the court ladder.

After Crow Wing County court personnel misinformed me that the appeal deadline was Jan. 9, my column wrongly reported that the appeal deadline had passed with no appeal.

Meanwhile, I learned that a formal appeal was filed by tribal attorneys Jan. 22. So that case, with potentially huge significance for a large expanse of Minnesota, is still alive. Will state courts, Gov. Tim Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and other […]

In his January 25 Outdoor News column, Joe Fellegy reported on what appeared to be the end of an illegal gillnetting saga by Chippewa tribal band members.

recall that tribal members purposely violated state law in August of 2015 by setting a 200-foot gill net in Gull Lake. Their intent, based on their actions and statements by tribal attorneys was to “get charged, appeal, and ascend the court ladder – claiming off-reservation harvest rights and co-management authority.”

Three years later their case finally went to trial. The lone remaining defendant was found guilty and sentenced to stayed jail time plus nominal fines. Being misinformed about an appeal deadline, Fellegy column stated that, contrary to expectations, no appeal had been filed.

But then the Crow Wing court told Joe Fellegy that tribal attorneys indeed […]