(00:00:01) Chad Myers is with us in the noon hour today and we'll talk about the fishing opener with him and just a minute but I think I ought to pass on the weather forecast to you here. We're looking at a possibility of some thunderstorms across Minnesota today with fairly warm temperatures and strong winds mid 70s to mid-80s the forecast highs today and tonight it will be mostly cloudy with a continuing chance of rain mostly in the Southeast lows from the mid 40s to the upper 50s tomorrow partly cloudy with highs in the 70s generally across the state in the Twin Cities. Mostly cloudy this afternoon with a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms. There's been a bit of rain in at least the downtown part of st. Paul for the past hour or so. There's also a wind advisory in effect for area lakes as a result of southerly breezes 20 to 30 miles an hour and Gusty this afternoon continued mostly cloudy tonight a 40 percent chance of rain with a low of about 57 or thereabouts and tomorrow partly cloudy and a high in the upper 70s once again, I think they're saying like something about a million people going to take part in the fishing opener in Minnesota this coming Saturday. And if you are among those million people who will be heading for the lakes and the rivers stay tuned and get close to a telephone because Chet Myers in the studio today and he'll be answering your questions about the Minnesota fishing opener Chet is a teacher of philosophy and religion at Metropolitan State University in the Twin Cities. He is also an avid fisherman has written a lot of fishing articles and a couple of books one of which co-authored with a lender and still in print called bass a handbook of strategies Chet. What do you think about when you go out there fishing philosophy and religion that gives you must give you pretty good chance to think up some ideas, huh sitting out there in The Lakes. Well, sometimes you need a perspective like that because there are days when you're just not going to catch fish. Yeah, even the even the pros strike out on occasion is there right? What do you think about the opener this year? We've had an awfully dry spring is an end. Early spring is is that good or bad for the opener? Do you suppose I think it's going to be good. I think it's going to be excellent as matter of fact, usually by the time the opener the wall eye opener occurs in Minnesota. The walleyes have finished spawning in there pretty inactive the the spawning riggers really where the fish out a lot and they drop into deep water and they're just very difficult to catch. So the only fish that are generally caught Jose in the central part of the state, which is where a lot of the walleye fishing occurs are the small males which are generally active even after the spawn but this year everything is I'm amazed at how far Advanced it is. We've had the bass spawning and like the owls already. The I think things are at least three weeks ahead of schedule and that means that the walleyes will be active they should be recuperated but they're going to be in different locations. So you're going to have to you're going to have to change your tactics. You can't go back to the same old places that you've gone to time after time. Okay. Well, I'll get to your explanation of that in a second. But let's just be sure we understand exactly. What the fishing opener means what fish can be caught starting this Saturday everything in the Sun or not? Well know the opener is a misnomer because they've been there various openers the the trout opener occurred a while ago in April, I believe in the southeast part of the state and this weekend, I'll walleyes and Northern Pike are open bass Largemouth and smallmouth bass except in some Northern parts of the state will open on May 30th, and then a week after that. I believe the musky season opens. So to say it's just the opener is a misnomer the fact is that it's it's considered the big day because most people do enjoy fishing for walleyes and Orleans but crappies and bluegills and some other pan fish are open all year round. Hmm. What is it? That makes walleye King. Do you suppose I don't know. I've never figured that out. I come from Back East originally and back there bass were really valued and I came out here and find the people just weren't fishing for bass much at all. Now that's changed quite a bit. But the state DNR does Put a lot of time and energy into stocking walleyes. They're very good table fish. They're not all that difficult to catch and they don't fight all that much. So I'm not I still don't know what all the excitement is about as far as eating goes. I think there are other fish that are just as good eating as walleyes. But while I seem to be the big the big thing now, what do you let me give off the phone numbers here and then we'll chat some more Chad Myers is with us. And if you have a question about fishing technique equipment, whatever 2276 thousand is the phone number in the Minneapolis st. Paul area. And in the rest of the state 1-800-695-1418 you outside Minneapolis st. Paul 1-800-695-1418. You are a non Minnesota resident. You can call us directly in the Twin Cities at area code 6 12 and that Twin Cities number two two seven six thousand. So what do you think is makes his good eating as walleyes. Well, I think a lot of it depends on where the fish are cut. If you catch a fish in a lake where there is an algae bloom the fish will taste muddy. For example last year one of the lakes that I like to fish a lot for walleyes had a big algae bloom in the spring because as you remember last year, we had a lot of rain and a lot of phosphates from Lawns got washed into the the city lakes. And since I fish there some of the city Lakes had a had really bad tasting fish just around opener now in September that a change because the algae bloom had died down but so that really determines it. I mean for me, I think the cleaner the water the clear the water the the less algae the better eating the fish will generally be right back to one other thing that you'd said earlier and then we'll get on with some listener questions. You said people are going to have to change their tactics for fishing walleye because they're not going to be as deep as they were in pastel colors because the season has gotten off to an earlier start tell us about that. Well, they the females will be a little shallower. Perhaps the the wall. The male's will probably be all I would say it. Likes I'd look for walleyes between 8 and 15 feet. They're going to be in different places generally during the opener people catch walleyes around the spawning areas. And I think that most of the spawning areas will be pretty devoid of fish at this time of year. The weeds are up. We've had a very very clear spring with very little rain. There's been a lot of sunshine and that's promoted a lot of weed growth on the lake and in The Lakes where there are weeds which is just about any lake from here up to well up to about the Boundary Waters or a lot of weeds here being Minneapolis st. Paul not registering worthy, right? Okay. Well from the southern part of the state up to the to the rocky lakes in The Boundary Waters, the weeds will be up and and all eyes will be relating to the weeds, but they'll be scattered. Also, they're not going to be schooled up like they will be in the summertime. So I imagine the best tactic for people on opening day one that I'm going to employees just to cover a lot of ground cover a lot of ground and just try to find the fish and pick them up in ones and twos and threes and not expect to stumble on any large schools of active fish. All right, we've got some folks on the line with questions about fishing for a Chad Myers today and we'll put you