Effect of seining on lakes

[MattL]

Hey guys I've been a long time reader of this forum and have gotten some good information from it. Now I joined because of something that sparked my curiosity...One of the lakes that I've been fishing this winter has been seined. They came once and all of the houses in the area disappeared, now they moved to another area of the lake, not far from me. I have been told by some of the "old timers" out there that seining greatly affects the behavior of game fish...What do all of you guys out there think?

[Shack]

Good topic!

I figure it could have some impact. Never thought about it.

Welcome to FM

[tisosy11]

What is this - I'm not familiar with the process?

[Eric Wettschreck]

Seining does effect the behavior of game fish, but not for very long, couple days at the most.

Seining is actually good for a lake in the long run. It gets rid of some of the rough fish.

[MattL]

Yea...that is exactly what I was thinking. I just wanted to get some more opinions.

One theory that I thought up was that the rough fish stir up the vegetation, which disrupts insects and plankton, this in turn attracts panfish and baitfish...

But like you said it most definately has a positive effect in the long run.

[Sandmannd]

Welcome aboard Matt.

I'm curious as well as to what seining is. I've never heard of it.

[V-12 Merlin]

They cut a big hole in the ice, throw down a big net and that's all I know. They're supposed to be going for rough fish - I think they make pet food out of them.

They did it at least once last winter on our lake. As long as they're just chasing rough fish, they can do it as often as they like, in my opinion.

[tisosy11]

AH yes - I thought it had something to do with netting fish...never seen it done in the winter though.

[Eric Wettschreck]

There are different ways of doing it. One way is to, as described, cut a big hole in the ice, drop down a net, hang out for a while, pull the nets, sort out all the game fish, keep the rough fish.

Surprisingly, there is fairly good money to be made in this. It's quite a bit of hard work and you need some good equipment, but the guys I know that do this are quite successful. Buffalo bring in the best money. Carp will sell but for not as much. My pals deliver them, alive, to fish markets in Chicago. Some of them get transported to the East Coast.

[Bigeye30"]

Boilerguy's got it,

It's commercial fishing, they are licensed through the state and have some pretty tough regulations that need to be followed, one being all game fish caught must be released back to their native water, so no their not keeping all the big walleyes for themselves, they also have to call into the DNR and report where they will be putting their nets, which lake they can be found on, that's just a few of the simpler rules, from my understanding is the DNR puts lakes up for licensing, only one company per lake,and that license is alloted for so long, I believe if the company recieves to many violations they can loose the lake, so their is quite a bit at stake for them to abide as well as help the fishery as a whole, I've talked to them quite a bit recently as I know there are alot of uniformed people that believe they go in and drag a net across the entire lake killing everything in there, that's no where near the truth, these guys first go out and spend large amounts of time just running sonar to locate the schools of rough fish, if everything lines up right, they will sein, usually they run a large c pattern of nets, this allows them to pull from one end and the other, pushing the fish into the middle, they do cut a large size hole, usually near shore to be able to take the fish out, that are in the nets, It's truly amazing to watch this process, most of the time they'll cover about one third of a bay in an area, and to see the amounts and different species of fish come out of there is eye opening, as always game fish do get caught, but as mentioned before they are released, know statistically I don't have an answer on survival, but I will say this, the amount of rough fish per game fish far favors the rough fish, I'm a firm believer in this practice as this definately helps slow the populations of rough fish, which we all know prosper in alot of lakes, near the point of running the game fish out. If you ever get the chance stop by when there pulling,

As far as the effect on fishing, I would say yes,short term only, the bottom gets stirred up in the area that they fish and the fish are stressed as well, I wouldn't fish an area that has recently been seined, but that wouldn't stop me from fishing that lake, just have to look elsewhere, I can attest to this, I fish a lake that got seined this fall, as well as January and know yesterday, all different areas of the lake, for me personally my catch rates have not been effected, I fished the area where they seined this fall and caught plenty of healthy looking fish, I know this is a long post but I also have heard many times the negative aspect of this style of fishing, I must say after a little education into this matter, I'm all for it.

It's kinda strange to think we have an abundance of fish that gets shipped elsewhere, New York, Chicago etc that people won't eat here, I often wonder what the other states ship us, who knows maybe lobster isn't really supposed to be that good.

[tisosy11]

Nice Post Bigeye

[rockman]

MattL,welcome to fishingminnesota.com.Great topic.

[NCLaker]

Great post Bigeye - thanks for taking the time to educate.

I live in an area with a lot of lakes, and have never seen this being done. Would be a cool site to see.

[MattL]

Bigeye, I believe that we are talking about the same lake. I agree that this is very good for the lake in the long run. I was just wondering about the short term effects, because I have been fishing the area they just set up this weekend with good luck recently, I've been busy with school so I dont have much time to fish during the week. I fish most of the time on the weekends and I am not sure if I should move first thing friday or stick it out possibly wasting time.

