Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited - Monthly Newsletter |
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Fall is in the air
Greetings Club friends! There is nothing like fall in Minnesota, temperatures begin to get cooler, trees begin to turn color, hunting season is upon us and there are still plenty of great fishing opportunities to take advantage of before the hardwater season starts.
As we kick off this year, I want to thank all of our sponsors, Scheels of Eden Prairie, Rapid Marine, Simms and Agency Bay Lodge just to name a few, who help support us through their donations.
I also want to say thank you to all of club members and to ask for your help. We are not a club without our members. It is because of you that we get the great speakers for our meetings and we can GIVE back to our communities through the projects we do. We need your help to grow our membership. If you haven’t already done so, please tell your friends, neighbors and family about our club or better yet bring them along to a club meeting.
We had great club meeting last month to kick off the year. Thanks to Sara Strommen, Commissioner of the Minnesota DNR and Brad Parsons, Fishery Manager for being our guest speakers. It was great to hear from them regarding what is happening at the DNR and to ask then questions specifically about the sport of fishing in the state and how we could get involved.
As the seasons transition from summer into to fall, walleyes are transitioning as well from deeper water to shallower weed lines as they prepare to bulk up before winter arrives. Since that is the case, you don’t want to miss out on our October speaker Josh Lund as he talks about “Walleyes in the Weeds” and shares some ideas and tips to target walleyes this fall.
I look forward to seeing you all at our October meeting and don’t forget to bring a friend!
Dale Meinders
President - Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited
Connect | Educate | Give
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October Speaker
Josh Lund
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Location: Knights of Columbus
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Membership has
it's advantages
You can find out more information about Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited and our Events by going to our website and on Facebook
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Club Meeting Thursday October 7, 2021 |
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Dear Club Members,
TCWU hopes you all had an amazing summer and we would like to welcome you all back by inviting you to talk fishing with NWT Pro-Angler Josh Lund on Thursday October 7th. Together we have a rare opportunity to personally connect with a skilled tournament angler. We are excited learn pro-tips to improve our fishing skills and gain pro-fishing perspectives from Josh!
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About Josh,
Josh Lund has fished competitively since 2014 and currently fishes on the Cabela’s National Walleye Tour. He works with multiple nonprofit fishing organizations such as, Fishing for Life, which provides a day on the water for veterans and underprivileged youth. Josh also does multiple corporate and personal guide trips throughout the open water season.
During the off season, Josh can be found at sport shows working with his sponsors and doing fishing seminars for local fishing clubs. Josh’s passion is to share his knowledge of fishing with others and get them outdoors.
Seminar Topic: Walleyes in the Weeds: A tournament angler’s perspective to searching and catching walleyes in the weeds on familiar and unfamiliar bodies of water.
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Check out Rapid Marine for you your Boat Maintenance and Winterization service needs |
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A special welcome to the Rapid Marine Family of Dealerships who joined us as a Sponsor in June of 2021. We are excited to partner with the top Boat/Marine Dealer/Servicer in the Twin Cities and St. Cloud. Their Mission is to make your boating experiences magnificent and memorable. They are dedicated to supporting you and promise to serve you both on land and on the water!
Rapid Marine services include full boat, motor, trailer, maintenance and repair including:
- Accessory installation
- Winterization
- Boat Insurance repairs
- Prop and Skag repair
- Preventative maintenance
- Complete Trailer inspection and repair
- Motor inspection, oil and lube
To learn more about their full service and maintenance details Click on the link below. We ask you to check out the Rapid Marine experience and we know you won't be disappointed.
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Contact Information and Locations |
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Rapid Marine (formerly R&R Marine)
Address: 12827 Marine Dr
Shakopee, MN 55379
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Rapid Marine - Rogers
Address: 21150 Rogers Dr Rogers, MN 55374
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Rapid Sport Marine - Ham Lake
Address: 1343 Andover Blvd NE
Ham Lake, MN 55304
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Rapid Marine - St. Cloud
Address: 3302 10th St NE Sauk Rapids, MN 56379
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Congratulations to TCWU Club
Tournament Champions
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Past Club Tournament Champions receive their awards at the Club September meeting |
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President Dale Meinders Presents club fishing tournament winners with their first place trophy's at our September Club Meeting |
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The one-fish walleye limit resumed Thursday, Sept. 16, and continues through Tuesday, Nov. 30. During the late season, the DNR also will allow anglers to fish from 6 a.m. to midnight.
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DNR certifies new catch-and-release state record northern pike and tie for muskie
Anglers over the summer caught and released a new Minnesota state record northern pike and tied the record for muskellunge.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources certified the state catch-and-release record northern pike, a 46 1/4 inch fish caught June 19 on Basswood Lake by Brecken Kobylecky, a 15-year-old from Geneva, Illinois. The previous record was a 45 1/4 inch northern pike caught on the Rainy River in 2018.
