Mille Lacs walleye woes dominate DNR forum

Months after the state took the unprecedented step of closing the walleye season early on Lake Mille Lacs, experts said Friday the future of the lake remains as uncertain as ever.

Mille Lacs faces a volley of problems, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fisheries chief Don Pereira told the hundreds who gathered for the DNR's annual conservation forum.

Those challenges include rising water temperatures and water that keeps getting clearer, even as the invasive zebra mussel population, which filters the water, seems to have plateaued. Another invasive species, the spiny water flea, is dramatically altering the bottom of the food chain, he said.

"This system is changing in just about every way possible, and we're trying to figure out how to manage it," Pereira said. "We're trying to just get a glimpse of where it's going to land. What we need to do is accept the fact that this system is changing dramatically and we need to try to help our stake holders be nimble and help them adapt to a system that's going to be different."

Bob Albers a cabin owner on Mille Lacs, said he wondered if the crisis wasn't at least partly man-made, even exacerbated, by the decision making on walleye quotas and size limits laid out by the DNR along with local tribal authorities. He questioned whether the state and tribes are willing to consider the possibility of their role in the changes on Mille Lacs, and correct course if necessary.

Gov. Mark Dayton told the conservation forum he's committed to whatever it takes. He noted in his public works spending proposal released Friday includes a Mille Lacs hatchery and other spending intended to boost the fishery.

Dayton also said state trails, bike facilities and other amenities could help diversify the economy.

"I think the people up there and the people who go there need to know that we're doing everything we can, we're doing it aggressively and we're going to keep doing it until that lake's turned around, as Leech Lake before it, Red Lake before it," he added. "We're not going to take no for an answer."

Fishing guide Tony Roach spends hundreds of days fishing a year, much of it on Mille Lacs. He said he wasn't surprised when the DNR closed the walleye season early last summer. He could see it coming under his boat.

"It started I would say in about 2010, you saw this increase in bite," he said. "Things were good. People were catching fish. However, it seemed almost too good to be true."

The state has since reopened the lake to ice anglers, although the mild early winter has not helped boost the fortunes of local resort owners.

Roach said the fishing is good now thanks to a spike in spawning in 2013, although he now sells bass fishing trips and offers clients alternatives to walleye.

"I mean, I was just on the ice yesterday and we were pounding the fish," he said. "It was just one after another after another of that 2013 year class, so there are a lot of positive things, but it really opened my eyes to not just rely on our sole species, our sole focus."