Extreme Disrespect Shown Toward Muskie

[MN_Rebel]

You're wrong there. I have GREAT fishing experiences on Vermillion. They were in the early 90's before the Muskie took over.

As you've said, it's a world class MUSKIE fishing lake at this point. It used to be a worldclass walley, smallmouth, and pike fishing lake. Those days are LONG gone.

You can say what you want, but the walleye are less in number and smaller than they were before the introduction of the muskie. Granted, the resorts love the muskie. They make Vermillion a destination for muskie fishing. It sucks for all of the fishermen that used to have cabins on that lake that have had to move on.

As I said before, the gamefish population is still intact and there is good walleye/pike fishery in recently years. You just missed out the good years of walleye fishery. The REAL reason why everybody catching less walleyes is due to poor reproduction of walleyes back in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009. Therefore very few walleyes born from that year. On other hand 13-17 inches walleye numbers are high in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

 

[seedubs1]

Yeah man, like I said, I have family and know a lot of people on that lake. It's still garbage to date. But good job trying to blame it on reproduction. It couldn't possibly be that the introduced Muskie are destroying the population. It must be that the walleye just didn't spawn like they have for centuries. Couldn't possibly be that we introduced an invasive species

You sound just like the dnr up there.

 

[Bottomfeeder]

Could it be overfishing that brought down the Walleye populations, throwing off the food chain and reducing numbers of Smallmouth and Pike? I dont know anything about the ecology of that waterway other than this thread, but I do know that historically, Walleye have fallen victim to overfishing on more than a few occasions.

 

[Owain4]

This guy is just a moron you cant logic with, If the DNR Netting and electrofishing reports state there is a very good amount of walleye smallmouth and pike THEN THERE IS A VERY GOOD NUMBER. You cant argue with the DNR reports, It says what it says.

 

[seedubs1]

Could it be overfishing that brought down the Walleye populations, throwing off the food chain and reducing numbers of Smallmouth and Pike? I dont know anything about the ecology of that waterway other than this thread, but I do know that historically, Walleye have fallen victim to overfishing on more than a few occasions.

Could be overfishing with the walleye. But if that were the case, you wouldn't expect the pike population to decline as well. Not many people keep pike.....

Anyway, unless you live on that lake, you wouldn't know what was going on. The fishing has completely gone to garbage. Call me an idiot all you want, but everyone up there knows that the fish are simply not there anymore, and the muskie population has exploded.

 

[Bottomfeeder]

The food chain works in mysterious ways. A sharp decline in Walleye due to overfishing could affect other populations indirectly, leading to the Musky explosion.

 

[Bottomfeeder]

The worst mistreatment of a fish comes by some local northeastern fishermen towards Spiny Dogfish. Apparently in some places, they travel in huge schools,follow boats, attack gamefish, and monopolize hooks (that is, they are junkfish) somehow, people take this as justification to treat them horribly... fishermen kill every Dogfish they catch, hundreds of them. Then there are the guys who club them with baseball bats, cut them up alive, or cut off their tail, fins, even their snout... and then throw them back, so that they suffer to death or get torn apart by other Dogfish.
And now, of course, Spiny Dogfish are threatened.
Strangely enough, if Dogfish are such a problem... I have been saltwater fishing since I was 5 (11 years) and I have only ever seen ONE landed.

 

[MN_Rebel]

Yeah man, like I said, I have family and know a lot of people on that lake. It's still garbage to date. But good job trying to blame it on reproduction. It couldn't possibly be that the introduced Muskie are destroying the population. It must be that the walleye just didn't spawn like they have for centuries. Couldn't possibly be that we introduced an invasive species

You sound just like the dnr up there.

That is because I am working for DNR Fisheries. Lake Vermilion did have some poor years of walleye reproducation, therefore FEW walleyes were hatched and poor fishing for few years. However walleye classes from 2010, 2011 and 2012 were in great numbers, therefore you will have good walleye fishery next year. Tulibee, perch and rusty crayfish: three main prey items for Lake Vermilion muskellunges remained in good numbers. Northern pike numbers were good and plenty of large northerns swimming in that lake. Interesting is that largemouth bass populations has increased in west part of the lake where the low numbers of walleyes has occured. From my experiences, largemouth bass and walleyes do not make a good combo in same lake if high populations of largemouth bass existed, the walleye population suffered due to the predation on the walleye fingerlings. We once captured a 17" largemouth bass that has a 12" walleye in its mouth.

Also were they fishing during hot blazing 80-90F degrees days?

Funny thing that you are trying to blaming all problems on the muskellunge and refused to admitting that you are wrong. It would be hard to debunk on the DNR fish population reports....all game/forage fish populations are still in intact. Bravo! You would be make a great model role for future snobby fishermen that have no clue about ecosystems and relying on their fishing skill to check on how many fish that can bite on that day then blaming on fish they hate for eating their favorite fish.

 

[seedubs1]

Figured you were dnr up there. Like I said, you sound just like them. Hope you're enjoying the kick backs from the Indians and the resorts.

And no, we don't only fish on the 80-90 deg days. We fish year round up there, and my family has been doing so since before you were alive pal. We know every single spot worth fishing on the entire lake.

Between all of us, we have 600+ years of experience on that lake. So thanks for the info. Go bite a curb. And screw the mn dnr.

 

[MN_Rebel]

Figured you were dnr up there. Like I said, you sound just like them. Hope you're enjoying the kick backs from the Indians and the resorts.

And no, we don't only fish on the 80-90 deg days. We fish year round up there, and my family has been doing so since before you were alive pal. We know every single spot worth fishing on the entire lake.

Between all of us, we have 600+ years of experience on that lake. So thanks for the info. Go bite a curb. And screw the mn dnr.

Folks, we have found a perfect role model of misinformed fisherman.

BTW: please change from Indians to Native Americans so you don't sounds like a completely douch-bag.