Most of you are aware that the size of the sunfish in Garfield lake has been trending smaller over the last few years. In an effort to reverse this trend the DNR is proposing reducing the daily limit of sunfish on Garfield lake to 5 sunfish per person per day.
You can voice your opinion on the subject and hopefully show your support two ways. The link below is a DNR survey on the subject – the survey is done by lake, Garfield Lake is #24 in the survey. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fish/sunfish/index.html
The DNR will also be having a meeting on the subject on September 30th, at the Lake Porte Town Hall on hwy 39 from 5-7pm.
Please take the time to take the survey and if you can attend the meeting. It’s a great day on Garfield today!!
Scientists, including one who recovered seventeen dead swans in Ramsey County and Vadnais Heights, are asking for help. Lead jigs and sinkers are fatal to trumpeter swans, loons, and eagles. Lead in fishing tackle and hunting equipment ends up many times on the lake bottom. Swans and loons especially dive to the bottom of lakes looking for small rocks to help in digestion. But lead tackle is also among the same rocks and about the same size.
This issue has been present for many years. There are options that can be used instead of lead. And many of these options have been available for some time. Price was a concern in the early years but no longer as prices have come down.
Why have most anglers not made the change? Possible reasons, some do not like change. They have always used lead and see no reason to change. Some say the alternatives act differently than lead does. And the one I plead guilty to, is I just never get around to cleaning out my tackle box. I think finding one dead loon or trumpeter swan on your beach from lead would erase all of the above reasons.
Walleyes are the second most popular fish that angler’s fish for in Minnesota. They rank just behind fishing for sunfish. But, over the last 20 years we have seen a significant decrease in the size and number of walleyes in Lake Garfield and we should be concerned about it. This decrease is shown by looking at the DNR Fish Survey that is done every 5 years on Garfield. Shown below is a comparison of the Fish Survey done in 2000 and the one done in 2015. A most recent one was done in 2020 the results will be available in May of this year.
By using the 2000 survey as a base line for the walleye population and comparing those numbers to 2015 we see some concerns for the walleye population.
In the 15 years between fish surveys there has been a large change in the walleye fishery and not for the good. The total number in the 2000 survey was 107 walleyes. In 2015 the total number of walleyes was 73. This represents a 32% decrease in the number of walleyes. Also, the size of the walleyes is decreasing. In 2000 there were 18 walleyes in the 20 – 24 inch range. In 2015 there were 3, and there were none in 25 – 29 inch range. In 2000 there were 5 in this range.
One probable reason for this significant walleye decrease is the huge increase in the northern pike population. Here is a chart showing the MN DNR Fish Survey for northern pike and yellow perch over the same time period.
As you can see in the 2000 survey, total northerns were 139 fish. In 2015 there were 286 fish. Northerns eat small walleyes. This is one reason the DNR has increased the bag limit on northerns. But we believe that fishermen do not take more northerns, so the increased bag limit does not help. We also believe that fisherman do not take smaller northerns as they believe they are too small; less meat and harder to clean. There are many uses and ways to cook or pickle small northerns which are on the Garfield Lake Association website. I encourage you to go look in this blog.
We encourage you to start keeping these small northerns and will be publishing more information on this over the months ahead.
Also, please note the same chart shows a similar huge decrease in the population of Yellow perch. Just like walleye, Yellow perch are an important forage for northerns, and the same thing is happening. In the 2000 fish survey there were 538 yellow perch. In the 2015 survey there were 182 yellow perch. That is a decrease of 66%. We need to do something about this, and our first encouragement is for our Garfield fisherman is to start keeping more northern pike, especially the smaller ones.
As soon as last year’s, 2020, DNR Fish Survey is available to us I will get that information to you. I expect this to be sometime in the spring, 2021. Happy Fishing!!
For many years the thinking with sunfish was you could never take too many to hurt the fishery. But as many of you who fish for sunfish on Garfield Lake have seen in the last few years there are not the large (8-9”) sunfish that we used to catch. Looking at the data from Lake Finder the fish survey results confirm what most people who fish for sunfish are seeing.
2010 and 2015 DNR Fish Survey
The DNR did another fish survey of Lake Garfield in 2020 and we hope the results will be available sometime in May 2021.
Garfield Lake is not the only lake seeing results like 68% of our bluegill fish being in the under 5-inch range. And because of this the DNR has been testing a sunfish program (the term sunfish includes 6 different species including bluegills but does not include Crappies). The program has been around for about ten years. The results have been very positive for these lakes. Some lakes change their limit to 10 fish, and some went to 5. Those that went to 5 had a significant improvement in the size and number of pan fish in the lake.
