Aquaculture

[Riverratpete]

OK. I'll throw it out there..I'm happy to see Dennis Anderson threw the Aquaculture people under the bus. I don't generally agree with Mr. Anderson but I believe he hit this one on the head. It's been my suspision for the past few years that the minnow business is one of the problems we have in this state when it comes to water degradation when they keep putting minnows into water that shouldn't have them, don't ya think we have enough water to raise minnows without screwing up every piece of decent waterfowl water? I really think that its a bunch of hooey that they can just dump bait into a piece of water without notifying the other land owners as long as they have a permit, This issue I believe has to come under a LOT more scrutiny because it seems to me that theres alot of things being done by the DNR/Aquaculture that the general public is not aware of. Just my 2 cents.

[Mark Christianson]

I am in the situation, where our family owns 1/4 of a traditionally very good duck slough. One of the other owners of the slough is allowing a bait dealer to dump minnows and trap them each year now.

Nice, real nice. Not a dang thing we can do about it either.

I think its time I purchase some Pike(of course following regs), and stock them in the same slough to chow on those same minnows!

[ChuckN]

How much I love to have bait, I still think this is a horrible situation. Now it gets to the point where I see just about every single slough/pond/small lake all over Otter Tail County is a minnow raising slough. There are irrigation units, roads to all these sloughs and every time there is a snow fall these ponds are plowed clean to keep the sunlight going through the ice to help oxygen levels up for the minnows.

There are no freshwater shrimp anymore and all the pond important resources for ducks are going down the drain. It's getting worse every year!!

[BLACKJACK]

I'd like to see some research done on this. Everybody keeps blaming 'the minnows in the duckpond' but is it really a problem? I've talked to several bait guys and they say that the minnows have always been there. The duck guys say one thing and the bait guys say another - which is it?

I personally think our lack of ducks is due to loss of water. In my lifetime (I'm 48) I've seen lots of drainage, I could show you a dozen cornfields that used to be duck ponds. Even the ones that are left, they keep nibbling at the edges, every fall you see big backhoes and dozers doing their dirty work. You can't blame farmers, they have to make a living too, if they're paying taxes on some land, they'll try to make some income off of it.

[Riverratpete]

True, they do keep draining wetland to raise another bushel of corn. The problem I believe with the minnows is that they eat everything to get bigger thus leaving nothing for the ducks plus when you add the sucker minnows in there to stir up the bottom and cut off the sunlight, well... Ducks don't eat fish. they eat invertabra,vegetation and grains. when these waters are used to raise minnows the minoows eat all the invertabrae and stir up the bottom, killing the vegetation. I'm not saying to stop raising minnows because I do a heck of a lot more fishing then duck hunting but cripes the way its going I'm even thinking about bailing out of duck hunting after 30 some odd years. too much work,too much money for too little return.

[Sartell Angler]

sick of seeing this too...the DNR needs to crack down on these little bait dealing enterprises and force them to either dig their own ponds or use large tubs of some sort.

SA/wdw

[Dean Schellinger]

Quote:

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I'm even thinking about bailing out of duck hunting after 30 some odd years. too much work,too much money for too little return.

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Com'on now guy, its not that bad, you need to do a little more work, but can still get the ducks. It is a great sport that with that attitude would be gone already. We need support from all fronts here to save the sport. Fishing is great but there is more out there.

[Riverratpete]

I would agree because that there more than fishing out there. I love nothing more than sunrise over the slough but it's getting to be where between the land developers, farmers draining sloughs, raising sucker minnnows in every piece of water, over crowding on the water, that our sport is in BIG trouble in this state. I'm more than willing to fight for my right to party and all that but we need to get some people(gov/land owners)on our side here.