Bass under attack once again

This past week the MN DNR has decided to ease the smallmouth harvest regulations on one of the midwest's greatest trophy smallmouth waters.  While Mille Lacs is best known as a walleye fishery, the fall survey numbers are showing a drastically shrinking walleye population especially in the smaller year classes.  So what better way to deal with this situation then to blame the lake's trophy smallmouth fishery.  That's right.  The smallmouths are eating all the walleye.  C'mon man.

It seems that whenever there is a short-coming in the DNR's management strategy, the blame gets pushed to other outlying factors.  Let's blame the tribes, the cormorants, the smallmouths, the largemouths, global warming, etc.  You get the picture.  The real problem is the DNR trying to have their cake and eating it too.  They want to create a trophy walleye fishery by imposing slot limits to protect the bigger fish, but what this does is focus the harvest on the smaller fish.  Eventually when those older, larger fish die and you've harvested far too many smaller fish you're left with the crash that we're seeing today.  Is this a surprise?  Common sense people.

Smallmouth and walleye have thrived in harmony in many of the best fisheries in the country.  Lake Erie, the Bays de Noc, the Bay of Greenbay, and yes Mille Lacs all have had robust fisheries for both species.  You don't see efforts on these other bodies of water to remove the smallmouth population.  Why?  Because smallmouth aren't the problem.  You need to address the real problem which is the management plan.  Let 'em go and let 'em grow.  Remove the slot limits.  Create a minimum size limit of 14-15 inches.  Supplement with stocking when needed.  Stock larger numbers of prey species.  Adjust harvest quota's regularly.  All of these would allow for greater harvest and happier anglers.  I know it may be hard to admit that a specific management plan isn't working, but I think we've seen these restrictive slot limits have their downfalls.  It's time to stop playing the blame game and go back to the drawing board.