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The MN DNR provides helpful Tips, Videos and Blogs Check out the Learn to Fish link to learn more
- We can help you get started fishing
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We can help you find a place to fish
- We can help you catch the fish species you seek
- We can teach you about equipment and all the basics
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TCWU Pro-tip of the Month
Featuring Sarah Strommen
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September guest speaker Commissioner of the MN DNR Sarah Strommen shares what the Minnesota DNR is doing to help improve fishing for all anglers throughout the state of Minnesota in this “Pro Tip of the Month“
with Club President Dale Meinders. Thanks for the great meeting Sarah!
Click on the photo below to hear what Sarah shared
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Guest Speaker Re-cap Featuring
Sarah Strommen and Brad Parsons
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Commissioner of the MN DNR Sarah Strommen and Fisheries Chief Brad Parsons Joined TCWU at the September Club Meeting |
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TCWU hosted Commissioner of the DNR Sarah Strommen and Fisheries Chief Brad Parsons at our September Club Meeting. It was great to see many of our club friends for the fist time since May and we are glad things returning to Pre-COVID times. We are truly grateful that Sarah and Brad could make the time to join us at our club meeting. It was a cool experience to personally connect with our Minnesota outdoor leaders.
Sarah and Brad
Sarah loves and cares about the outdoors - Her family are life long avid outdoor enthusiasts. Her 15 year old son on the High School bass fishing team and they all love the FishDonkey app, Sarah called out the fun engagement it creates with the kids as it pairs technology with fishing, which they all love! Sarah’s top priority starting as Commission in 2019 is Connecting People to the Outdoors
Brad has a scientific background - He uses science and study in his decision making process. He believes we have the best fishing in the country, not everything is perfect but we have a great fishery.
For those who couldn't attend you can read our meeting re-cap below
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What are a few of your top initiatives at the MN DNR?
Sarah’s top priority - Connecting People to the Outdoors
- Determine the funding frame work needed to get back to a foundational support of our natural resources.
- Changing from reacting or chasing outdoor issues to proactive management and preventing the issues from happening
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Brad – loved our club’s support/funding of fishing piers, (Lake Sallie and Wasserman lake) He is a huge advocate of creating a no fancy boat needed fishing approach. He is creating: Map’s where people can fish from shore, docks, etc…
Investing adequately in our natural resources
- People are using our natural resources, which were enabled by past investments in boat landings, camp grounds, trails, etc…These investments were made a long time ago and do not necessarily support today’s equipment/usage. We need to get back to making these investments for the benefit of all.
- We are just maintaining and not investing
- The next five year plan is to ask the legislator’s for funding to support investments in what we need, to create the vision of the future now by looking through the windshield and not the rear view mirror
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What keeps them up at night?
What or where are our next anglers, fisheries chiefs, clubs going to come from if we keep losing outdoor engagement in our younger generations
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Nature deficit disorder – Which is the idea of being glued to computer screens and are not getting outside. Concern is; what is the next generation of anglers going to look like. Sarah commented “As I look at the attendees of the events I speak at, there is a lack of demographics. The Boomers are all in attendance but where are the younger generations?”
Impact of Climate change
- First two years of Sarah’s role challenged her with flooding everywhere first and then right into a drought in year 3.
- Ice is coming off the lakes sooner, and weeds are becoming more prevalent. The interaction of native and non-native species and plants is high on the DNR radar. The non-Native plants are flourishing in warmer lake temps.
- They are concerned that warming lake water temperatures are threatening cold water species such as the Tullibee. The Tullibee are getting squeezed into a two foot band of low oxygenated water just above the thermocline to stay cool. This squeeze starts in August. When the oxygen levels push them into warmer waters they experience die offs.
- Change regulations on the Rainy River due to earlier spring thaw
- Electronics, Gear, Pressure, Ice Shelters, Technology, Side Scan, Panoptix, electronics are improving fishing success and straining the resources, it’s just math.
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Bag Limits - Anglers are spending a lot a money to fish and want to bring some fish home.
- Lakes are changing and what once may have been a great walleye lake is now, may have changed into a bass lake due to changing lake conditions. This is not just a Minnesota problem, Wisconsin, Michigan, Canada are all impacted
Invasive species
- Non-Native curly leaf pondweed impacts – It grows quickly during low snow cover. Plowed ice roads can actually become early weed habitat for fish and a nuisance later. Native plants are used to long cold winters and early ice outs create competition for them.
