Sarah, Shetek and others beckon – Tracy Area Headlight Herald

DNR Fisheries Specialist Jonah Dagel and Durel Carstensen, DNR Aquatic Plant Management specialist, are shown grading walleyes at Lake Sarah earlier this spring. Grading puts the fish into one of three categories — green (not ready to squeeze), ripe (ready to squeeze) or spent (already spawned). Grading is an important part of keeping track of fish populations in Minnesota lakes.
(DNR photo)

Minnesota fishing opener is Saturday

By Per Peterson

Chuck Obler, fishing technician for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said there will come a time in the next few years that the walleye won’t be biting much on Lake Sarah. But for now, he said, Sarah should once again be the place to go in southwest Minnesota for trophy walleye.
“They’re there again,” Obler said. “We had a pile of fish over 8 pounds again — the biggest was 14; of course, that’s with eggs in them. There are a tremendous number of 8- to 12-pounders and there are still a lot of 17- to 18-inchers out there.”
The walleye and northern pike opener is Saturday.
Obler said Sarah got hit hard once again this winter, but that the lake is holding up to the pressure. However, “a lot of those 8- to 12-pounders aren’t going to live a whole lot longer, so there could be a void in the next year or two,” he said. “But there is a whole lot of little fishing coming up, too.”
He also said there are “scads of perch” in Sarah, with one net bringing up about 2,000, many in the 9- to 10-inch range.
“That’s a great place to go for perch if you’re looking for panfish,” he said.

For more on this article, see this week’s Headlight-Herald.