I just looked this up: "Each year, anglers in Minnesota keep roughly 3.5 million walleyes totaling 4 million pounds."  That's why they have to manage the population.

Bass, on the other hand, are (usually) not pulled from the lake and cooked for dinner that night. They're put right back in the water!

Aside from some Mississippi/Lake Michigan and a few other seasonal restrictions, this is a general map of Wisconsin's bass fishing zone. Notice the northern zone barbless hook rule, I'm not sure if there is a huge benefit to the fish or not. :-/

Didn't they repeal the barbless hook/artificial bait thing last year? Still catch and release though.

Barbless hooks only are one of the dumbest regulations in fishing. Thank goodness my state doesn't have them, as horrible as the Colorado Division Of Wildlife is. Why mandate barbless hooks when just about all scientific studies show no difference in mortality between barbed and barbless?

At least in your states they don't kill bass and throw them on the bank to "protect" suckers and chubs here like here in Colorado. Tens of thousands of our bass, both largemouth and smallmouth, have been killed in our rivers or in ponds nearby the rivers.

Michigan's bass season actually does nothing to protect spawning bass. It's closed from Jan 1st until the last Saturday in April. Both smallies and largemouth won't start spawning here until it's legal to target them.

tick-tock-tick-tock....I'm counting down the days to sight fishing in its finest hours...

In Washington state only a couple of lakes are not open, others are year round.

But going and spend a month on my home water of Lake Champlain this year. Have not fished it in 25 years due to me being in the Army. Man can't wait to hit some of the old haunts and see if they are still productive.

Joe

Yes we do here in Michigan, we are trying to change that in regards to Bass though, check out the petition in my signature...

Good rant, diver_sniper. Very true, how bass are an under appreciated species in MN. I have to admit though, I like seeing the parking lots and lakes full of walleye fisherman who will be ignoring the bass. Pretty disturbing that people would kill valuable gamefish to protect the walleyes.

The musky thing was just something I heard about, I'm not sure if it's true or not. But you get the gist of it.

There is absolutely zero reason for any walleye fisherman to be concerned even a little bit about the walleye populations in this state. The DNR might as well be the DWS. Department of Walleye Stocking. I think that's the only thing to DNR exists for in Minnesota... Right? :-?

Pretty much, but that's fine for me. The little walleyes make for good forage! ;D

There's a barren little 80 acre private lake in Clearwater that was stocked with tons of walleyes a few years ago. Otherwise, the lake had a very healthy bass population that was feeding on bluegills and carp. I think all 9 households on the lake paid $1500 each for the stocking, and soon the young walleyes became one of the main forage fish for the bass. The bass abandoned the predictable areas in the shallows where we had been catching them and went after the walleyes. For a couple years the bass were on the move, chasing after deep walleyes and eventually decimating the population. Now the bass are back in their original shallow water haunts, looking a little fatter and healthier than before, and there's hardly a fish to be found deeper than 12' of water. lol

The neighbors are not happy. They want their meat!! :

Another Minnesotan here.  I agree it sucks waiting for bass opener, but I think we have some of the best fishing in the country too, so I don't think we should change anything and risk affecting the fishing.    If it ain't broke don't fix it.