Mille Lacs Muskies . . . Part Two: "The Aftermath"
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2024
- From even caught muskies in seven consecutive casts . . . to wondering if you will ever catch another Mille Lacs muskie again! In this video Josh Borovsky, Gregg Thomas, Luke Ronnestrand, and Lee Tauchen discuss the rise and fall of Mille Lacs Lake musky fishing.
They tell their stories including highlights from some of their best days on the water when the lake was at its best . . . along with what is was like to be there when the bite died and they were forced to leave the lake they had committed their lives to . . . along with economic impact on the area and how other fisheries were effected.
Special thanks to Gregg, Lee and Luke for doing this video. You can find more content from them at the following links . . .
Gregg Thomas
/ @muskyhuntermagazine8316
Lee Tauchen
/ @todaysangler
Luke Ronnestrand
/ iflukewasonsocialmedia
Josh another great video on Mille Lacs.
1st video was number and fact based, this video adds the human experiences.
Mille Lacs has an unbelievable history of muskie and walleye fishing. It is really disappointing to see how MNDNR is managing the lake.
I will be watching for the next in your series.
Though I lived in MN, I missed this window of catching a lot of muskies on Mille Lacs, except for the Hartman tourney day. My cousin & I drove up that day not knowing there was a tourney on the south end. Seeing that, we spent an hour or so trying to get the boat of the trailer in the big wind. We did end up out of Wealthwood and I boated 3 fish in the mid 40's range all on a stomper. We dumped 2 others but I will never forget "winning" the tourney. The fish were literally launching themselves out of the wave behind the one the bait was on and flying down to engulf the lure. That image will never be erased from my memory. I wish that body of water could be brought back to a similar resemblance of the early 2000's.
Yes 2008 was the year. I took multiple trips a summer there from 2003-2012. When you go from 28 fish weeks to 2 fish weeks you know there are issues. I wish my son Fischer who was born in 2008 would have experienced that.
The management of fisheries these days often seems to fit the needs of lake home owners more than the people that actually come to the lake to fish and support the local community. The property owners are not good managers.
Also have skin in game as cabin owner on Vermilion- I promise with increasing pressure - If stocking numbers decrease it will be the next mil lacs - let’s not let this happen …
It seems like a reasonable plan for MN muskie stocking would be to try to maintain two premiere muskie lakes: Mille Lacs and Vermilion. 10000 fingerlings in alternate years should be doable (Mille Lacs gets em even years and Vermilion gets em odd years), based on the MN hatchery capacity.
Fun (and sad) video, Josh. I am left thinking that to fully flush out this story, you should chat with a MN DNR biologist, preferably someone on the muskellunge management team. What this whole case study reflects, I suspect, is a difference in values and priorities. Anglers wanting a certain catch rate (not necessarily size) and biologists wanting to manage for self-sustaining populations and trophy-class fish (ie, catch rates need not apply).
This is the quote you paraphrased in the video from the recent 2021 Mille Lacs management plan, “The MN DNR received little input about muskellunge during the input process, suggesting general satisfaction with the status quo.” This seems to reflect a failure on the muskie community for not rallying enough to have their voices heard OR lots of people spoke up but *relatively speaking* the input was just far below that of other stakeholders. It seems hard to believe that MN muskie anglers didn’t speak up enough given how damn near sacred this place was to many, but without more explanation from the MN DNR it’s unclear what happened there or why the DNR would make that statement (unless I missed data from their survey?).
Anyway, interesting series. I fished ML with Gregg in 2007 and had fun on it. No giants but we caught some fish and had a good time. Those north end sand flats were somethin else!
Great video.
Awesome video! Very informative. I wish I could have witnessed that lake in her hey day
I’m planning to book a trip next week Jan 28th 2022
Never been to MN and this was to be my trip of a lifetime
Hard to describe how disheartening it is to listen to these stories
I don’t know where to go now. I was planning on vermilion
Just wait a couple of years and there will be a video just like this about Green Bay. Wisconsin DNR has dropped the ball stocking Green Bay. Just this year they are trying to stock more fish. They went from peak stocking levels of 33,000 in 2003 and around 20,000 in 2004, 2005 & 2006 down to less than 5,000 from 2007 through present. The Bay of Green Bay is 1,040,640 Acres. at 5,000 fish that is one fish for 208 acres! The DNR blames it on VHS, however, they put minimal effort into figuring out how to clean the eggs of VHS. They did try to start 3 new broad stock lakes but those still aren't producing any eggs. In the mean time the ponds built for raising musky at Wild Rose were gobbled up for raising walleye and now we still have low numbers of musky being raised.
dropping the ball is all the wisconsin DNR does. its taken them this long to attempt to solve the walleye problem they created, and they are doing it by creating a musky problem. meanwhile they have let perch populations be destroyed by home owners and wont take bluegill and crappie populations seriously.
Great show guys waiting to hear about vermillion I hope the Minnesota DNR listens to this it’s a shame to hear what happened to the Muskies and the resorts and the guides
I was there for the 2006/07 bonanza. Will never see anything like that again I'm sure. Nice to see my friend faces! Miss you guys! When/if you're in DL let me know! Would love to see you guys and have a beer or several, lol. Or, just fish. Have enough room for all, xo
There are 50lb fish caught every year on mill lacs, not 10 a day, but they are still there
All lies. There are no fish.
Making me wish I was born 15 years earlier
Crazy stories
Its like Luke said. It was amazing, generated so much money for the state and local businesses and its sad that the MN dnr doesn't even care that its gone. They won't stock any more muskies, all they care about is fn walleyes. I dont understand why you can't stock more muskies and still stock the same crazy number of walleyes. Just 3000 every year instead of 3000 every other would be a huge step in the right direction.
Begs the question, could it happen again by mirroring the stockings that made it happen. Most agree a large part of it was the very low natural density combined with the lack of real pressure for the first 10 years following the initial stockings. Plus there is the theory that initial stockings have higher survival rates. Perhaps the actual numbers of fish yoday aren't quite as low as back then but in the big picture it can't be that much more. Stock the fish.....do it AGAIN!!!!