Every year it seems to get a little tougher to catch walleyes on Saganaga Lake. My own history of guiding on this majestic body of water has confirmed the notion that things are definitely changing for the worse. The lake can still be a worthy producer at times but it has a reputation for being a hard safe to crack.
When I started guiding 17 years ago the daily strategy was to catch a limit of eater-size walleyes in the morning and go “hawg” hunting in the afternoon for those giant females. This was a very obtainable goal for most of the summer. Fast forward a decade and the lake has changed. Saganaga is a big body of water between 17 and 18 thousand acres, depending on which data you are looking at and the United States only owns about half. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has stocked fry-sized walleyes for two consecutive years, but this will likely not be enough. Lately there has been a lot of “dock talk” about imposing a slot regulation for Saganaga Lake to help improve the population.
I try not to be too controversial of a guy, with an opinion that typically lands somewhere in the middle. I am much more comfortable in that gray area that falls short of a real opinion that I could someday be held accountable for. That being said, I do not know how I feel about this!
Ten years ago I would have shrieked at the very mention of a slot limit that could have devastated my guiding business but now my customers are happy with taking home fewer fish. I still have a lot of questions that I am going to ask the DNR before committing to any hard opinions and I encourage you to do the same. Steve Persons, the Area Fisheries Supervisor for the Gunflint area can be contacted at Steve.Persons@state.mn.us. He would like to hear our opinions.
The slot limit that would be supported by Persons would change the bag limit to four walleyes over 17 inches with one walleye over 20 inches. This is designed to protect the younger walleyes which are seemingly nonexistent in the shallow water net testing results.
The stocking efforts are still going to happen for another 15 years regardless of the regulations. The DNR will be stocking fry walleyes south of Blueberry Island again in 2013 and 2014. They plan to stock walleye for two consecutive years within every four year period.
Stocking fish is always a good start but the real problem is likely environmental and we could be prolonging the inevitable. Fry survival is crudely estimated to be 1,250 four-year-old survivors out of every million released. This equates to 1.5 fish per acre of water on Saganaga. The new regulations are still in the “talking” stages and there is still more information that needs to be collected. I will write about any new developments, if any, as they happen.
Cory Christianson has worked as a fishing guide on the Gunflint Trail since 2000. If you have any fishing or wildlife reports or stories to share, send an email to: christiansoncory@hotmail.com or call 218- 388-0315. You can also visit Cory’s website at Gunflintfishingguide.com.
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