I will be there also, flag football was cancelled due to the heat so I'm there. Hey Matt Braith wanna car pool? I sent you a message with my number call me if you want we live like five minutes from each other I could pick you up. Either way ill be there gun lake is close to me and I've fished it before, would love to see more lakes with muskies around Barry county lets do gull lake next!
"Jim tenHaaf" said:
[quote="bails"]would love to see more lakes with muskies around Barry county lets do gull lake next!
Not a chance. LOL. Gull's got some pretty big Pike. Heard of some up to 46". The suspended muskie fishery there would be sweet though!
Gull is a phenomenal pike lake, by far my favorite/best ice fishing lake. We slammed the pike a couple weeks back trolling over 100ft of water for lake trout out there.
It's killing me but I can't make the meeting tonight. I wish I could send a proxy.
GREAT meeting tonight- big thanks to all who came! It was a good, lively discussion that took the entire 2 hours.
At the conclusion, each person in attendance was asked to give their stance on the whether to stock and manage Gun for muskies, or not.
The most often repeated phrase was "I came in here tonight dead set against muskies, and now I'm on the fence." Some even went a step further. Just for the record, the final tally was 14 in favor, 3 opposed, and 5 on the fence.
I was very worried at first when you could tell most of the crowd was older lake residents who remembered the social issues created in the 80's… and the DNR guys couldn't even get thru the first slide of the presentation without condescending remarks, and hints of opposition.
But, like Duke said, there was some excellent discussion, and a lot of guys who were adamantly opposed are now in favor or "on the fence". and the guys that were "on the fence" will be in favor after a current lake survey is done that shows imbalance in the lake.
I think one of the best comments of the night, was also a bit of a challenge. The guy that set up the meeting location closed the meeting basically begging for more education… I think that falls on us [smilie=2thumbsup.gif]
What a great meeting! I cannot believe how many minds we swayed. Big thx to Duke & Pete Lebaron, and Will Schultz for all the data provided
To show more support for this, everybody take a second and sign this online petition.
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"Smada962" said:
Awesome, thanks to all who made it there. Im real sorry I couldn't go to try to help out.
If you didn't make it they said that public meetings are only one of the many things they take into consideration. I would definitely drop them a email in support of restoring the natural GLS population in Gun Lake.
It was fun to see some of the old timers heads spin as they couldn't disprove science with hear-say. I think a lot of the guys "on the fence" will definitely come around they just didn't want to admit they were wrong
"jawtag" said:
[quote="Smada962"]Awesome, thanks to all who made it there. Im real sorry I couldn't go to try to help out.
If you didn't make it they said that public meetings are only one of the many things they take into consideration. I would definitely drop them a email in support of restoring the natural GLS population in Gun Lake.
I signed that petition and shared it on FB. I will send an email also.
"Mayhem" said:
Thanks to everyone that was able to go to the meeting and worked to make this happen.Out of curiosity what were the oppositions reason to being against the proposal? Was it just the same "muskies will eat all the gamefish" rhetoric or were there other concerns?
Yes, muskies will eat all the walleye we stock.
Yeah I left in a hurry sorry to everyone there that I haven't introduced myself to I was so excited to talk Muskie but I have a bad temper and wAs nervous to have a one on one conversation with some of those guys. They were so rude to say the least. I was not ready for that I think I said 2 words at the very end of the debate. "Definitely yes" was my answer and the old man behind me made a pffh sound and laughed, the same guy that basically said go ahead and stock them we will just kill them like we did before. I wish they could understand that Muskie would allow for more trophy walleye to grow larger and if they really cared AboUt walleye they would push For slot limits and really push for catch and release among anglers on their lake. Before I ever even thought about Muskie fishing I fished thornapple for wAlleyes and could always catch them, and even caught a 9 pounder oh yeah! And the gentleman that said he talks to fisherman on thornapple that hate the fact that they put muskies in that lake I have never…. Ever heard anything along those lines. I feel obliged to start walleye/crappie fishing on thornapple to show them that that lake is an amazing fishery full of a ton of species. One of my buddies caught two five pound large mouths on a local tourney for the road commission on a buzzbait and said it has the biggest bass around the county. To be honest I was offended about how rude they were. Overall though it was a good meeting the fact that some men went from negative to open was amazing and it wouldn't of happened without the comments that were made by people there. By the way… My favorite comment…. Muskie eat small mouths!!!! Please… It would be like saying I love to eat bark off of trees!
Sorry I couldn't be there, but I would imagine Duke, Pete and Will did us proud. I take it you guys told them how lakes with Walleye improved with muskies. If I would have been there I would have gotten in trouble. Alot of people who live on lakes will go out and limit on whatever there fishing for go home clean them and come back out and do it again. We know muskie want shad, suckers, carp. But if they do eat a walleye, smallie or whatever. Can someone tell me they probably eat one or two fish a day, not 5 to a hundred.
"bails" said:
Yeah I left in a hurry sorry to everyone there that I haven't introduced myself to I was so excited to talk Muskie but I have a bad temper and wAs nervous to have a one on one conversation with some of those guys. They were so rude to say the least. I was not ready for that I think I said 2 words at the very end of the debate. "Definitely yes" was my answer and the old man behind me made a pffh sound and laughed, the same guy that basically said go ahead and stock them we will just kill them like we did before. I wish they could understand that Muskie would allow for more trophy walleye to grow larger and if they really cared AboUt walleye they would push For slot limits and really push for catch and release among anglers on their lake. Before I ever even thought about Muskie fishing I fished thornapple for wAlleyes and could always catch them, and even caught a 9 pounder oh yeah! And the gentleman that said he talks to fisherman on thornapple that hate the fact that they put muskies in that lake I have never…. Ever heard anything along those lines. I feel obliged to start walleye/crappie fishing on thornapple to show them that that lake is an amazing fishery full of a ton of species. One of my buddies caught two five pound large mouths on a local tourney for the road commission on a buzzbait and said it has the biggest bass around the county. To be honest I was offended about how rude they were. Overall though it was a good meeting the fact that some men went from negative to open was amazing and it wouldn't of happened without the comments that were made by people there. By the way… My favorite comment…. Muskie eat small mouths!!!! Please… It would be like saying I love to eat bark off of trees!
Hey sorry I didn't get a chance to introduce myself or the rest of the guys- we did have a very good showing from MMA there.
You have a lot of fishing experience on Thornapple- I think you should send an email to the DNR saying just what you did above. They sometimes publish and share the written comments they receive on a certain topic, and it would be great to have this positive experience with other species on Thorn. Thanks send it to Kregg ** you do not have permission to see this link **
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