Outdoors

New regulations for catching and keeping northern pike will be the most significant change anglers will see when they open up the 2018 Minnesota Fishing Regulations Booklet being distributed throughout the state.

“Anyone who wants to keep pike in Minnesota’s inland waters needs to take a close look at these regulations and be prepared to measure the pike they want to keep starting on the Saturday, May 12, fishing opener,” said Al Stevens, fisheries program consultant with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

The new fishing regulations have three distinct zones to address the different characteristics of pike populations in Minnesota. While not designed to manage for trophy pike, the new regulations are meant to restore pike populations for better harvest opportunities across the state for sizes that make good table fare, up to around 28 inches or so.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officers will be reminding anglers about the upcoming deadline to remove their ice fishing shelters. In addition, they will remind them to do their part in keeping lakes clean by picking up trash, even if it doesn’t belong to them.
Structures must be off lakes in the northern third of the state, by the end of the day March 19.

Minnesota fishing, hunting and trapping licenses for 2017 expire Wednesday, Feb. 28, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Licenses for 2018 are now available wherever hunting and fishing licenses are sold, online at mndnr.gov/buyalicense and by telephone at 888-665-4236. All 2018 fishing licenses become effective Thursday, March 1. New licenses are required for 2017 hunting and fishing seasons that continue past Feb. 28.

This year license fees increase by $3 for a resident individual angling license, and fees also increase for other license types including deer hunting licenses, sports licenses and lifetime licenses.

License fees support the ongoing work of DNR fish, wildlife and enforcement staff to conserve, enhance and protect our waters, fields and forests.

Results of the 2018 moose survey indicate the moose population in northeastern Minnesota remains stable but relatively low for the seventh year in a row, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
“While the population appears stable, low numbers of moose are still a major concern for the DNR,” said DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr. “We continue to pursue the best science, research and management tools available to us to help Minnesota’s moose.”
The 2018 aerial moose survey estimated 3,030 moose in northeastern Minnesota, statistically unchanged from last year’s estimate of 3,710.
The survey is statistically sound, but there is inherent uncertainty associated with such surveys, because researchers will never see and count all of the animals across the 6,000 square mile survey area.
Statistically, the DNR is 90 percent certain that the population is between 4,140 and 2,320 moose.

Carl Skustad of Ely. Photo by Burgess Eberhardt

by Tom Coombe -

I kept my eye on the horizon throughout the afternoon, watching a purple cloud line close in from the northwest. I sensed that something bad was about to unfold. We reached camp at around 5:00 in the afternoon. The canoe party I was guiding was blissfully unaware of the approaching storm. I urged them to spread out their tents as far from trees as the campsite permitted. The day had been calm and balmy, far from what was about to occur.
We were camped on Pickerel Lake near the northeast edge of Quetico Park in mid-August 1978, twenty-one years before the Great Blowdown of July 4th, 1999. The people in my party had a hard time responding to my urgent advice to use heavy boulders and Bungees to secure the corners of their tents in the evening lull before the storm.

FULL HOUSE in the ballroom at Fortune Bay Resort and Casino for this year’s Fun Run event which drew 1,000 registrations for the first time ever.

by David Wigdahl -

Steve Foss of Ely took a day off from guiding to put a couple of lake trout from Burntside Lake on the table.

Fishing report
by Captain Russ from Babe’s Bait & Tackle -

Drilling holes in the ice and setting stakes for the snowmobile trails on Shagawa Lake were John Parish, Bill Hane, and Roger Skraba. Staking of the area lakes is performed by volunteer members of the Ely Igloo Snowmobile Club - the first snowmobile club in the USA. Photo by Ward Nelson