sausageheavenoutdoors Enjoy making homemade sausage, Tasty way's to BBQ, smoking meats and poultry. See how northern Minnesota was settled and the life early homesteader's lived their lives and more!!

MEMORIAL DAY

Honoring veterans and first responders is something I do every day not just on a holiday set to honor them.  Same with Veterans day.  One day is not enough to honor them, it’s an everyday obligation for me.  While we honor our veterans and first responders many families go to graveyards to spend time with family members and friends who have gone to be with God.  I’m sure most think of their loved one’s nearly everyday as well.

As a veteran myself  I deeply appreciate our veterans of the past, present, and future along with our first responders who keep us healthy and protect us.  So I hope all is well with you and your family and spend a safe and fun weekend.  When you see a soldier, walk up to him or her and thank them for their service.  Keep your family and our veterans and first responders in your prayers daily.

Have a great weekend on the lake as well.  This is a older photo of a lake we camped on north of Duluth.

Eat well also this weekend like this bacon wrapped homemade  chili dog I made.  If you need the recipe for chili dogs or other sausages check out the Homemade Sausage Page.  Lot’s of good stuff on the Smokin Hot page or the recipe page as well.  Have a great weekend.  Reinhard

WALLEYE EGG COLLECTION

Another successful walleye egg-collection operation is in the books-and in the jars.  Walleye egg collection operations wrapped up April 29 when the final batch of eggs was collected in Fergus Falls.  In all, more than 4,500 quarts of walleye eggs were collected at 10 operations throughout the state.

Each year, Minnesota DNR fisheries staff set up temporary egg stripping and fertilizing operations at various locations around the state to meet the stocking needs prescribed by individual lake management plans.  After eggs are collected and fertilized, the initially fragile eggs are hardened for several hours with fresh water.  After hardening, the eggs are transported to a hatchery building and measured into special hatching jars where they incubate for two to three weeks before hatching into fry.

Roughly one-third of the 360 million fry anticipated to hatch this year will grow in rearing ponds throughout the summer and then be stocked as fingerlings in 362 lakes this fall.  The other two thirds of the fry are stocked directly into 302 lakes  within a few days of hatching.  Fisheries biologists check on the survival of stocked fingerlings or fry with follow-up assessments.

“While stocking walleye is an important part of our fisheries management strategy, it’s also important to note that 85% of walleye caught by anglers are naturally produced,” said Chris Kavanaugh, northeast regional fisheries manager.  “Many Minnesota lakes have excellent natural walleye  reproduction without any stocking, but in some lakes, the walleye fishery exists solely because of stocking.”

Individual lake management plans prescribe the timing and amount of any stocking based on the available habitat, prey availability and past success.  Not all lakes can benefit from stocking.  While time and labor intensive, walleye eggs collected this way have a much higher hatching success rate than what occurs in nature.  However, maintaining good water quality and natural spawning habitat with a healthy adult population can produce many more walleye than hatcheries can provide.  Each lake that has an egg collection operation is restocked with fry to more than compensate for the egg collection activity.

FISHING AND HUNTING ITEMS

That time of the year again, and just in case you are wondering:

Fishing Dates To Remember

Saturday May 14;  Minnesota fishing opener for walleye and northern pike, and stream trout in lakes; bass opener in northeast; bass catch-and -release season opens statewide except northeast.

Saturday,  May 28: Bass season opens statewide

Saturday, June 4; Muskellunge season opener

Friday, June 10, to Sunday, June 12; Take a Kid Fishing Weekend

You can already fish for panfish, trout in streams, catfish and a variety of other species.  Going to be a great year!!!

DNR  To Implement Northeast Deer Permit Area Changes In 2017

Public response to a proposal to re-align a handful of deer permit areas in the northeast part of the state has prompted the Minnesota DNR to wait to implement the change in 2017.  The agency made the proposal and asked for public comment about it earlier this year, with possible implementation as soon as this fall.  However, comments on the proposal showed that the information presented did not clearly explain the reasons for the proposed changes, implications for deer populations and potential health benefits for moose.

Prior to the 2017 deer hunting seasons the DNR will:

Clarify the agency’s overall goals for moose management and how the proposal supports that work.

Provide detailed deer population estimates and trends, detailed deer harvest reports by permit area, public survey information, and 2015 deer goal setting process and outcomes.

Describe how the proposal would maintain current deer populations in the moose emphasis areas, and increase deer populations elsewhere in the region.

Better explain the relationship of habitat, winter weather and predation to both deer and moose.  In addition, data being collected from ongoing studies at the University of Minnesota investigating deer and moose, as well as wolf and moose interactions, will be integrated into these efforts.

I hunt these areas so I will pay attention to future information on this.