May 9, 2008 - TOP STORIES
Subscribe and get the full week of news delivered to your mailbox every week!

Fishing nets go missing on Mille Lacs

DNR announces a delayed fishing opener on some lakes

Fishing Opener update: Public water access conditions vary due to late ice-out

Some 500 volunteers plant trees along Gunflint Trail

Minn. boy's death while hunting highlights need for safety

Join our subscribers and be informed in the outdoors!

Fishing nets go missing on Mille Lacs
A dozen nets get trapped in ice, go missing

GARRISON, Minn. (AP) – A dozen gillnets set by Chippewa Indian bands became trapped in ice floes and went missing this past week on Lake Mille Lacs, reviving the debate over tribal fishing on one of the state’s premiere walleye lakes.
The 100-foot nets disappeared Tuesday (April 29) and Wednesday (April 30) near Garrison on the west side of the big lake, said Sue Erickson, spokeswoman for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, an intertribal agency that oversees treaty rights on behalf of its 11 member tribes.
Officials weren’t sure if the nets that remained missing as of Friday were still catching fish, Erickson said. She said it was possible they became balled up.
“The nets that were recovered were shredded by the ice,” Erickson said. “They were not catching anything. Generally speaking, when nets become balled up, they don’t catch anything.”
The unrecovered nets have stirred hard feelings around the lake, where some anglers and residents are still unhappy with a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming Chippewa hunting and fishing rights in east-central Minnesota under an 1837 treaty.
Every spring, eight Chippewa bands, including two from Minnesota, set gillnets and use spears to harvest spawning walleyes in Lake Mille Lacs. They typically set the nets in the evening and pick them up the next morning. Erickson said she thought the unrecovered nets were owned by Wisconsin Chippewa members, not the two Minnesota bands party to the treaty: the Mille Lacs and Fond du Lac bands of Ojibwe.
Steve Fellegy, an angler who lives on the lake, said the missing nets likely contain rotting walleyes that will go to waste. He said the netters should have anticipated shifting ice conditions.
“There is the potential for reckless wanton waste of fish,” Fellegy said. “At the end of 72 hours or four days, surely they’re getting to the point of spoiling. An ungutted walleye doesn’t last long on ice in a refrigerator.”
Rick Bruesewitz, Department of Natural Resources areas supervisor in Aitkin, said the Chippewa bands are responsible for collecting the nets, which could present a “conservation” problem if left to drift for very long.
“With a dozen nets, we would like to see that avoided,” he said. “We don’t want ghost nets floating around all summer.”
Erickson said the band members would try to recover the nets when ice conditions are favorable.
Netters ran into problems last week Tuesday and Wednesday when winds shifted on Lake Mille Lacs, pushing ice floes into the western shore, Erickson said. She estimated band members set 170 to 180 nets in Garrison Bay Tuesday evening and were tending them around 3 a.m. Wednesday when they got word that ice floes were moving west.
“It came in fast and furious,” she said of the moving ice, which she described as “dangerous” for people out there. “There were a lot of people out there, folks and biologists and netters scrambling for those nets. I would consider it an accidental type of thing.”
Two other nets were lost the previous night under similar conditions north of Garrison.
Tribal officials estimated two rescued nets contained about 40 pounds of walleyes each, which led them to subtract 400 pounds from their quota for the 10 missing nets. As of Friday, May 2, band members had harvested about 45,000 pounds of walleye out of their 122,500-pound quota.
Fellegy said weather forecasters predicted the wind shifts, so tribal leaders should have known better.
“It’s beyond comprehension that you have people in a supervisory position, salaried by the government, making decisions like that,” he said.

Back to top

DNR announces a delayed fishing opener on some lakes

DNR News
To protect spawning concentrations of walleye and allow them to disperse, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has announced a delayed fishing opener for two bays in the Tower Fisheries Management Area. Boat travel is allowed through the areas that are closed to fishing.
A portion of Pipestone Bay of Basswood Lake in Lake County will be closed to fishing from May 10 through May 16, and will reopen to fishing on Saturday, May 17. The portion of Pipestone Bay affected by the delayed opener is south of a direct line from Kosulainen Point to Gary Island to Caribou Point and then south to Pipestone Falls. The legal description of the affected area is Township 64, Range 11, and portions of Sections 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21, 22. 23.
Pike Bay of Lake Vermilion in St. Louis County will also be closed to fishing from May 10 through May 16, opening to fishing on Saturday, May 17. The portion of Pike Bay affected by the delayed opener is from the Pike River Dam to a north-south line at the narrowest portion between Echo Point and Puncher Point. The closed area also includes East Two River and West Two River between Highway 169 and Pike Bay. The legal description of the affected area is Township 61, Range 15, Section 6; Township 61, Range 16, Sections 1, 2, 3; Township 62, Range 15, Sections 19, 30, 31, 32; Township 62, Range 16, Section 25, 34, 35, 36.
The Pike River from the Pike River Dam to Pike Bay just north of the Pike River Hatchery will remain closed through May 31.
For more information about fishing, contact the DNR at www.mndnr.gov or call the DNR Information Center at (651) 296-6157 or toll free 1-888-MINNDNR (646-6367).

