Well, well, it looks like…

Well, well, it looks like our fishing lodges have gotten all lawyered-up, otherwise why would the survey ask if the feedback is personal or from a lawyer representing a client. And they have managed to bully the Panel into making no changes to the catch limits of non-residents. Since almost every angler on the lake is a non-resident that amounts to doing nothing to reduce the walleye harvest, so I suppose we can expect the walleye population to go the way of the Atlantic cod. What will our lodge cartel do then, when the non-residents simply stop coming because there are no fish left. And to add insult they have cut the resident catch limit in half, the ones who there are so few of they have almost no impact on the walleye harvest. I suppose we are easy targets.

Socioeconomic factors rule the day, again. The non-residents come, take, and leave. When the fish are gone, they will be gone. They fished out the land of 10,000 lakes, and will do the same to LOTW. Yet the residents who actually own the lake, who own properties, pay taxes and contribute untold millions to the economy don't seem to matter. Short term gain for long term pain. Brilliant!

Who on the Panel was representing the interests of the resident anglers? Who on the Panel was representing the interests of the ecology of LOTW, which the Panel was charged with protecting in the first place? It seems no one. This proposal should be dumped, along with the Panel that created it.