on with him first. Hello. (00:07:06) Hello. I was wondering in following up with a question about good tasting fish. Maybe I missed the answer when I turn my radio down, but did you name some other fishes that tasted as good or better than walleye or was it just a in relation to the type of water that you'd catch them in? (00:07:22) Well, that's a good question though, white-fleshed fish like the the walleye and the northern pike and the bass. I think if they come out of clean clear water are generally about the same tasting I prefer northern pike actually to walleye the trout are very different tasting than that because they're a little oilier. So if you don't like a real oily fish and sometimes the the catfish can be a little oilier that's that's a personal preference, but I think just about any fish is good eating. I'm really quite non-discriminatory with regard to eating fish. I think they're all pretty good eating carp if they're smoked. I've never I've never Pan-fried a carp I've tempted tempting to do that every year but I just somehow back away from scaling. All right. You got a question for Chad Myers today. Hi there. How are you? Hello. Good go ahead please (00:08:13) strategies. Do you use for City Lakes? The ones that signalex usually don't have too much structure in them and they tend to be a little bit luckier on the bottom from what I've been able to tell what kind of strategy to use in those lakes and are the fish could eat out of Lake Harriet Calhoun like the health center (00:08:34) again, it would depend on the time of the year in some of the lakes that get a big algae bloom some of the really shallow muddy lakes that you speak of by the end of June and probably this year by the middle of June. I will be eating any fish out of them because they will have a muddy taste to them some Lakes like Harriet and Calhoun are much deeper and clear and you can eat fish out of there any time of the year. I have never heard of any health advisories on eating. Fish out of the city lakes in other words as far as I know they're in good shape. There is in your regulations this year a page which talks about V fish consumption and you can write to the Minnesota Department of Health are call them and get a booklet which will indicate throughout the state areas where fish may not be safety as far as when and how I fish City Lakes. It's not true that they don't have structure. Some of them have structures the bottom configuration should explain of a lake. Some of the lakes are very simple and shaped like a soup bowl and others are just amazed of humps and valleys and troughs and sunken Islands. I understand that it took the DNR a number of years to like calc 2 map Lake Calhoun because it's such a complex lake. So my tactics vary quite a bit on the Lakes depending on whether it doesn't have a lot of bottom configuration whether it does but generally I'm looking for the edge of the weed line. I'm prospecting with my depth finder. I can read Weeds on the depth finder and I'm looking for the edge of the weed line and that's I start fishing because that's generally a good place to begin. What can you catch you in the Minneapolis Lakes? You name it just about anything is that right? There aren't any trout as far as I know but there are they've been stocking muskies recently hybrid muskies their walleyes Lake Harriet has a very very healthy population of all eyes and with regard to wait much above the state average, but they're very very difficult to catch lots of largemouth bass. If you fish in the Mississippi River and I wouldn't eat fish out of the downtown area, Mississippi River, you can catch smallmouth bass down there. So just about anything really you say. Oh sighs what sighs fish. Can you find in the Minneapolis leaks? Well, they've netted walleyes up to 11 pounds is there that's that's healthy. That's not a bad size fishing and the muskies in the city lakes and particularly like Harriet now are probably there's some good old 10 to 20 pound muskies in Lake Erie and very few people fish for muskies, which which I think is kind of interesting because it has such a good population of Muskies. That particular like it's not a real drawback though not being able to use a motor on the city Lakes true true. The that's one of the frustrations you do need you can use an electric motor. However while you can and you need a permit, you need a city permit to have a boat on the city like switch. I'd believe doesn't cost anything and then if you want to use an electric motor, which I do you have to pay an additional. I think it's 12 to 15 dollars. I'm not sure through the city for that license. Also more folks with questions on fishing for Chet Myers today. Hi, you're (00:11:30) next. I have a question about fish attract and formulas do they work and if they do one type of fish tracking formula, would you personally recommend for bath? (00:11:42) Boy, I wish I could give you some experiential base knowledge on that but I can't I don't use fish attractants I of talk to a lender and to some of the other people whose judgment I respect and they tell me that under conditions when Fisher in a negative mood that sometimes the fish attractants will make a difference but I just generally do not use them. They're oily they put a big oil slick on the lake. I don't know if that's biodegradable or not. I haven't read anything on that but I think there's a lot of hype generally around fishing equipment and fishing lures and fishing technology, you really need to know where to look for fish. And if you know where to look you can get by with some really basic equipment the important thing with regards to to the sense of smell, which is very very important in a fish. It's the largest part of a fish's brain. There's smell is so Keen that it's even difficult to come up with a metaphor for how distant it is from ours with regard to the keenness, but you Want to be careful in handling live bait to wash your hands to make sure that you're not getting any oil from the motor or grease from the motor onto lures or baits or things of that nature. So that is something that you do want to be careful of but I just don't really know personally about the fish attractants. I would imagine perhaps in the winter when Fisher very very slow or inactive. It might make a difference and sometimes in the summer but I just don't have personal knowledge on that more folks with fishing questions for Chet Myers today as we explore the prospects and possibilities for the Minnesota fishing opener this coming Saturday. Go ahead. You're next. (00:13:17) Okay for deeper Clear Lake's for northern pike. What do you feel is better? Do you feel live bait or artificial? (00:13:27) The northern pike is a different species in a sense from the bass and walleyes in that. It really does the large Northerns do relate to cold water. So in the summer and particularly in Clear Lake's you're going to Two fish deeper to catch northern pike and fishing deeper is something that most people don't know how to do it's difficult. It takes different approaches and tactics. I would say there are two techniques generally the that work for northern pike one is just simply an old sucker on a bobber a big slip bobber where you can drop the sucker down all around maybe 15 or 20 feet. I may have to go that deep. That would be one approach and what I would do would be just look for a big weed bit and camp out on the edge of the weed bed and assume that the Northerns will be cruising around that area another tactic that works. Well in the summer is called speed trolling and speed trolling you need a specialty rod and reel you troll very very fast like with a 10 horsepower motor on a 16-foot boat. You might be going close to half speed