You’re now allowed to bag walleyes on Mille Lacs. But can you catch them?

ISLE, MINN. – Two weeks after the state Department of Natural Resources loosened walleye regulations on Mille Lacs Lake to establish a welcomed two-fish bag limit, anglers are struggling to take advantage.

The trick is this: When the bag limit was zero, the fishing was pretty good. Now that it’s legal to catch and keep two of the fish, the prized table fare is proving difficult to hook.

“Catch rates haven’t been really high and that seems like it will continue,’’ said Brian Nerbonne, DNR regional fisheries manager in St. Paul.

Ben Glowacki, owner of Glowacki’s Resort on the west side of Mille Lacs, doesn’t disagree. But he’s hoping the fishing improves once the lake cools down and the walleyes relocate to their fall haunts. “Lately, the bite has been kind of tough,’’ he said.

The go-figure situation is a byproduct of the DNR’s ongoing struggle to establish walleye fishing regulations every spring that will keep Minnesota within its annual Mille Lacs harvest quota, as jointly set by the state and eight Ojibwe bands that maintain fishing rights. To prevent a possible overage this year, the DNR mandated that all walleyes caught between opening day and Aug. 16 be immediately released.

The annual balancing act is deemed necessary by biologists from both state and tribes to sustain the lake’s walleye population in the face of a decline.

As time went by this summer, the early-season regulation proved to be overly conservative. In late July, about 75% of the state’s quota was unused. The DNR planned all along to allow Mille Lacs anglers to keep one walleye beginning Aug. 16. But the agency loosened that rule to allow a two-fish bag limit with an angler-friendly harvest slot range of 18-20 inches.

Todd Ritter, who owns Highway 65 Bait Shop, said he was hoping for a bigger bump in business when the DNR expanded the catch-and-keep opportunity. But he and other business operators around the 207-square-mile lake said that while the change has lifted economic activity, it’s not the gold rush that some were hoping for.

Ritter said the initial rush on the weekend of Aug. 16-17 brought in lots of walleye anglers who accounted for 50% of his sales. When the regulation was catch-and-release, sales to walleye anglers represented about 20% of his daily revenue.

“I’ve owned this place since 2013 and two walleyes is the most anyone has been allowed to keep since then,” Ritter said.

Anticipating another rush for Labor Day weekend, he’s been scrounging for as many creek chubs and small sucker minnows as he can get. Along with crawlers and leeches, that’s what walleye anglers will be looking for.

“I’m expecting this holiday to be extra good with the new limit,” Ritter said.

Like other Mille Lacs area business owners, Ritter is hoping the unusual harvest opportunity boosts visitor traffic into October. But he also believes, like others, that the change in regulations arrived too late to impact the local economy in a sizable way — especially if the walleye bite doesn’t improve.

The DNR attributes the fishing doldrums to an unexpected explosion this year in the lake’s population of young perch, the primary forage species consumed by walleyes. As the reasoning goes, walleyes aren’t taking bait dangling from hooks because their bellies are full of perch.

The DNR has drawn rebukes for this year’s strategy, which incorrectly anticipated hot weather and decent fishing pressure. Nerbonne said the suddenly strong forage situation and a continuation of lower catch rates might allow the DNR to be “a little more aggressive” on setting next year’s harvest regulations.

Dean Fisher of Fisher’s Resort near Isle said his family’s fishing charter business has benefited from the late-season, two-walleye bag limit.

“We’ve seen a definite uptick in our launch business,” Fisher said. “This will help from here on out into the fall.”

But Fisher said he’s disappointed the DNR didn’t act more quickly to open the walleye harvest when trends were showing that it was safe for people to start keeping fish. “The DNR knew we were way under quota, so why not change the regulation earlier?” Fisher said.

Glowacki said boat landings around the lake were full on the weekend of Aug. 16-17. “A little like a late-season opening day,” he said.

But since then, he’s watched boat traffic drop off. “Hopefully the bite will pick up again this fall,” Glowacki said. “It’s not good for anglers, but honestly, perch abundance is great for the lake.”

Professional fishing guide Matt Quick, who grew up near Mille Lacs, said no one should be surprised that the unexpected windfall of a two-fish walleye bag isn’t drawing more anglers to Mille Lacs.

“It’s too bad because everyone’s summer plans were already made,” Quick said.

When he last fished the lake in July, he was impressed with the length and chunkiness of the walleyes he caught and released. He’s hoping for a loosening of restrictions in 2025.

Kevin McQuoid, the former owner of Mac’s Twin Bay Resort on Mille Lacs, said it’s not like walleyes are impossible to catch right now. He took his grandchildren fishing Sunday and they caught five keepers during a midday visit to gravel bars beyond Isle Bay.

Looking ahead, patrons of Mille Lacs will be watching for the DNR’s upcoming regulation for winter fishing. The bag limit traditionally gets announced during the first week of November. The current two-fish limit expires Dec. 1.

In September, DNR crews will conduct the agency’s annual fish-netting surveys to help estimate fish populations. The results will be included in the state-tribal analysis that takes place in January to set 2025′s safe-harvest allocation. Once decided, the DNR sets walleye fishing regulations for its Minnesota license holders. This year, rules were announced March 13.