Walleye Opener Delayed Near Canadian Border

[LMITOUT]

Today in the paper: SD border waters open this weekend.

So in one breath they say, 'no, you can't fish in this particular location' and then in another 'go here to fish'.

Nobody sees how utterly ridiculous that is?

[DTro]

Don't you get it Lmit? There are no people in SD, there is no pressure there and the walleye fishing is really really bad.

[/sarcasm]

No reason there couldn't be a harvest and non-harvest season year round for all species. Geez if someone wants to go out and catch a few bass and let em go what is wrong with that?

[Scott M]

Like gobluem said, more social than biological. My wife's grandparents have a place on the Seagull River in Cook County, one of the traditional closure sites. Her grandpa said before they closed it in the early-90's (his recollection not mine), the river would be wall to wall people and the mouth of the river would be like bumper boats. Lots of people trying to snag a state record walleye (this is where the current state record is from).

Fight the MN Chamber of Commerce, not the DNR, on fishing seasons in Minnesota.

[LMITOUT]

Fight the MN Chamber of Commerce, not the DNR, on fishing seasons in Minnesota.

Yeah, I understand where the roadblock is (don't forget about the association of resorts), but the DNR could stop with the "protect the spawn" facade too.

But, we also can't forget about the Mississippi with its continuous season....not to mention you can fish two lines there. Apparently those fish aren't as susceptible to hooking mortality from trolling as they are throughout the rest of the state and their spawn doesn't need protection either. Smarter fish I guess....

If people can't get past the "protect the spawn" nonsense, then maybe it's time to split the state north/south and have different fishing regs.....make the line I-94 or something. Obviously the southern half of the state warms up quicker so the spawn will be over sooner. Right? There are already differing regs for the date to remove fish houses based on a line across the state so why not expand on that for other regs? The north can have the current date of two weeks prior to the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and the south can be four weeks prior.

Since some of us realize that the fishing opener is a social (money) issue, then just think of the income that the bait shops south of the line would get that they aren't getting now. Yes, I know you can fish for other species now, but we all know which fish gets the boat out of the driveway. They could be selling gallons of boat gas, bait that you have to throw out after one trip because of ridiculous bait bucket regs, and all the snacks and other miscellaneous items that people buy on their way to the lake. They would essentially be getting another two weeks of sales that they aren't getting now. It's time to spread the wealth!