or three-quarter speed and you use specialty lures which died very very deep in the water and go very very fast and that sometimes will trigger big northern pike and that's a good tactic also using Like you have to stay outside the weed line obviously can't get messed up with weeds at all. But you'd be trolling depth of 15 20 25 feet. And when a big Northern hits it just about I mean, you've got a whole lot of the right I've tried it and when they hit they just about jerk your arm out of its socket. So if that is another specialty technique, but for people who don't have that special equipment, I would say either use a sucker and fish it very deep on a slip bobber or go to a gig and minnow and fish a jig and a big sucker minnow, you know fairly deep. Where are you going to be on fishing opener Chet? Well, I'm not sure depends I usually fish the city lakes and it depends on where the winds are from where I'm going to be but I'll probably be in one of the lakes in either Hennepin and Ramsey County. I'm not sure which one right now. What is the wind have to do with it? Well in some of the Lakes you have to I fish with a canoe and electric motor and if the winds are up, you just can't you have to get out on a lake that's got some for example Lake Calhoun is very very difficult to fish on Windy days because you get big Waves on it if you can find a lake that's got a configuration of Shoreline and islands where the breaks up the wind you can fish on that so I would think it's not going to matter that much most of the Lakes I think are going to be really going good. I think I think it's going to be a real good opener. All right moving on to some more folks with questions. Hi, you're on with Jack Myers now, (00:16:02) we usually fish with Crawlers on the opener because the water temperature are leeches going to be just as good this year. You (00:16:09) think that's that's a good question. I would take along everything. I'm going to take when I go out. I'm going to take crawlers. I'm going to take Fathead minnows and I'm going to take leeches because this time of year with the advanced spring. I'm not sure what's going to what's going to be working. But I would have a little bit of each I think one one tactic I would I would suggest for people for opener that that's really a little different a lot of people in Minnesota like to fish it's called a Lindy Sinker which is a slip Sinker which rides along the bottom. It's a good tactic to locate walleyes when the water temperature is Old and when the walleyes are inactive, I think this year I would go to a little faster technique because the water temperature is a lot warmer, I would use a jig and minnow I would back troll with the jig and minnow and just work along the sides of the weeds and drop offs or I would troll with a spinner rig the little spinner rig and a sinker and cover a lot more ground more quickly because you could it's going to be it's going to be difficult fishing Linda Riggs this year with a fish scattered all over the place. You could waste a lot of time. I think what you want to do is try to locate the active fish and cover a lot of ground to cover a lot of ground quickly. You're going to have to use a different technique than Lindy fishing. Okay. We'll move on to you next and you're on now with Chad Myers. (00:17:25) Hi. Yes. Thank you. I have a question for Chet regarding his philosophy behind fishing why enjoys it because I certainly love it a lot too, but I can't seem to convince my girlfriend to come along with me to go fishing and I'm having a hard time explaining to her why it's so much fun and why get so much. Satisfaction out of it. So maybe you could expound a little bit on (00:17:43) that. Well, this is the first time I've had a chance to philosophize about fishing. I don't know. I imagine that it's a very very different reason for everybody. I have always felt close to Nature and I always feel rather connected with just the universe when I'm out in nature and I think there's just something about being out in a boat. I can be fishing and not catch fish and have a good time. I'm certainly have a better time sometimes when I catching fish, but I think for me it's in the in a day and age where things seem to be increasingly artificial and mechanized and synthetic. We've tend to forget that we're creatures. We're just creatures. I believe special creature certainly and fishing for me gives me an opportunity to connect with other creatures. It may sound cruel to eat them, but I'm a predator and And I don't mind eating fish. I let the vast majority of my fish go and I urge other people to do that too. But there is something about just connecting with with nature and reminding ourselves that we are as frail as those creatures out there and that we've got to take care of the lakes and we've got to be good stewards of this of the earth that we've been given we're not going to survive much chat. If you talk about letting a lot of your Phish cor there's some types of hooks that are more amenable to that than others. Yes, as a matter of fact even up on Mille Lacs. They're advocating barbless hooks with live bait fishing now, which is which is something new the bass fishermen have used barbless hooks for a long time. I would you just you can just take a regular hook and mush the bar back. I don't know anybody who buys hooks without barbs on them. But if you fish with a barbless hook, it is a lot easier to release fish. If you got hook a fish with live bait, it's more difficult to release the fish you if you want to let him go you should just clip the line off as close to the the fish has got as you And the hook will eventually dissolve. Is there any yeah, if it hasn't if you know if you pulled on it or the fish is bleeding profusely then keep it I've kept some really teeny walleyes in my life some that I just sort of stick under the seats of somebody wouldn't see them but if a fish is bleeding badly it's going to die and you might as well just add it to your bag limit, but catch and release fishing is growing and I support it. I think we need to teach our kids about that. There's a special thrill and letting a fish go at one of the interesting things over in Europe one of the record a record pike that's been caught in the British Isles has been cut two or three times the same fish. Now, this is a record so that the man who caught it released it and then a man came along about six months later and caught the same fish and established a new record because the fish is bigger, but I mean, I think that that kind of ethic is very admirable and how do they know it was the same fish because of markings on it special markings I've cut Bass in Lake of the Isles for five times. I recognize some of them by name just because of the markings on it. So it's I think it's fun to let some fish go. I don't think people should feel guilty about keeping fish. Keep keep. You know, what you need for the pan but too often we keep things just as an ego trip and we take pictures of them and then we bring them home when we don't clean them and they smell them and up throwing them away. And so I would just urge people to let some of the fish go that they catch talking about fishing with Chet Myers today and we got a couple of folks on the line also a liner to open now, if you've got a question for him in the Twin Cities, the number is two two seven six thousand 2276 thousand and outside the metropolitan area call us toll-free at 1-800-695-1418 within the state of Minnesota. Go ahead please you're on now with Chad Myers. (00:21:28) Okay, I'd like to ask about fly fishing. But before I do I'd like to say on that catch and release thing. I was in Yellowstone and had a great time on rivers that were only catching release