MILLE LACS, Minn. — Editor's note: The video above originally aired June 15, 2021.
While they won't be able to stock the freezer full of fillets, winter anglers will be allowed to keep fish from two of Minnesota's premiere walleye lakes.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced winter walleye regulations for both Mille Lacs and Upper Red Lake Tuesday.
On Mille Lacs Lake between Dec. 1 and Feb. 27, ice anglers will be allowed to keep one walleye between 21 and 23 inches, or one fish longer than 28 inches. DNR fisheries officials decided to allow the harvest of one fish for the sixth straight winter, despite a fall netting assessment that showed a population decline from 2020. Even with the decline, the Mille Lacs walleye population remains above the lows seen from 2012 to 2016.
This winter's regulations on Mille Lacs also reduce the bag limit for cisco (tullibee) from 10 to five, and forbids the harvest of burbot, better known as eelpout.
News is better for ice anglers on Upper Red: The bag limit has been increased from three to four walleye daily, with only one fish longer than 17 inches allowed. The three-bag limit was instituted during the 2020-21 winter season, and kept for the 2021 open water season when surveys showed the population of mature walleye was lower in abundance.
A population assessment this fall indicated a wide range of sizes with an abundance of mature spawning walleye, which allowed the more generous bag limit.