The end of summer comes to most Minnesota lakes with a wheeze or a whimper. The water is still warm, walleyes are tough to find, and when you do find them they don’t want to bite.

But on the Minnesota-Ontario border, Rainy Lake puts out one of the best walleye bites of the year during this sweltering hot time period. So good in fact, that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources began a hooking mortality study on the lake’s walleyes.

Starting on Aug. 9 and running through the middle of September, volunteers and DNR Fisheries biologists have begun the second year of a deepwater hooking mortality study on Rainy Lake walleyes. While numerous studies have examined the effects of hooking mortality, the current study is geared toward fish caught in water deeper than 35 feet, a common occurrence during the terrific walleye bite that occurs at the end of the summer.

Seeing the study in action is quite the sight. Anglers can use whatever method they choose to try and catch fish in water deeper than 35 feet, but they must stay within one half of a mile of the net pen the fish are kept in.

Once a fish is caught, anglers must measure how long it took them to unhook the fish, then drop the fish in a tub of water and radio a fisheries staff member from the International Falls office in a runner boat to come over and pick up the fish.

Once the fish are picked up by the runner boat, running time and the total length of the fish are measured, the fish is uniquely fin clipped, and the fish is quickly driven to a six-foot by six-foot net pen that extends all the way to the lake bottom, as deep as 60 feet. Anglers later turn in a detailed report on each fish caught, including method of capture, bait, time of capture, hooking location, depth of capture, and other details that aid in reconstructing survival rates given different information.

The walleyes are kept in the net pen for five days. At the end of the fifth day, the fish are identified by fin clips to match up to their data sheets and their condition evaluated. On the week that I participated, seven anglers caught 19 walleyes.

Five days later, 16 of the fish survived. Roughly half of the gut hooked fish did not survive, despite cutting the line and not attempting hook removal.

Over the years, quantifying hooking mortality has become very important in Minnesota’s large lake fisheries that are tribally shared and must not exceed a total allowable catch. While Rainy does not have a state and tribally shared total allowable catch, in the last five years, American and Canadian anglers have spent an average of 250,000 hours a year fishing the lake.

With a protected size slot in place for walleyes, understanding walleye hooking mortality unique to Rainy is a step in the right direction.

As you continue fishing into the fall and the action picks up again locally, here are a few tips for helping more fish survive:

Release fish immediately.

Play and land fish quickly. Tired, stressed fish don't survive well when released.

Handle fish gently, keeping it in the water as much as possible. Unhooking the fish without lifting it from the water is best.

Remove hooks with needle-nosed pliers or forceps. Using barbless hooks makes releasing fish much easier.

If a fish is hooked deeply, cut the line and release it. The hook will eventually dissolve, leaving the fish unharmed.

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