and fun fishing. But I've never fly fishing around here for walleyes or panfish and I was wondering if you have and if you have any advice because I'd like to try (00:21:50) it. Well, it's ironic. You should ask them all the years that I've fished. I have never fly fished. I tried it a couple times and just had great difficulty learning by myself. So I vowed this year. I'm going to take lessons and learn how to fly fish. There's a lot of good fly fishing for crappies and bluegills and bass. I you can fly fish for walleyes, but that's really a difficult thing because you had to fish with a sinking flyer a nymph, but I really can't speak from my own experience about you know how to go about that. I know that there are a number of places around the Twin Cities where you can buy fly fishing equipment. There's a store in Minneapolis. I believe called bright Waters where they give fly-fishing lessons and I'm going to try it this year because I think it'll be great fun. I think it would be real sport to catch some large. And smallmouth bass on a fly and I though know that if you're if you River fishing if you like to River fish for Smallmouth bass, I was out with a man once who was fly fishing while I was spin fishing and he could make about five casts for every cast I could make because the fish typically lie along the shore by rocks and I would have to cast out and twitch my lower couple times and then retrieve it all the way back to the boat through a lot of dead water and he could just pick the fly up. It was a big hair bug and just drop it on the Rock pull it back drop it on the next truck and he was just killing me catching fish. So there are great advantages to fly fishing particularly when your Shoreline fishing or fishing and rivers. So I'll be something for you to try this year and maybe some other folks too. And you've got a question now for Chet go ahead please you're on the air with (00:23:26) him. Yes, sir. Chet. We like to fish Northerns and we're not very good at it. We enjoy it. We lay in the bottom of a boat and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches most of the time my son and I have been going opening day for I guess about 15 years and where am I going to catch the Northerns and Clearwater Lake this weekend (00:23:46) clear water like well, I haven't fished clear water, but I believe that the the pike will be particularly active. I think it should be really if you can't find the walleyes. You shouldn't have any trouble finding Pike. What I would do I would if you have a depth finder I would get out on the edge of the weed line and I would read both your rod and your son's rod with a about a 3/8 ounce jig and if it's clear waters at Clear Lake, you might go with like a green or chartreuse color and about 3 inch sucker minnows and just troll Very slowly back troll if you know how to back troll. It's just backing into the wind so that it slows your boat down. If you can't figure that out. You can even front troll real slowly or drift and just work along the weed line and just cover a lot of ground because I think the Northerners are going to be real active and and a jig and minnow would like about a 3-inch sucker minnow on there will probably prevent you from catching a lot of small fish. You're not going to have to worry about small fish Robin your bait and you should do really well on that. That's a real good technique for Northerns is just working the edge of a weed line with a big jig and Mentos and just covering a lot of ground and look for really really thick weeds because that's where the pike will be more folks with questions on the fishing topic today. Go ahead please your next just (00:25:02) listening. Hello. Mr. Mars. I would appreciate your opinion on the recent newspaper article saying that sport fishing has contributed to the depletion of the stock in Minnesota and the commercial fishermen are practically out of work. I'll hang up and listen. (00:25:17) I'm not a Fisheries biologist and I don't understand fishing demography well enough to to really have a judgment on that. I know that in Lake Superior, I did read the article with regard to Lake Superior that Lakes can only produce so many fish the lakes that have been around here since the last glaciation are probably producing as many fish now as they did then and we may be stocking to supplement some Lakes where the production is not up but people fail to realize that a lake is just is a living organism and some Lakes Produce Big Fish consistently and some Lakes Produce small fish consistently and Lake populations change quite a bit and when you've got a lot of people fishing and a lot of people fishing better than we used to I think the the average man and woman who fishes in Minnesota's much more intelligent and much more sophisticated than they were 10 years ago. They catch more fish and the the Anglers where there is commercial fishing aren't Petition with that stock of fish and there's only so many fish to go around. So we have to make choices. We have to make hard choices about whether we want to allow commercial fishing or whether we want to emphasize sport fishing and I know that there's a very very strong feelings on both sides about that, but I don't really I can't comment personally on it because I don't I don't understand that the in particular with regard to Lake Superior the demography of or the demographics of the fish there in the fish populations jet this might be as good a place as any since we're talking about the possible conflict between sport fishing and Commercial Fishing to bring up the issue of tilapia. I was hoping you wouldn't matter Charlie Berg says, hey, it's got to be the terrific answer to our to our problems. What do you think? Well, I don't know. I he's talking about fish farming. He's talking about a fish that is produced solely for food consumption and the tilapia has been introduced in other states where that was tried. It got loose. I've been in Florida and seeing tilapia just about anywhere and they compete with large mouth bass and with regard to the habitat on the spawning areas and they can push out the Largemouth and they can really mess up the largemouth bass fishing. I don't know if tilapia would survive if they got loose in Minnesota. But whenever you bring in an exotic or a fish that is not native to a given area and you say it's not going to get loose. I mean, you know, we're going to keep it in ponds in that that's just unrealistic. Something's going to happen whether fish eggs are somehow that fish will eventually work its way into some of the natural Waters again. I'm not sure if tilapia could survive Minnesota winters. I doubt that they could but I'm just real skeptical about about bringing in Exotics and that kind of thing. I mean if you want a fish farm catfish seem to Very very well. I've never eaten tilapia. I've eaten catfishing. I know catfisher real good eating but I'm just skeptical about about bringing an exotic sand and helping people up about things of that nature with regard to food production. Okay, we've got about a half-hour left with Jack Myers. Let's get some more folks on the line High your next go ahead, (00:28:20) please. Hi Chet. I got a couple questions for you at one. I inherited a Lawrence Green Box locator, and I have no idea how to read the thing and I'm wondering if you can refer me to a book or to a store somebody in the metro area where I can instruct me and the other is where's a good spot to go fishing down south in Minnesota. I dislike all the traffic and the northern part of the state. So I'll hang up and let your (00:28:41) answer. Okay, I think the best thing with regard to the to the depth finder would be to go to one of the sporting goods stores that sell it