The DNR is now rolling the program out to more lakes. The Garfield Lake Association has been working on having Garfield included in the next round of lakes to test this program. Initially, Hubbard County was granted three lakes which are part of the Crow Wing chain. The DNR has now added two more lakes in Hubbard County which could become part of the program. Garfield and 1st Crow Wing are now being recommended. The DNR program manager is now reviewing these recommended lakes and will make a decision in 2021 to be implemented in 2022.
In summary, the studies of the lakes that have reduced their sunfish catch to 5 have shown very good results. Small sunfish bred small sunfish and will continue to reduce the size and quantity of our sunfish on the lake. However, big fish bred big fish which is why we are requesting a limit of 5. I think it is time we bite the bullet and move to 5 sunfish a day or forever have under 5-inch sunfish.
If you fish our lake, or listen to the conversations at our two favorite watering holes, you may have wondered if the amount of small northern has risen in the past few years??
Well you are not imaging it! If you look at the last couple of DNR fish surveys on our lake (dnr.state.mn.us) there is a rise in the northern population, more importantly the amount of smaller northern. We are not alone! There are a large number of lakes within the state that have seen an uptick in northern populations Because of this the DNR has raised the limit on northern in the northern half of the state from about St. Cloud north to help with the control of the smaller fish.
It is now legal on Garfield to take up to 10 northern with two over 26”, all fish between 22 and 25” to be released. Leaving the bigger ones benefits the lake because even Northern eat Northern, and smaller northern eat more little fish (walleye, sunnies, crappie) than on big fish.
If you are like me, and you love to eat them but hate to clean them because you have trouble getting all the bones. On the web there are a few good videos on cleaning the fish that take out 99% of the bones. Check out You Tube “How to Fillet a Pike (and get 5 boneless fillets” They say boneless, but as a qualifier I will only go up to 99%.
Once you get the hang of cleaning them, its pretty easy and they are TASTY!
10 Fish! That is a lot of meat you say…remember, we are targeting the smaller fish and once you get the meat out, you end up with strips…strips you say, what do I do with strips?
I am glad you asked.
Think walleye fingers, the ones you pay upwards of $10 a plate for appetizers in restaurants, only with northern…
Cut the freshly cut northern strips into about 3 -6” long, 1” wide pieces. Bread with your favorite fish breading. If you are asking, I love Ritz and Cornflakes, make into crumbs in a food processor.
Deep fry to a golden brown, a squeeze of lemon juice, a bit of tartar sauce, maybe your favorite beer on the deck and you have yourself a perfect lake side appetizer.
Feel free to show your catch on the GLA web site or share your own recipes. I will be sharing a few more.
The DNR fisheries department did there 5 year survey of our lake this summer between July 6, 2020 and July 10, 2020. During their work a group of us followed them around the lake and visited with them as they worked. I took a few photos and I will include them below. Normally the resulting report is issued next spring (April/May 2021) but we were provided with a draft of some of the fish counts and related results. I thought there might be some of you interested in what was pulled out of the lake, so I am sharing the results in this post. I will let you draw your own conclusions and we will share the final report when it is issued. The full report in pdf format can be seen here.
The DNR sets two types of nets at 12 locations each over four days, so they use 3 250′ gill nets (GN) and 3 trap nets (TN).
The gill nets are set each day and pulled the following day, this is repeated for 4 days and covers 12 unique predetermined locations. The nets when pulled have fish trapped in them and they place the net and fish in bins, they take the bins at the end of the day to their headquarters, remove the fish and count and measure them.
Gill nets being removedGill Nets with fish stored in bin
The trap nets are set 3 locations each day, which is along the shore and pulled the next day. The fish and turtles are removed when the net is pulled and counted and measured and returned to the lake, with some fish kept for further study. Turtles are also caught in these nets. They reset the nets in a total of 12 unique predetermined locations as well.
Trap net catch being measured, note the dog fish
The catch number results for the Gill Nets are shown below:
The Trap Net results are shown here:
Trap Net results for 2020
The following charts are historical comparisons to prior surveys for Walleye and then Northern Pike:
Garfield Lake Property Owners and All Others Who Enjoy this Lake: The GLA Board wants our lake to be included in the DNR’s Sunfish project to increase the size of sunfish by reducing the daily limits from 20 to 10 or 5. We need your help to get our lake included!
Here is what you can do to help, complete the DNR’s quick 10 question survey and specify our lake. Here is the direct link to the survey,
Here are a couple of the key responses that you can use: Question 1: Zip Code 56461
Question 3: Choose ‘Specific Lake’
Question 4: On the list, go to last entry ‘Other (Specify) and then enter ‘Garfield (Hubbard)
The board is lobbying the local DNR Fisheries leadership and has written to the commissioner and local DNR Enforcement captain. We have been told local support of the program is necessary to include a lake and that the survey is the tool to gauge that local support.