- Spiny Water Fleas are worse than zebra mussels. They eat and destroy zooplankton that bait fish eat, which adversely impacts the food chain.
- Zebras actually produce food for the food chain. Zebra’s probably won’t impact the water clarity on tannin stained lakes
The silver lining of the pandemic - is that it showcased the value of our outdoors and helped fulfill Sarah’s mission of connecting the next generations.
- Most everything was closed except for the outdoors so everything was busy; Camping, Trails, Parks, Lakes and all other outdoor spaces.
- The MN DNR needs to continue the momentum and needs to proactively manage the strain on the resources from the increase
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License sales are up over 58% since 2019 and 12% over 2020
- Fishing pressure increase is due to a renewed interest in the outdoors and the Canadian border closure, which has contributed to the strain on resources
- Minnesotan’s went outside to experience a nature
- Unfortunately it locked down spending, legislative action/support, hiring, egg stripping, etc…
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How can we engage/connect with the Minnesota DNR
It is very important and personal to Sarah that she connects with those who love the outdoors to get their feedback on what is working and what isn’t.
The Engage with DNR Hub on the DNR website is one way to get involved with all outdoor issues. Click on the link to learn more...https://engage.dnr.state.mn.us/
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Commissioners Office Hours monthly WebEx
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources offers a unique monthly opportunity for the public to connect with agency leaders. The Commissioners’ Office Hours is an hour-long, online conversation in which Minnesotans can discuss a topic of interest, ask questions, and share ideas with DNR leadership.
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What was on the clubs mind, what questions did we ask
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Four Walleye Bag Limit – Do you support the four bag walleye limit legislative proposal? Brad can’t prove whether a 4 fish bag limit will make an impact at this time. The bill was not introduced by the MN-DNR but rather by a Minnesota advocacy group The Walleye Alliance through Senator Carrie Ruud. Click the link to learn more… https://www.outdoornews.com/2021/05/06/commentary-why-four-walleye-limit-is-good-for-minnesota-anglers/
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Do walleye stamp purchases help – Yes please buy them to help support fish stocking. The MN-DNR currently receives $120,000 in stamp sales annually. All sales purchase fish to stock lakes from commercial walleye producers. They spent $800,000 last year and that bought 40,000 lbs of fish. Buying from commercial producers is a beneficial partnership as they focus on rearing and they do it well. Lake Associations can also purchase these fish to stock lakes, which is another win.
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Would you support a 14 inch minimum length limit? Many of us anglers are frustrated at folks who keep 12 – 14 inch walleyes. From an ethical perspective, where do you stand on minimum size limits for Walleyes? Brad isn’t against it per say. Every lake is different but science dictates that keeping smaller fish may be okay based on the fish growth rates of the lake you are fishing. Brad is not in favor of regulating state wide size limits, called out the legislation of ethical fishing very tricky.
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Do groups like MN-Fish help the MN-DNR? - Yes they certainly can help drive and allocate funding by advocating with legislators. Their mission is to help channel and provide a strong voice at the State Capital where it matters most
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Where do you stand on Lead Tackle? – In our opinion this is an issue that’s time has come. We have adequate replacements now and it’s time to make a change. It will probably need to be handled at the legislative level at some point in time. Only two states have banned lead tackle, New York and Vermont.
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How much money do you get to fund fisheries? – Basically all monies generated from fish and game license sales, and off road vehicle licensing
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Where are we at with two lines? – Brad doesn’t feel two lines are necessary but is in favor of allowing in some river locations in the future. Most likely will be a legislative decision.
Interesting comments
- Walleyes reared in western Minnesota ponds are eating all the minnows and its improving the duck weed growth and habitat
- Yellow perch decline - Spawning has been good, but they are putting in so much effort into spawning they aren't getting big and weren’t being caught in gillnets
- Lake Pepin has awesome fish populations Brad recommends we go fish it. Three year old walleyes reaches 15 inches on Lake Pepin
- Zebra Mussels impact – They are clearing the waters and changing traditional walleye movements
- 80% percent of walleyes caught are naturally reproduced
- MN-DNR manages 1200 walleye lakes
- Statewide Walleye regulations haven’t changed since 1956.
- The interest in keeping a lot of fish isn’t as it was in the past. Anglers are eating more at the lake to get around it limits
Call to Action - What can we do to help
- Support advocacy groups such as MN-Fish
- Contact legislators
- Buy Walleye Stamps
Thank you Sarah and Brad for taking the time to join us with your busy schedules. We appreciate your transparency on issues, for enlightening us on the latest hot topics, sharing helpful tips and answering our questions.
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Special Thanks to our Club Sponsors |
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TC Walleyes Unlimited, Inc.
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4608 Tower St.
Edina, MN 55424
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