and you can buy depth finders at the chain stores or at Burger Brothers or just about any store around the Twin Cities the the way that you read the depth finder works on a sonar principle where sound waves are sent down and bounced off the bottom. Hands up and I read on a circular dial and there's a little red flasher light that goes around orange flash of light that revolves very very rapidly and Records the depth. It's there is a sophistication to reading it in that you have a rheostat where you can turn it up turn upper lower your power and you can get multiple readings. So if you don't know what you're doing, you might get two readings and I might look like you're in 2050 or 40 feet. So you do need to know how to how to use a depth finder and I would say the best thing to do would be to get a booklet and they have diagrams in the booklet that show you how to read the bottom depth finders will indicate the content of the bottom you get a very very sharp reading when you have a hard bottom. There are some areas of the city Lakes where I go over where there's really really really fine silt and the reading just about disappears you think your depth finder is broken. It's not it's just that there's nothing for the wave to bounce off of with regard to fishing in the southern part of the state As you move further south the Lakes become what's geologist call eutrophic they become Much much shallower muddier and we dear you don't find natural walleyes in many Southern lakes in Minnesota. They are stocked the best natural fishing. And again, it's it's a stocked fishing but it's an it's is a natural fish in that area is trout fishing in the southeast part of the state and if you want to get away from the crowds, that's a place to go. I've my wife and I just started visiting the southern Southeastern part of the state where the trout fishing is, there isn't just very little trout fishing in the southwest. But the southeast section of state is just beautiful and you can have streams completely to yourself. I mean, there's a little teeny streams where you can fish all day and not see another person and after the wall eye opener opens most people abandon those streams. So they're they're pretty much left alone. And there's lots of nice brown trout down there and rainbows and some brook trout. So I would say if you want to avoid the crowds and do a little stream fishing you can use spinning equipment. That's the streams and that section of the state are pretty narrow and their overhung with threes. Fly-fishing. They're not the big open streams that you find out west where you can use a fly rod. You have to use a small ultralight spinning rod. I think that's probably one of the best ways to fish those dreams. There are some streams that you can fish with a flower at but I think you know when you're walking stomp around the woods it's a lot easier if you're carrying a short 5 foot ultralight spinning rod than a 8 or 9-foot fly rod, but I would I would suggest you go to the southeast part of the state. I don't really know much about the lake fishing down there. I do know that the Mississippi River and Lake Pepin is very very good. But again, you need a pretty big boat to be out on Lake Pepin because it can get pretty windy. Would you eat the fish that you caught there? I'm not sure that's a good question, but I haven't read the advisory on Lake Pepin. I know that certain sections of the Mississippi. What's interesting about the Mississippi is that it cleans itself up. It's very very dirty and polluted in around the cities here and then it gets to Lake Pepin and right at the mouth of Lake Pepin is sort of dumps all of its sediment and in the water that runs out of the other end of Lake Pepin is just about as clear as the water in Lake Itasca now, I don't know. The pollutants or the toxic chemicals in it. So I would urge people to look at the you know the advisor. I know that many of the fish in those areas. You can only limited numbers of meals per week from all right moving on to some more folks with fishing questions. Chad Myers is listening and you're on with a no go ahead. (00:32:20) Yeah. I really have enjoyed fishing down there in southeast Minnesota, but it's been sort of frustrating sometimes going on the streams where there's evidence that there may be a some trout there that but the streams are summer in pretty bad shape. Are you aware of any program to help landowners and Farmers to develop their streams, especially for trout (00:32:40) fishing? Well, I know that the DNR does a lot of work in rehabilitating streams. I was I was down there last year and taking pictures for class that I teach in fishing once a year in ask one of the DNR. Borden's if he could tell me about a stream that they had done some work and they had dumped huge quantities of limestone Rock in this one area and rehabilitated a stream made the channel a little deeper and he said that in about three years that rock would all be covered over at the time. I was done there was really obvious what was going on, but he said in a couple years that will be covered over and you won't even know that the the sections that streamer actually artificially constructed. There is a bill called our I am Rim bill which is reinvested Minnesota. And I don't know the specifics of that but there are monies that are to be available for improvement of habitat and things of that nature and I guess I would ask you to contact your state senator and ask about the rimbaud. I think we need to support it. It is a bill that is designed specifically so that we can reinvest in Minnesota and improve both fish and wildlife habitat, but I know some of the streams are in bad shape down there, but the DNR does do work with the limited resources they have And rehabilitating them today's guest is Chet Myers and we're talking about fishing in advance of the fishing opener this coming Saturday chat. Rightz, a lot of magazine articles about fishing. He also has a book out with a lender called bass a handbook of strategies and by profession he teaches philosophy and religion at Metropolitan State University in the Twin Cities. You've got a fishing question a day. Go ahead, please just listening (00:34:16) now. Yeah, thanks. I guess you could call me a fishing Duffer. I don't own a boat. I just stand on the bank and I've had lots of good luck with blue gallon Sunfish. Particularly. I'm concerned on Lake Minnetonka a couple other leaks. I think I found some spawning beds. Are those going to change this year. Do you think the Sunfish will be out in a different spot? And what is the deal with crappies last Friday? I went out this happen before I fish by a Trestle and I my partner and I caught our limit we fish till our minerals were gone yesterday. I went out I caught some fish and they stopped dead. They seem to get spooked or they go away Duke. He do that or what's the deal? I'll hang up. They sure do. (00:35:01) Let me with regard to the question about crappies fish move around and they'll be in one area and be really really thick in one area and and then the next day particularly crappie that feed on small minnows and other bio organisms that are in the water if the food chain shifts or moves like with the wind those fish will move the wind has a big effect on pan fish fishing. Most people don't realize that because it blows the food around so it could be that there was just a big shift in the wind. Also if a cold front comes through and you have Real Clear Blue Skies that just seems to be the death of most fishing. We don't understand why and I've talked to lots of Anglers and biologists. There are many theories floating around. Nobody knows why fishing gets bad when a cold front comes through but as soon as after a