WHAT'S  NEW  AT  THE  LAKE

Minnesota DNR to Begin Cormorant Control on Lake Vermilion

The Sportsmen's Club of Lake Vermilion welcomes news that the DNR Fisheries Division will begin controlling the population of double-crested cormorants at Lake Vermillion this spring.

This action follows several years of surveys that show a consistently lower perch population in the lake’s east bay. The DNR has acquired the necessary permissions, including a public resource depredation order administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, based on a “weight of evidence” approach that indicated that yellow perch are being negatively affected by the size of the cormorant population on Potato Island in 2012. Perch are the lake’s primary forage fish for walleye.

The proposed control will consist of culling 10 percent of the adult birds present and oiling the eggs of all nesting pairs. Oiling prevents the eggs from hatching. Together, this approach controls existing numbers of birds, eliminates new production and reduces fish consumption that would have occurred from feeding and raising young birds. This initial control strategy will be monitored for effectiveness by measuring perch abundance in annual netting surveys and counting the number of nesting pairs of cormorants each year.

The complete DNR news release is available here.

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Hall of Fame TV Personality to be Featured Speaker at the Sportsmen's Club 2013 Annual Meeting

Mark your calendars! You'll want to attend the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Sportsmen’s Club of Lake Vermilion on Saturday, August 10, 2013 at Fortune Bay Resort. The featured speaker will be legendary tournament fisherman and media personality, James Lindner.

Growing up in the world of sport fishing, James Lindner has filmed and fished from the Arctic Circle tundra to South American jungles and from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts. He's a multi-species fisherman and his prowess in the world of musky fishing is legendary. James has dominated the Canadian American Smallmouth Bass circuit, with multiple first place wins on the KBI and FFBC.

In 2008, James was inducted into the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame as a Legendary Communicator for his outstanding achievement in the realm of sport fishing. In 2003, he was honored as the Rapala Angler of the Year.

Further information about the 2013 Annual Meeting, including how to make reservations, will be available in mid-June.

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