Tourney Info Is Posted Below. Come Join Us!

“The Keep It Clean campaign addresses the growing problem of garbage and waste left on the ice by anglers, campers and recreationists through education, legislation and enforcement. The Keep It Clean bill was signed into law in May 2023, making it illegal to place garbage and waste on or under the ice on Minnesota’s lakes and rivers.”

We first heard about Keep it Clean from Joe Henry at Lake of the Woods Tourism a few years ago. There was a lot of fishing pressure on the lake from winter anglers and, intentional or not, lots of garbage was being left on the ice. That garbage then falls into the lake.

Not good.

Over the next couple years Upper Red Lake and Mille Lacs got involved and soon discussion of making a law requiring anglers to bring their trash off the lake turned into law.

“Oh absolutely,” Robin Dwight responded when asked if the new law made a difference this past winter on a recent episode of Sporting Journal Radio. “This was a unique year because of the weather so we didn’t have as many people for early ice, but later on the traffic picked up and people knew what was expected of them.”

Robin also filled us in on the bill that was introduced to transfer state-owned land around Upper Red Lake to the Red Lake Nation.

We also discussed the 3rd Annual SJR500 at River Bend Resort at Lake of the Woods! This is a big party that started for a way to celebrate our 500th episode of Sporting Journal Radio in 2022. This year the tourney runs Monday April 8th with a rules meeting at 6pm, then fishing Tuesday April 9th and Wednesday April 10th from 8a – 4p.

The tourney is a catch-and-release event run on the Fish Donkey app. Find all the rules here. River Bend has a lodging special for $50 per person per night. We’ll be having happy hour and door prizes each night in the bar at 6 with a live podcast recording on Wednesday after the prizes are awarded. You don’t have to stay at River Bend to participate but it’s more fun!

It’s $40 to enter per person (not per boat) and 25% goes to the biggest walleye, 25% to the biggest sturgeon and 25% to Keep it Clean. We have prizes for top 3 walleye, top 3 sturgeon and biggest non-walleye or non-sturgeon.