rain, like if tomorrow after this rain, we have a bright clear sunny day and a little bit crisp air and the there's no humidity. The light penetration is really really intense and that just seems to put most Down so sometimes it's just a change in the weather with regard to your initial question about about crappies and I might add largemouth bass and bluegills that build nests. Yeah. There's going to be a change this year. There is less spawning habitat available because many of the lakes are down one foot two feet three feet. And whenever you have Falling Waters, you have decreasing spawning habitat for the largemouth bass. So they may still stay in the same areas. The problem is that when the water the water closer to shore is usually a harder or the bottom closer to shore is usually a harder bottom and those fish need to Fan away the silt before they can build their nests if the bottom gets increasingly muddy and silty they will have difficulty nesting so they will look for hard bottom areas sand bottoms or hard mud bottoms or Rock Bottom's where they can fan out a nest and build a nest. So I would imagine I would still Prospect in the same general area where you've got crappies and bluegills and bass. For but I would just get out in a boat and look around at the water is clear this time of year and you can see the nests and if you don't see any nests and their nesting right now, you know that they're not in the area so you could that something you can visualize put on a pair of polarized glasses get in your boat. And before you even start fishing just sort of roll around and look for nests more folks talking about fishing with Chad Myers today. You have a question for him next. Go ahead. Hello. Hello. Yeah (00:37:27) that fella talking about all the traffic and following the fishermen in southern many and all that. I fished with a fellow heart Montana He never liked to fish where everyone was fishing and we didn't catch very many fish. You know, you gotta kind of keep your eyes open and where there's a whole bunch of guys fishing. That's usually where the fish are (00:37:49) there for a reason, uh, uh there for a (00:37:51) reason. Well, sure. (00:37:53) Okay. We got a question for (00:37:54) Chad. I just kind of interested. I don't hate to see him chasing around the country. Looking for a place to fish where nobody's fishing because that isn't a very good idea. I think you could just fill up the bath tub and catch just as (00:38:10) much well true. What I was suggesting is that there's a lot of pressure on those trout streams in the early part of the year when the other season is an open and when the other season opens Jen are there aren't as many people down there. But certainly I mean you can you can ask at the DNR and the DNR does have a map called trout streams of southeast Minnesota which indicates all the streams have been stocked and when they were stocked it's a very excellent little map because just sometimes just sections of streams are stocked and most of the fish that are stocked are brown trout. But if you get that map from the DNR it's and it's got a pretty detailed County roads on a to so that you can get back into some of those out of the way places. It's a good bet that they're you know, they're trapped in the area. You know, that's one thing, you know, for sure Jen. It's a little clearer to me unclear to me what your position on high-tech stuff is you say you don't like to Fish sense, but you have mentioned the use of a depth finder. How about some of the other electronic gadgets fish finders and other things that are out there? Well the depth finder in the Fishfinder really the same thing at most people use the depth the fish finder to find the depth. It's a bottom indicator and they have come out in the past years with a graphing meter now, which that's right actual graphs the bottom so that you can actually see the fish. It's difficult to see the fish on a flasher unit because they just pick up as little blips with a graphing depth finder. You can see the fish. I guess. I don't And I'm not philosophically opposed to two equivalent of that nature. I do use depth finder that I'd be lost without one but when it gets to color selectors and PH meters and oxygen meters and things of that nature, I think that often the angling public is hyped by the people in marketing and we're all looking for a quick fix to fix our fishing where we used to look for super lures. When all we had was lures. That was the thing. That was the most important every year in new lure would come out. Well now every year a new piece of equipment comes out and you can spend so much time running your boat and having it Laden with enough batteries to run your pH meter your oxygen meter your color selector your depth finder your graphing meter that you don't have much time to fish so not to mention your refrigerator in your automatic ice maker. Right, right. So I guess I'm just I'm just cautioning people that the key to fishing is really knowledge about the creature that you're going after. I mean you can have all the equipment in the world and still on most lakes. 90% of the lake is devoid of fish and you've got to find the 10% of the five percent that has fish. Well, if you've got all the equipment and not the knowledge of where to find those fish that equipments not going to do you any good at all. Hmm. Yeah. So some experience can really make the big difference certainly in practice in reading about things. Let's move on to some more folks with questions how your next and just listening go (00:40:57) ahead. We are going to be running a cabin up North for a week this summer and neither my husband nor I have gone fishing since we were kids. He can borrow equipment from his father, but are six and a half year old daughter is just dying go fishing and I'm wondering if it's worth the money to buy her a child's Rod one of the inexpensive ones. We don't want to spend a lot of money on this. (00:41:25) I would suggest for a six-year-old that you get a cane pull. I really think that that's that's probably the best approach the most simple and that you spend some time fishing for crappies and bluegills and you can find crappies and bluegills on on your Lake around docks. They love to hang around docks and they're in the shallows and with a cane pole with a which is fixed. The line is fixed to the end of the rod so that there's no real and a bobber and a small hook you can have a lot of fun with that and it's a very effective way of fishing. I know professional Anglers at find some situations where a cane pole works, you know, just about as good or better than a big high-tech rod and reel I wouldn't if the child is going to get interested in fishing. I would urge you to consider, you know, spending some money a little later on in her life perhaps on a fairly solid rod and reel the package deals that you can buy for $8.00. It's got the rod and the Reel and the The Tackle Box and the lures and the Stringer and the scalar and the knife and the I mean, it's just not worth it best to invest in a in a fairly good real accept the fact that a lot of rods will get broken don't spend a lot of money on rods but I urge people in my classes that want their children to start fishing if they're if they're like 10 11 years old to get them an open-faced spinning reel and start them right off with that. Are you going to be teaching another fishing class pretty soon? I won't be I've teach some clinics in the spring but those are over and there will be a course offered at Metro the summer. I will not be teaching it. It'll be taught by Fisheries biologist by the name of Greg boosts a cure will be teaching the fishing course this summer at Metro but there is of course the pick there will