Technology taking a toll on fish

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Deb Bently covering a story about the Waterville fish hatchery in the last edition of the Pioneer. I’m an avid fisherman and it gave me great joy to read the hatchery will be receiving a much overdue overhaul, and becoming better able to provide quality fishing in the future. I recently saw a picture of a 29.5-inch, ten-pound walleye caught in Waseca’s Clear Lake.

The fisherman can thank the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) for having stocking fingerling walleyes in Clear Lake, giving him the opportunity to catch the trophy of a lifetime.

The state finally gave the hatchery some much needed money to expand and improve an aging facility and bring it up to date, providing anglers with quality fishing in the future. Craig Soupir, supervisor at the Waterville area fisheries office and his staff are offering a roundtable open to the public from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 at the Mankato Country Inn & Suites. I’ll be there, anxious to hear about the hatchery update and MN DNR fishing projects scheduled in the near future.

The MN DNR really has a tremendous challenge to maintain quality fishing in the land of 10,000 lakes. The reason: the demand for more and better technology Minnesotan’s fishing boats. Most senior anglers, including myself, will not be stalking the fish electronically; we can’t figure out how to use the complex equipment.

I’d like to take a little time and write about specific examples of how technology affects our fish populations. Think of a beautiful winter day, no wind chill, a great day to be fishing outside on the ice. Three fishermen put down 25 holes in deep water on an area lake; they are targeting crappies, a fish that congregates in deep water. They turn on their Vexilar sonars and sure enough, the red marks give away the location of the fish. The fisherman drill more holes with their strike master lithium battery powered augers, which lets them put down holes in no time. Down a hole in the middle, the fishermen lower their Garmin live scope, a $3,000 piece of technology. They jump from hole to hole and soon a few fish are flopping on the ice. The school of fish is spooked and moves to a new location. No problem, a fisherman rotates the handle on the Garmin, and there they are, they’ve moved under other holes to the west. I just recently saw a picture of 30, ten- to twelve-inch crappies resting on the bottom of an otter sled. The fisherman fished with the Garmin live scope.

It won’t be long and spring will arrive. As the water warms the big sunfish begin spawning. The fish will build nests in shallow weed pockets or edges. A family of enthusiastic anglers, men and women, head out in their Lund fishing boat to target a meal of big gills. The boat sneaks along the edges of the weeds, powered by a front-mount Minkota trolling motor. The captain is busy reading his hummingbird graph equipped with side imaging. There they are, white bleeps 20 yards off, giving away the bed of spawning fish. No need to throw in an anchor, just hit spot lock on the trolling motor, the Lund is anchored. Soon 30 big sunfish are swimming in the boat’s live well.

It's a hot July day and a boat full of anglers is headed out, targeting walleyes on beautiful Rainy Lake. Rainy is a huge lake to the far north; up there, fish migrate to reefs during the summer. The boat heads out searching for one of the fish-active reefs on the huge lake. No problem, just read the lake chip in your depth finder, it will give you directions to any reef on Rainy. The DNR has a restriction on Rainy: Four walleyes under 18 inches per fisherman. The boat returns to Voyageur’s Landing with twelve beautiful restaurant walleyes.

Muskie angling has begun to deteriorate on some of the famous Minnesota lakes like Leech and Mille Lacs. Guides and resort owners are reporting dead muskies, a catch and release fish, floating on the water. The muskie used to be a fish of 10,000 casts, now maybe 10 casts. New technology, forward facing sonar, targets muskies in deep or shallow water. They have no place to hide. Catching more fish during the hot summer days has accelerated the hooking mortality of the slow growing, big fish.

The days of cane poles, putting down anchors, 14-foot fishing boats with 6-horsepower Evinrude motors are long gone. Perhaps the money our Waterville hatchery received from the state and future funding will give our MN DNR the resources it needs to maintain our state's quality fishing.

Expectations for MN DNR are higher than ever before in this new world of fishing technology. The department has many different tasks: the maintenance of highly used fishing landings, the never-ending battle against invasive species and surveys on our area lake fish populations. Education on how to release fish properly and catch and release conservation. No doubt, the MN DNR’s fishing rules handbook will grow thicker, with many more pages to read. Signs at regulated lakes will continue to be updated: only five sunfish or five crappies. I’m excited to see how MN DNR’s fish biologist will address ever changing technology. I’m a total optimist, I have faith in the MN DNR.