Tourney regs will be tightened

Fishing contests will begin earlier

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Monday, June 30, 2008

In response to lake property owner concerns about the length of weekend fishing tournaments, and the number of participating boats allowed, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will be placing more stringent regulations starting in 2009. That’s the word from Jim Wolters, assistant DNR fisheries manager, Fergus Falls, who spoke Saturday morning during the annual meeting of the Otter Tail Lakes Property Owners Association.

The association represents property owners at Otter Tail, Walker, Blanche, Long, Round and Deere lakes as well as Otter Tail River North.

“The number of boats allowed per fishing tournament already are dependent on the number of acres on any given lake,” Wolters said. “Right now (the DNR) doesn’t allow catch and release tournaments after June 30. Next year, the final weekend for catch and release will be the second weekend in June.”

Wolters reminded association members, who held their annual meeting at Thumper Pond in Ottertail, that the DNR doesn’t allow fishing tournaments to take up the entire weekend on any given lake. At the present time there are three main fishing tourneys each summer on Otter Tail Lake.

He summarized a creel survey conducted by the Fergus Falls DNR Area Fisheries office, in 2006 and 2007, which found that from 87 to 95 percent of all fishermen on Otter Tail Lake try to use their skills to catch walleye.

Wolters said the estimated harvest rate and total number of walleye harvested during the summer was down, but average size of walleye harvested was higher in 2006-07 compared to 1994-95.

He said the number of anglers staying at resorts was about half as many in the summer of 2006-07 compared to 1994-95, a reflection of the decreasing

number of resorts in Otter Tail County.

Speaking to lake property owners about law enforcement in the lakes region was Sgt. Scott Koennicke of the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Department. With him at Ottertail was his K-9 dog, Zorro.

“We rely on you who live in the lakes region to let us know, through our dispatchers, about anything out of the ordinary,” Koennicke said. “We in law enforcement need you to help us put pieces of the crime puzzle together.”

Koennicke spoke about the new Otter Tail Sheriff’s Department Operations Center that will open next month in Ottertail. The Sheriff’s Department main headquarters will remain in Fergus Falls.

“The Ottertail facility is centrally located in the county,” he said. “A large portion of the building is fortified as a shelter during tornadoes, and the new operations center also will serve as a backup dispatch center if a catastrophe makes inoperable the dispatch center in Fergus Falls.”

Koennicke said the new facility in Ottertail will include a Sheriff’s Department patrol division, detectives, narcotics personnel and be a place for law enforcement training sessions for the entire region. The facility will include holding cells, with personnel later transferred to the county jail in Fergus Falls.

Also addressing members of the Otter Tail Lakes Property Owners Association were Dan Malmstrom, representing the Lakes Area Development Association, and Eric Lindbergh, representing Environmental Sentry Protection.

Malmstrom spoke about diversifying the economic climate beyond tourism in the lakes region, while at the same time preserving and enhancing the infrastructure around area lakes. Lindberg touched on the subject on invasive species, the use of lakeshore monitoring and boat launch monitoring strategies.

“We need a new behavior at areas lakes, educating people to properly clean their boats before launching into new waters,” Lindberg said. “Prevention of invasive species now saves time and money later on.”