Thanks for putting the time into the lengthy reply and educating us all more about the seining process.

[Bigeye30"]

Could be, Big Jeff? I wouldn't be overly concerned if your out a little deeper, in the group just to the south of them i'm guessing? They ran their net from where they set up out in the middle, to the shore, I wouldn't worry about your location if that's where your at,I think those houses are plenty far, but I will say the fish in that lake move alot, if you saw a brown house where they pulled that was me, ya moved there Sat eve, fished that night and then they came and told me they were going to sein, so I moved again, If it was me I just wouldn't fish the area the net went through for a few days, they do tear up some weeds,(Curly Pond Invasive) along the route, but just near there, is all good untouched vegetation and lots of fish looking for a new home and food source, just my two cents on it

[MattL]

Yup, same general area, but away from that crowd aways in shallower water. I am still debating a move though because the high schoolers have moved in to that crowd to drink and I dont like the idea of a million cars driving by all night long!

[Bigeye30"]

LOL, ya I noticed that this weekend, snowmobiles, four wheelers, cars and trucks with loud exhaust,all night, I must confess, I can't say much cause that was me at one point, so I let em do their thing, I just learn to setup away. I can certainly tell you one spot that didn't work out like planned, and that's where I'm at know.. I have one more last run before the season closes up, and one more untouched area to target. Good Luck

You targeting pannies or eyes?

[Tom7227]

I've seen this done on open water - the St. Croix at Prescott and a lake in Iowa when I was down there pheasant hunting. The size and volumn of the fish was just incredible. The work looked to be extremely hard and I can't imagine doing it in the winter.

How do they deploy the net on hard water?

[MattL]

Ya, I'm in the same boat as you on this one...I was the same way a few years ago when I was in high school and I am sure in a few years all of them will feel the same as we do. I just make sure to try and set up aways from them whenever possible as well.

I have been fishing deeper water for crappies lately, and doing alright until recently..but now I moved shallower over the weekend hoping to find some walleyes...

Sorry to all that this thread got off topic.

[Spice1]

We have been having a discussion on this lately in the rochester area forum. They have seined for 3 weeks thus far on Lake Byllesby and are done until spring, but I sat there and watched for over an hour. Really neat watching. Check it out...page 2 halfway down the page.

Lake Byllesby Thread on Seining

[icehousebob]

One of the lakes on the Minn. SoDak border was recently seined and the guys that I know that fish it regularly say the fishing has turned off. Last word was a week ago, I don't know how long it will stay off. My spies will keep me informed.....

[Sandmannd]

Great post Bigeye, that clears it up for me and then some.

[swampman]

my dad was a inland commercial fisherman for 35 yrs. I worked with him full time for 10 yrs. there are two types of inland commerial fisherman seiners and hoopnetters some do both we just hoopnetted which is basically a net designed for bullheads. you set them leave them for a few days and then empty them. Seinging like bigeyes stated starts with the guys sonaring for a school of rough fish. if a decent sized school is located they will make a haul. the first part in the process is to get a rope run under the ice in the pattern the net will be pulled. this is done by drilling a line of holes in the ice and using a running board under the ice from hole to hole with a long rope attached to the end this is done around the whole area the net will be pulled. there are two large holes made in the ice one being the "put in hole" where the sein is pulled in which is usually straight out from the "take out hole" near shore. the net is pulled both ways from the take out hole by pulling on the ropes that are strung under the ice and attached to the net. the sein is pulled in a pattern similar to which bigeys stated except a little squarer pattern there are corner holes where something similar to a pulley attached to a pole is placed under the ice where the net changes directions. In the middle of the sein is whats called the bag where all the fish will eventually end up. most seins the guys use are about 20 ft deep.

There are'nt many of these guys left there used to be about 20 in the whole state so everybody kind of new everybody else. All the fisherman have a assigned area to fish with certain lakes in that area. Biggest one time hall I saw was 250,OOO# of carp on buffalo lake by a fisherman out of waterville. As stated buffalo fish are the one fish that is worth some decent money carp and bullheads the price has,nt changed alot in 30 yrs. I can guarntee you none of these guys have gotten rich doing this all of them have other sources of income.

The guy fishing big jefferson you guys are talkin about is "mert" out of elysian mn unless the areas han changed been out of the game for over 12 yrs so some things might have changed . sorry this is so long. any questions I can help with i will be happy to answer.

[rockman]

Great post,swampman, giving real deal info. from someone who has actually done it.

[NCLaker]

Getting a condensed version of this hole (couldn't resist the punn) process and seeing the haul and fish sorting would be a very cool video to see on this site or youtube .... maybe we could convince swampman to write to "Dirty Jobs" Discovery Channel TV series - that would be awesome. With his connections perhaps he could hook them up with one of the local operators.

I would have loved to see what 250,000 pounds of netted fish looks like, or better yet, watch all the trophy sport fish that are being returned back to the lake.