http://www.areavoices.com/samcook/?blog=70253 Think about those St. Louis River walleyes Fishing has been good for walleyes on the Duluth-Superior harbor for the past couple of weeks. So good that at least one angler has called John Lindgren, a fisheries specialist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources at French River, with a concern that a lot of larger walleyes are being taken home. Lindgren, who does a lot of work with the St. Louis River fishery, is also concerned. He wants anglers to think about killing those large walleyes, which are important to the river's spawning population. "The population of large walleyes that comes from the western arm of the lake up into the St. Louis River estuary is very vulnerable because they're so slow-growing," Lindgren said. "To kill a 28-inch fish could take over 20 years to replace." The walleye limit on the river -- and in the harbor -- is just two walleyes, and the minimum size is 15 inches. However, the river does not share the limit of one walleye over 20 inches that is common throughout the state. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It doesn't really affect me as I would never fish out of the St. Louis River that feeds into Lake Superior because of all the pollutants and chemicals that get dumped in from factories up in Cloquet and Scanlon and Esko and Thompson and Carlton. I didn't know the limit was 2 walleyes in the river and in the harbor. I never fish the Gitchee-Gumee because I don't care about no trouts or salmons. I fish for the lunkers. I want to catch some fat hog walleyes that you have to fight for 4 hours after it hauls your boat all around the lake. Does the big walleyes in the gross river really need to spawn so there can be more gross contaminated fish that have high levels of mercury in them and if you eat more than one of them a week you will sprout a third eye on your forehead or another arm on your back? I guess the DNR and fish hatcheries should be more concerned about clean places that have spawners for good stock and keep the water fresh.
