One of the daily duties of the Lake of the Woods winter creel clerk is to count all the fish houses that are present in the area of the lake where he is working. Fish houses are counted as the clerk travels the big lake. The survey area extends from the mouth of the Rainy River, on the Ontario border, to Buffalo Point, on the Manitoba border.
The mean daily fish house tally between January 1-15, 2007, was 1,917. The number of fish houses was up about 28% from the same period in 2006, when the creel clerk documented 1,497 houses.
Of the January 2007 total: 684 houses were located in the Pine Island-Morris Point area; 359 were near Zippel Bay; 125 were near Long Point; 128 were around Rocky Point; and 201 were located between Rocky Point and the Manitoba border.
In addition, there were 246 fish houses on the Rainy River between Clementson and Wheeler's Point. Fish houses located in the Northwest Angle and Islands are not included in the survey.
For more information on the Lake of the Woods winter creel survey, contact the Baudette Area Fisheries office at 218-634-2522, or email Large Lake Specialist.
© 2010
MN Department of Natural Resources
