Bar Stool Biology

As I've previously said here, and countless times over the years, I think our Minnesota DNR is second to none. There is no disputing how wildlife/deer managers have created, generally, pretty good deer hunting in Minnesota compared to where things were prior to the early 70's. Walleye fishing, along with muskie hunting, has never been better in more Minnesota lakes than ever. Unprecedented walleye and muskie populations swim in many smaller lakes in Minnesota these days, due to great stocking and management efforts by our DNR biologists, no doubt. They deserve credit.

But all that said, sometimes the label, coined by DNR fisheries and wildlife staff over the years, "bar stool biologist" can hold some weight. Sometimes, hands on experience versus sitting behind a computer creating and studying "management/population models", needs to be respected. "Facts" cranked out of a computer and some not disputable realities can be far different.

A couple of examples of those differences stand out, in my opinion, on Lake Mille Lacs.

First, walleye catch rates in recent years, especially this open water season, show a healthy population. No doubt? DNR numbers show the same. No doubt? The harsh reality is, today's numbers are not apples to apples anymore with the past. Not only are walleye fishermen fishing better, thus catching a higher percentage of the fish they pass over, but they have been forced to fish where they never have in the past. Annual harvest numbers from the past never had to include open water/basin trolling. Past harvest levels never included 24/7 fishing on the mudflats in the winter. Annual harvest levels never included significant pressure for walleyes during the months of July and August. And other differing examples are prevelant. All of this newly added to the real world at Lake Mille Lacs in the past 20 years or so. Some just the past 5 years. So, can one doubt, as a "bar stool biologist", the positive numbers the DNR computers spit out?

Now here is, no matter from a bar stool or not, a questionable subject at Lake Mille Lacs. Although DNR biologists proclaim otherwise, many are concerned about the one time world class muskie fishing on the big lake. For around 3 years, muskie hunters, many being very avid and experienced, are finding nothing, for the most part. Peak times in classic muskie water have and are producing, for the most part, zero muskie sightings, let alone catches. The DNR says "they are there in good numbers, but now they live in the open water, not in the shallows in the heat of the summer". Say what? Muskies not relating to weeds or rock in the heat of the summer? MOST of them? All of a sudden, in a 3 year span, because, as the DNR says, a bigger tulibee population, the fish changed their entire life style? WHERE do muskies, exclusively, live AWAY from weeds and or rock structure on this continent--even in waters that have big tulibee/cisco populations? And if they are in the open water, how can countless miles of trolling crankbaits for walleyes, some being 5-6 inches long, avoid catching a number of muskies. (Yes, one is caught once in a while--but more were caught by walleye anglers years back BEFORE this DNR so called muskie life style change) I will stand on a bar stool and question the DNR biologists on the Lake Mille Lacs muskie population numbers, no doubt!