Originally Posted by
Eyefisher
Ok so I'm gonna throw my .02cents in on this and I kow alot of you guys are probably not gonna like it but here goes......
alot of this stuff is speculation, as indians(doesn't matter what they look like!!) they have a right to use nets-period. If they use to many and get caught they pay the fine just like you or me if we get caught with to many lines in the water. Now the press release said 256lbs of fish, that doesn't seem like alot to me, at say 6lbs per fish thats about 35-40 fish. I know people that over the course of a weekend limit out multiple times in one day and take that many fish if not more, especially late in the year(october). I truly belive alot of this leaked info(and inflated info) is to get people worked up so the DNR can get some good press for a change instead of Swan Killing stories and busting in on hunting blind stories.
I fish out where these nets were set, about 100 yards away, I've seen them being pulled and far as I knew they were legal so I never paid to much attention. I fish pretty much everyday, for them to take 20,000lbs over a 2 month span would mean they would have to pull over 300 lbs a day(I never saw them out there 2 days in a row)---I have a hard time pulling up a 6lb fish by hand. How the heck would 2(most I ever saw out there) guys pull a 600 foot net with 300lbs of fish through the ice by hand??? maybe it can be done, I don't know, but that just seems like a big task for 2 men.
Now I'm not saying what they did was right(if they were illegal) and if they were then they should get fined. But to the use of nets, they are not a bad thing. There is a local guy(I'm sure some of you know him) he was the head DNR biologist for many many years. He actually started the pond rearing program and planting of Walleye back in the '70's--he knows more about fish and the bays de noc then probably anyone alive. We have talked about the Fishery on many occasions over the years and he will be the first to tell you that the Big and Little Bay are NOT HEALTHY right now, that(belive it or not) there are to many walleye and other predator fish(northern,splake) there is a reason we don't have perch in little bay any more, they are the new"bait fish" for the predator fish---all of the smelt and alwise are gone---so they need to eat something and that leaves perch. And in the Big Bay, you can't hardly find whitefish any more, all of thier spawning area's have been taken up by walleye.
He said this all has to do with the laws that were passed that pretty much ended commercial fishing, say what you want about the nets but how else can you control population of predator fish, and also garbage fish(carp,suckers etc.) there is no way. The DNR thought that with the boom in walleye fishing that peole with hook and line would be able to do it but it's not happening and the eco system of the bays are turning for the worse, if there is not enough food the walleye will leave. What he says is there needs to be a balance, like back in the 80's when fishing was at it's peak, perch, walleye, pike, bass, you could find it all. And he says alot of that was do to the net fishing, it kept certain species under control thus keeping a balance of all of the fish.
I know I'm rambling, so I'll wrap it up---I don't know it all, but I do trust what this man says about the Bays de Noc, and if he says that the nets don't hurt(actually help--even though DNR won't admit that) then I don't see a problem with them. If they were not following the rules then let them pay thier fine or what ever punishment they get and then its done---I don't see any reason to make a bigger issue out of it then it is.