be of course if an Innovative, it's a regular for credit. We don't offer credits but we use that as a comparison. It's a regular College course and it lasts 10 weeks and meets. I believe one evening a week for three hours. It's part of our Curriculum, all right, 15 minutes left with Chet Myers and we'll put you on the air with him now. Go ahead (00:43:29) please. Hello. Yes. I was wondering if you could mention some specific streams and lakes where you can catch for the streams. Anyway trout in the in the southeast part of the state preferably with a fly rod and also some lakes in the area where you can catch northern pike fairly regularly, and I'd like it if you could limit to areas within two hours of the metro area. I'll hang up and listen. Thank you. (00:43:57) Okay, I don't the Whitewater area where I fish in the Southeastern part of the state is the Whitewater area The Root River down there has trout into the white water river their branches of the white water river that are very very good trout fishing and there is a DNR place down there where you can talk to one of the people and get some up-to-date information on that. So that is not that long a drive from your I think you can make it in a couple of hours or maybe a little over two hours also with regard to Pike wait, it's there's so many good lakes or northern pike. I think Minnetonka is a very good Pike like it's got a lot of Pike in it Lake Calhoun. One of the city of lakes has very big Pike in it people don't fish for them. But that much but they've got 25 Pounders and I tell a story every year but my friend who saw a northern take a full-grown duck down on Lake Calhoun and have it for lunch. No kidding and he estimated the fishes about 25 pounds. Harry does not a good is not a good Pike like because it's the pike have been meted out so that they can stock it with muskies and walleyes, but I would say Minnetonka would be a real good bet for northern pike has a lot of nice old 5 to 10-pound Northern Pike in Minnetonka. You have a chance of getting a big fish there moving on to your question next for Chad Myers. Hello. (00:45:13) Hi. I just would like to say that I love to fish but I'd like to gain a little more knowledge about some of the techniques and I'm wondering if you teach a class that is available around. Town or if you recommend any classes or books that you can think of (00:45:29) well, I just mentioned the course at Metro State University chat, but maybe a little more information on that. Well the course runs the summer quarter begins. I believe the last week in June of the first week in July and runs for 10 weeks and it's just part of our regular Natural Science curriculum. It's taught as a combination biology limnology botany fishing course and Greg boosts. A Kirk is a Fisheries biologist will be teaching it this this summer as far as books go, you know for all the books that are out on fishing. There aren't that many that are really good and I have difficulty right now thinking off the top of my head about a good fishing book. I would the in fisherman magazine is a really good magazine that and fishing facts. Those are two magazines that you can subscribe to one is out of Brainerd the others out of somewhere in Wisconsin, but those are very good magazines for for fishing and also, Fins and Feathers locally has some good fishing articles in it. Don't you want to recommend your own book? Judge? Sure. How long after the here you go golden opportunity the bass the I'm embarrassed by the title because it's so prosaic but bass a handbook of strategies is a book that I wrote with a lender and Bobby Murray and that is generally available at be Dalton's. It's part of the in fisherman series of books and that's that's a really good book for beginners. Also, I would say okay it's about bass but it really teaches you about finding fish and locating fish. And if you can fish for bass you can fish for anything because bass is probably the most versatile fish that we've got in the in Minnesota. All right. We are talking with Chet Myers about the fishing opener this coming Saturday. We've got a few folks on the line with questions Let's Get to You Next. Hello. (00:47:13) I have a question about fishing on the st. Croix and I wondered if if I could find walleyes in there. I think there are Northerns and I'm interested in the area between the Hudson and Prescott, maybe you could give me a little information on this and I'll hang up and listen. Thank you (00:47:32) the lower st. Croix is generally a good walleye section of the river there. There are the upper st. Croix is from Taylors Falls on up and you can catch numbers of smaller walleyes in the upper st. Croix and also smallmouth bass from Taylors Falls down to Stillwater. You will get some walleyes in the spring the walleyes will migrate up to the dam area and they will spawn in the spring but I would imagine they're gone from there now and in the summer on the lower st. Croix, you're generally talking about fishing walleyes from Stillwater on down the area around Hudson is very very good the walleyes move around a lot and their Udders. It's big water down there in Lake st. Croix below Hudson, but up in the Narrows before the the river widens out as a very very good place in the fall the walleyes every year they move around a little bit. So they're not in the Same place, but that's a good place to catch walleyes in the fall. And if you get down in the in the regular the larger portion of the river, which is really like like you treat it sort of like like I mean, there's not that much current it so you'd need a depth finder and you'd look for drop-offs and and I would fish with live bait rigs but it's the the st. Croix I think the fish migrate and move around between the Mississippi in the st. Croix lot and sometimes the fishing can be really good. I've seen yours and Hudson in the fall where it's just wonderful down to Prescott Prescott can be really really good in the spring I would imagine by now that fishing is probably slowed down a bit but the area around Prescott again picks up in the fall and you'll always see boats drifting that that area right by the where the Confluence of the Mississippi in the st. Croix come together can be a great place. I would check the health advisor on that on those fish though. I it may not be safe to eat them to regularly in there may be some even more restricted consumption advisory things that the health Has but it's generally walleye fishing in the city and lower sink or he's like from Stillwater on down Jen you talk a little bit about different kinds of baits. So what's the deal with spinner baits? And why are they becoming so popular? Well, the spinner bait is really a jig with a spinner on it and the jig is a very very versatile Lord because you can put the minnow on the hook and bounce it off the bottom and whenever you're fishing on a near the bottom most people fish too far off the bottom or not fishing the bottom properly the nice thing about a spinnerbait is that you can cast it out and it sinks and as it sinks the blade Twirls around and tracks fish both visually and in the sound that it makes and you can put a little piece of a night crawler or a minnow on it and had the smell as an additional tractor. You can cover a lot of ground with spinnerbaits. You can fish them fairly fast by casting them and letting them flutter down and drop up and retrieve you can throw them into weeds. They're pretty weed-free. Most people don't like to fish in the weeds. That's where many of the fish are. So the spinnerbait gives you the added advantage of being able to throw into a pile of weeds and come out without getting your laurels snarled up. So it's a very very versatile if I had to pick one