I see the tribes have declared they are going to spear the Minoqua chain guess 10 years of closure to rebuild the population and banning everyone else from keeping any was just a waste.
I got to thinking about the spearing issue in greater detail and did some research. consider these facts; In 2023 The MWC walleye circuit held 8 tournaments that spanned a total of 17 days. In those tournaments all anglers combined caught a total of 3,315 walleyes. and 99.4% were released. compare that to the 35,203 taken in just 10+ days...That has got to be the single most significant reason for the walleye decline in the Northern Wisconsin lakes.
35,203 walleyes taken as of 4/26 as reported by the outdoor news. most of those in the last 10 days. pretty disgusting when you think about it especially in the context of all of the efforts by sportsmen and conservation groups and nothing going back into the resource from the tribes, just take, take, take... take for today rather than walleyes for tomorrow, or next year or for our grandchildren who will also purchase a license to support the resource.
Absolutely correct trouter , just traveled thru 5 states and all have Native American casinos which including WI all start with the feds , as if casinos have anything to with treaty rights & the topic : Spearing Minocqua Chain .
Casinos have nothing to do with treaty rights. All Wisconsin tribes have casinos, but only Chippewa tribes have the specific treaty rights to spear lakes.
I heard from a good source that they speared the chain Friday night and last night. I don't know forcertain. Just what I was told. I guess we will find out shortly. But between all the tribes they have speared over 35000 walleyes. Just makes me sick .
It appears as if the walleye wagon has been in operation in Torpy Park for past several days, which would mean walleyes had to be spawning several days ago to obtain those eggs, which means it’s getting pretty late in the game for the tribes to spear (Lake Minocqua anyway) if they haven’t already. All in all it’s much ado about nothing. The whole premise of the closure was that closing harvest in concert with heavy stocking for 10 years would usher in a return of natural reproduction and self sustaining walleye populations. As far as I’m aware, there has not been any significant natural reproduction documented since the closure and I doubt lifting things a year early makes the difference. It most likely remains a stocked population.
Overzealous guiding practices are far, far more to blame for the decline of walleye in the minocqua chain than Native spearing. My family has had a cabin on Lake Tomahawk since the 50's. I've seen the whole process first hand. Run the numbers and it becomes impossible to dispute where the main blame lies.