Tribal Walleye Spearing

[xcskier_hunter]

At least with the walleyes the debate is between two groups of people both mainly interested in eating them. The musky spearing is a bit more interesting as nearly all serious musky fishermen practice catch and release for a fish that can take upwards of 20 years to reach 50 inches and have been documented to live over 30 years. Still, it's not really worth making much noise about spearing it as it tends to motivate additional harvest out of spite. Also, it is the negotiated right for the tribe to do this, so without renegotiation there is little to be done.

To me what's particularly problematic is that there are no quotas or data on fish speared through the ice, which, at least for muskies, can often result in greater harvest than spring season. At minimum this should be tracked and the harvest totals made available to the public. Part of the issue with a lot of the spearing is that harvest totals are difficult to locate. I'm sure some of this is purposeful due to how contentious the topic has been historically, with protesters at boat landings and shots fired near spearfishers.

Working to solve the decline in natural reproduction of both walleyes and muskies in WI would also be helpful, as stocking is more of a band-aid solution that's failing to keep up anyways.

 

[manitou1]

Federal government does not have authority to regulate hunting/fishing in the states due to the 10th Amendment and Martin v. Waddell, 41 US 367 (1842). However, Wisconsin was a Federal territory in 1837– it did not attain statehood until 1848. Further, Art. 1, Sec. 10 of the Constitution puts treaties under the sole purview of the Federal government. As Federal law, treaty obligations trump otherwise applicable state law.

Same here in WY but it became a state in 1890.
No limits, no season, no license required on game.

Heck, my ancestors here had no game regulations either... so why can't we hunt without regs or a draw? Just a point to ponder.

It's not like they don't have access to grocery stores like the rest of us.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Grew up spending much of my summers at a resort on Mille lacs that was owned by family. A couple of decades fighting about regs and frustrations with native take and res issues soured them on their home and livelihood. They live in they keys now..

 

[seeth07]

I guess the main point of me reacting to this news article with a thread is just simply that it makes no sense to me that the tribe Spear numbers keeps going up each year while the sportsman regulations keep getting tighter. Favoring a small percentage with the best method of take. It's would be like saying all landowners in Montana with over 5k acres get rifle mule deer tags and can hunt the whole month of November and everyone else gets archery tags and can only hunt September.

 

[Treeshark]

I get what you’re saying, @seeth07- I often harbor those same thoughts.

However, the “it’s not fair” doctrine is a very slippery slope with this one- if we start peeling that onion back, we really may not like what we find.

 

[rjthehunter]

Grew up spending much of my summers at a resort on Mille lacs that was owned by family. A couple of decades fighting about regs and frustrations with native take and res issues soured them on their home and livelihood. They live in they keys now..

It's all a money grab. It's sad. Resorts on Mille Lacs are hurting right now. All summer was the inability to keep any walleye. Now they're going to let people take 2. It's been at least 5 years where you could maybe keep 1 fish - sometimes.

Natives net the lake, take thousands and thousands of pounds of walleye. It's killing local resorts. What used to be a booming lake, but it's turned into a political pawn.

If you're going to give the advantage of netting fish, let's make it out of dugout canoes powered by a paddle so the fish have a chance. When a fish hits a gill net, they're dead. There's no catch and release, or slot limit to control anything.

 

[Bonasababy]

Grew up spending much of my summers at a resort on Mille lacs that was owned by family. A couple of decades fighting about regs and frustrations with native take and res issues soured them on their home and livelihood. They live in they keys now..

Tell them it's turned into a world class musky and smallmouth fishery now. Not because of native harvesting--because of zebra mussels, warming climate/waters, and other things. Still plenty of walleyes though. This was a mesotrophic lake where you couldn't see down too far which helped walleyes but the changes from both zebras and water quality have made the water much clearer at deeper depths than before and more favorable to sight fishers like smallies and muskies (some big pike too).

Of course they would know the state had something negotiated with the band there way back when, but a rogue sportsmans group and then the legislature (mostly but not all republicans) killed that deal.

In terms of how much authority the bands have on what they take, had that deal been allowed to be reached the situation would have been more tolerable for many all these years. Their refusal to compromise does not garner nearly enough blame from folks complaining today.

This year there was no harvest of walleyes allowed --catch and release only and no night fishing--until last week when you can take 2 (I think their original plan was lower but they upped it after estimates of loss earlier were lower than projected). One of those can be big the others in a narrow slot.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Tell them it's turned into a world class musky and smallmouth fishery now. Not because of native harvesting--because of zebra mussels, warming climate/waters, and other things. Still plenty of walleyes though. This was a mesotrophic lake where you couldn't see down too far which helped walleyes but the changes from both zebras and water quality have made the water much clearer at deeper depths than before and more favorable to sight fishers like smallies and muskies (some big pike too).

Of course they would know the state had something negotiated with the band there way back when, but a rogue sportsmans group and then the legislature (mostly but not all republicans) killed that deal.

In terms of how much authority the bands have on what they take, had that deal been allowed to be reached the situation would have been more tolerable for many all these years. Their refusal to compromise does not garner nearly enough blame from folks complaining today.

This year there was no harvest of walleyes allowed --catch and release only and no night fishing--until last week when you can take 2 (I think their original plan was lower but they upped it after estimates of loss earlier were lower than projected). One of those can be big the others in a narrow slot.

Tell them... LOL. I grew up thinking I wanted to be a Musky guide in the late 90s because of my time musky fishing there then. They kept their resort full for years after there wasn't a realistic prospect of a walleye meal. You ever spend any time on the lake in the 90s and early 2000's and again in recent years and seen the different counts of boats on the lake? Lots of musky and smallie guiding and related resort customers but it's a drop in the bucket compared to what the lake used to draw. For the record, i'm not saying the walleye population dynamics are solely a function of native harvest but they aren't not impacted by harvest during the spawn.

Curious about what you're referring to the state having had negotiated with the Band?

[Edit to add after more reflection: I think my aunt/uncle's focus on native take and dwelling on it did them in as much as anything. So much anger and frustration on something that just wasn't going to go how they wanted. I'd hate to discourage anyone to not take positions on such wildlife management issues but be careful to not let it consume you to where you no longer want anything to do with something you love. It didn't help non-tribal satisfaction when thousands of them who were used to living adjacent to the reservation found themselves within the borders of the res when court decisions expanded it by 50 some thousand acres recently]

 

[Gellar]

Tell them... LOL. I grew up thinking I wanted to be a Musky guide in the late 90s because of my time musky fishing there then. They kept their resort full for years after there wasn't a realistic prospect of a walleye meal. You ever spend any time on the lake in the 90s and early 2000's and again in recent years and seen the different counts of boats on the lake? Lots of musky and smallie guiding and related resort customers but it's a drop in the bucket compared to what the lake used to draw. For the record, i'm not saying the walleye population dynamics are solely a function of native harvest but they aren't not impacted by harvest during the spawn.

Curious about what you're referring to the state having had negotiated with the Band?

All the resorts across the north woods have had to change or close since the 90s. The days of the good ol boys annual fishing trips that kept those iconic north woods lodges in business is no more. During COVID while Canada was still shut down we went to a place on Vermillion and I’d guess that 1/2 of the guests were there to fish and 1/2 of those fished every day. The others were families there to relax, swim, tube, and do off water outdoor activities in the area.

If the old resorts haven’t changed they’ve died.