I’ll always remember how “old” (my term) Stearns County farmers caught far fewer crappies than I did through the ice of Lake Sagatagon, about 10 miles west of St. Cloud, back in the 1960s when I was a student in Collegeville.
I don’t know much about mosquitoes. Ditto for bats. But I did experience the biggest mosquito onslaught in my long life. That was in early June of this spring.
Pore through the pre-fishing opener media reports across the northern half of Minnesota. Observe what anglers were saying in person or on social media. One relevant fact was nearly always missing!
So what was usually missing from all the late-ice banter? Cabin owners, lakeshore property owners, and resorters – folks who like to be “ready” for the fishing opener – were often time-squeezed. Indeed, they faced a late-ice “rat race” when it came to installing docks and boat lifts. Add to that their launching of and trying out boats.
When asked abut my fishing-opener recollections, many stand out. That’s mainly because I opened the walleye season on Lake Mille Las for many decades. Yes, fishing culture and values change. Will keeping a fish, or eating a fish, be sinful in 20 or 30 years? Minnesotans will see!
Talk about a lost cause. On the last day of February, and for the first few days of March, I checked the Brainerd DNR complex, and other locations, for the 2023 Minnesota Fishing Regulations booklets. I struck out wherever I went!
And anglers fishing on Minnesota waters should know that the release program, which now has only four species, will increase significantly – six species per year from 2024 to 2026.
Joe Fellegy recently chatted with DNR biologist Paul Radomski about his new book, “Walleye: A Beautiful Fish of the Dark” and related matters. Fellegy: The title of your book is, “Walleye: A Beautiful Fish of the Dark.” Walleyes are beautiful? Radomski: Tell me who hasn’t pulled up walleye through ice holes and been amazed at
Bragging about “the biggest” is a sportfishing tradition, and today’s whopper obsession grows ever larger. Show-off selfies, the social-media boom, angling websites, contest-winner lists, and fishing-industry promotions highlight angler-caught biggies. Add headline stories about state-record fish, kept and released. But anglers aren’t the only fishers with big-fish experiences. Minnesota DNR Fisheries crews handle and observe
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