Back to top

Fishing Opener update: Public water access conditions vary due to late ice-out

DNR Reports
Minnesota boaters will find a variety of conditions at public water accesses for the May 10 fishing opener, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
The DNR Division of Trails and Waterways is making a special effort to ensure all DNR boat launches are ready by the opener, said Nancy Steward, the Public Water Access Program coordinator. She noted, however, that repairs to access sites depend on the weather and ice-out, which has been running two weeks behind normal.
“Most public accesses in the southern half of Minnesota will be in good condition and open for use,” Steward said. “Some lakes in the northern half of the state may still have ice, which poses a challenge in making repairs. It’s wise for boaters to check ahead for the latest report on the access they plan to use.”
Winter weather is always a challenge to Minnesota’s public water access, Steward noted. As ice expands during the winter months, it can push and buckle the concrete plank structures like an accordion. This phenomenon, called “ice jacking,” is caused by the pushing action of a lake’s ice sheet against the shore, which often leaves the boat ramp unusable. Crews repair damaged boat ramps by removing damaged planks and replacing them with new ones.
“Work crews are making good progress preparing public water accesses for the upcoming fishing season,” Stewart said. “However, many lakes still have ice that may hinder efforts to make repairs.”

Stewart offers these suggestions for the opener:
• plan to be patient and prepared at public water accesses and use extra care while launching and loading boats
• inspect the ramp condition before using it; some of the worst ramp damage can be below the water line
• in case your favorite lake access is unusable, be prepared to try another public access
• operate boats carefully because there could be free-floating ice sheets on some lakes.
In addition to repairing ramps, as time allows, DNR crews install docks at many accesses to assist boaters in launching and boarding watercraft.
For public water access maps, boating information and lake ice-out status, go to the DNR Web site at www.mndnr.gov. Boaters who encounter problems should contact the local DNR office or call the DNR Information Center at (651) 296-6157 or 1-888-MINNDNR (646-6367).

Back to top

Some 500 volunteers plant trees along Gunflint Trail

ALONG THE GUNFLINT TRAIL, Minn. (AP) – An overnight snowfall complicated but did not stop a major reforestation project along the Gunflint Trail in northeastern Minnesota.
An estimated 500 volunteers from around the state gathered for the Gunflint Green Up, a project to plant around 75,000 pine seedlings in areas burned by a wildfire that broke out one year ago last weekend.
Two inches of new snow covered the target areas Saturday morning, making for slippery walking over the rocky terrain. But forestry experts said the added moisture will be good for the seedlings, and most of the snow melted as they day went on.
The Ham Lake fire burned nearly 120 square miles in northeastern Minnesota and western Ontario. It was rated the most destructive forest fire in Minnesota since 1918. It damaged or destroyed more than 130 structures in Minnesota, including six permanent homes and 22 seasonal cabins. But no one was killed or seriously injured.

Back to top

Minn. boy's death while hunting highlights need for safety

By Dan Nienaber
The Free Press of Mankato
MANKATO, Minn. (AP) – Being a sportsman himself, Tom Conroy understands the excitement and pounding pulse hunters feel when they finally find the prey they’re pursuing within the sights of their guns.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources information officer also knows how, if it isn’t kept in check, that adrenaline rush can lead to tragedy as it did recently when Anthony Klaseus of Belle Plaine accidentally shot and killed his son, Hunter, while hunting wild turkeys in Sibley County. A high school friend Conroy remembers as a safe and conscientious hunter had a similar experience about a decade ago.
Conroy happened to run across his old friend shortly after the man had shot another hunter while turkey hunting in southeastern Minnesota.
The man had been hunting on private land with permission and thought he was the only hunter on the property. But another hunter, decked out in camouflage and carrying a turkey decoy over his back at ground level, passed through the woods near Conroy’s friend.
He was sure he was seeing a tom turkey in his sights when he pulled the trigger, seriously wounding the trespasser.
Minnesota turkey hunters are only allowed to shoot toms, the male of the turkey species, which can be identified by his “beard,” a hair -like appendage on his breast.
“It really points out how even a very careful hunter, if he or she has a lapse of attention and doesn’t identify the turkey, can make a mistake,” Conroy said. “Until you see that beard, don’t shoot. In the excitement of the moment, the adrenaline is pumping and, with just a lapse of judgment for a split second, this could happen.
“Turkey hunting is so exhilarating. You’re following the sound of the tom for a half mile. You hear him getting closer. You’re so locked in waiting for the bird to appear that, when you see something move, you automatically think it’s a turkey.
Unfortunately, if you pull the trigger before absolute identification, it’s too late.”
Despite the tragedy near Belle Plaine, turkey hunting in Minnesota is a relatively safe sport. There have been 15 turkey hunting incidents involving serious injury and Hunter Klaseus’ death was the first turkey hunting-related fatality in the state, said Capt. Rod Smith, DNR southern region enforcement manager.
Hunters move around the woods in camouflage instead of the blaze orange clothing required for deer hunting, but they are required to identify the turkey they are shooting as a male. They also use shotguns, which have a more limited range than the high-powered rifles used by deer hunters.
Turkey hunting has been legal in Minnesota for about 30 years, since the DNR started aggressively stocking turkeys in southern Minnesota. Prior to the late 1960s and early 1970s, the bird had been hunted nearly to extinction in the state.
The turkey populations have grown rapidly since then, as have the number of people hunting, Smith said. Native to southeastern Minnesota, wild turkey populations now stretch as far north as Norman County in northern Minnesota and there are turkey hunting seasons in about three-quarters of the state, he said.
The season is split into several segments and the number of hunting permits is limited.
“With the explosion in popularity of turkey hunting, there hasn’t been a corresponding climb in accident numbers,” Smith said. “We contribute a lot of that to our hunter education programs.”
In Minnesota, anyone born after Jan. 1, 1980, is required to have a firearm certificate. The certificates are issued after safety training is completed.
The DNR also offers turkey hunting classes that give hunters safety tips, as well as tips on hunting the elusive birds.
There are higher numbers of turkey hunting accidents, when compared to other types of hunting, in other Midwestern states where permits aren’t limited, Smith said.

Back to top

© 2008 Outdoors Weekly (PK Outdoors, Inc.)