lure to live and die on in Minnesota Lakes throughout the year. It'll be a spinnerbait. That's a pretty strong recommendation from Chet Myers who is our guest today and we'll go to your question for him next. Hello. (00:50:47) Hi Chet. Now, let's see some preservation of listening. I wonder as a philosopher how you could you address this this issue of killing animals for sport. (00:51:03) Sure. I mean, I'll tackle that. I I do kill fish. I also let fish go I don't my feelings with regard to the killing of animals is that there's and this may sound contradictory, but it's my own feeling is that I have a deep respect for all living creatures whenever I kill a fish I Quickly, I don't usually leave it on the Stringer. I don't drag it around. I knock it on the head and put it in an ice chest so that it doesn't suffer. I'm just I'm an animal I eat other animals and I'm not apologetic about that. And I guess I've argued with some of my reverence for Life friends that one of the reasons that they don't have trouble eating carrots as they just can't hear the carrots scream as they're being torn up by the roots and I say that you know, jokingly but I do I do see all I mean if if everything is sacred if all life is sacred, then all life is sacred in the end There's no distinction fine distinction between animals and plants as far as I'm concerned the fish are a harvestable crop. I mean so many fish will be produced so many fish will die because they will be eaten by their kind and I'm just part of that food chain and I enjoy eating fish and I but I do I do for me the important thing is the The with which the natural environment is held if my fishing was to cause the depletion of a species or to make that fish no longer available. I wouldn't do it in other words if fish become in that kind of danger where we just can't catch them anymore without putting risking an Extinction then I would stop fishing but that is not the case and there are plenty of fish in Minnesota to go around and I'm just part of the food chain like the northern pike that's waiting out on the edge of the weed bed. We've got about five minutes left with Chapman. See if we can get as many of you on the line as possible. Hi there your next go (00:52:59) ahead. Hi. I'm going to be in a bass tournament in Nisswa Wisconsin of third week in June and I was wondering if you could tell me what you think the most important aspect of my strategy should be should I concentrate more on lures or location? I'll hang up and listen, (00:53:17) I would take a thermometer long. I think the key thing is going to be when the bass of spawned. I would imagine that by now. The bass are spotting in most parts of the state. Which in this is the what the second week in May so that by the third week in June, I would expect that. The fish will have completely recovered from their spawning rigors that there won't be any fish around the nests anymore. The Nest will be gone. The male's won't even be guarding the nest because the the fra will have hatched out and I would expect to find the fish in their summer pattern. I mean generally by that time of the year the fish are in a summer pattern and they'll be in there even a little earlier this year. So I would look for bass on the edge of weed beds. I would expect to find schools of bass. As I said earlier. I don't expect we'd find big schools of walleyes for the opener, but I would imagine by that time in June that you will find schools a bath. I'd cover a lot of ground I'd expect the best to be active. I would throw spinnerbaits in Crank baits mostly until I located the fish and I'd have another Rod rigged with plastic worms. I work over an area if I caught a couple fish with spinnerbaits, then I'd switched maybe to a plastic worm and try to tease a few more bass out of the area, but I would expect to find the best schooled and it should be a you know should be a good time to have a tournament because I think with the bass recuperated the fish should be very very active. All right. You have a question. Now do you for Chad Myers you're on the air with him. Go ahead. (00:54:43) Yes a few minutes ago your guests. I think suggested that one of the most important things for catching fish was to have a knowledge of fish behavior and habitat and I was wondering for the uneducated fisherman. Do you have a book that you might recommend that deals with fish behavior and habitat and fish species in Minnesota? (00:55:03) Yeah, I could recommend two books that are I think are generally good 11 egotistical is a book that I wrote which is out of print and it's a shame. It's out of print because I think it's a real good. Book it's called catching fish. It's available on the library's it's written by Chad Myers and A lender and it's a very very good book for people who are beginning fishing. The other is a book called the scientific angler by Paul Johnson, which is a very very good book on fish behavior and fish biology and talks a lot about understanding fishes. It creature and a third book is called through the fish's eye by sosin and Clark. I think all three of those books would be very very good books for people who are getting into fishing for the first time to read we got time for one. Maybe two more questions for a Chad Myers today. Go ahead. You're on the liquor with him now. (00:55:54) I was wondering if your guests would recommend perhaps as far as not only finding place to fish but in terms of how to fish that little book the Twin Cities fishing guide that civil Smith wrote for the women angry women and Girls Club of Minnesota because it also not only tells people would go around Twin Cities are as use it all the time, but also, The lot of good tips on how to find fishing with time. And the other thing is I've taught a lot of kids how to fish and frankly. I found the king pulled the not really the best thing I think a little push button spin cast real an expensive one like a Johnson and his epochal and a nice little inexpensive fiberglass Rod even a child can learn to work that push-button real very quickly and you'll find a very versatile nail Deal use it throughout their younger childhood was a cane pole they use it for a while now find it awkward and they're not going to not going to be able to do as much with it even small. Children (00:56:47) Richard. What do you think about all that's true that the woman was just saying that she didn't want to spend a lot of money and she wasn't I gathered wasn't sure whether the fishing was going to take her not with a child. So that's why I recommend a cable. But sure the push-button real is great with regard to civil Smith's book you have for people who like to fish in the Twin Cities area. It's an excellent book Sybil interviewed. Oh over a hundred different Anglers and had them remapped redraw the maps of lakes in the local area, and I've got one that I carry around with me. And mark up all the time. So it's a very very very good book and I understand that the symbols also working on a new book for the Brainerd Lakes. I'm not sure when that's going to be available. But the Twin Cities fishing guide with Sybil Smith is a very very good book. Well chat. We have just about run out of time. Thank you very much for coming and visiting with us today. Are you going to be out for five o'clock in the morning or midnight on well, I'm going to let the weather dictate but I will be at for opener out filner and looking forward to it and you'll have good company. Lots of other folks can be doing just the same thing. Thank you, sir. Chet Myers has been visiting with us today about the fishing opener coming up Saturday in Minnesota. Chet is an author of many many articles on fishing and also co-author with a lender of basa Handbook of strategies.