WALKER — Conservation Officer Jack Lien says even with the cold weather, fishing opener is going to be a "hornet's nest" with the amount of boats driving through downtown Walker as he and his toddler got ice cream Friday afternoon, May 8.
This will be Lien's first opener as the Department of Natural Resources' Walker enforcement area officer. He took the role in December after graduating from the academy in August and spending four months field training, with stops in Willmar, International Falls and McGregor.
"I feel very lucky to be here," he said. "It's a beautiful station, and it's not too often someone brand new gets a wonderful station like this."
Lien has been exploring the area lakes ahead of opener Saturday, both to familiarize himself with them and to "study what it’s like and where the fishermen are going to get their boats and where they might find success.”
The accesses are going to be "trailer parades," Lien said, but he's excited to see just how many boats will be out on the water.
"It'll never be boring," he said. "There'll always be somebody to go and say hi and check. ... I'm just out there to be friendly and answer questions and enforce and deal with what needs to be done out of fairness to everybody."
'That's what I want to do'
Lien grew up in the Moorhead area and says he knew he wanted to be a conservation officer since he was 8 years old.
“Just out catfishing the Red River with my dad — that’s kind of my background, I’m a big catfisherman — and I would see the DNR planes and the DNR boats and I’m like, ‘That’s what I want to do,’” he said. "I came from law enforcement family."
He spent a few years in the military, stationed in Alaska, before returning to Moorhead, getting married and moving to the Iron Range for his schooling.
After an invasive species supervisor internship with the North St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District, Lien applied to be a CO in August 2024.
Lien's fishing predictions
The fishing has been a little slow in the Walker area, with water temps still in the 40s. Lien said that's delaying the shallow bite for panfish.
“But if we have any change of weather, like it goes warm real quick, my prediction is that should change pretty quick,” he said.
The same goes for walleye. Lien recommends fishing shorelines and shallow structure and using slow presentation bait rigs.
"Just to kind of ease them out of their winter hibernation, if you will," he said.
'Public safety is one of our biggest concerns'
Not only does the cold water slow the bite, but it’s also dangerous. Lien said COs might be a little more strict about safety rules because of that.
He said to check for your lifejackets, a whistle or horn and other required equipment. Lien also recommended making sure your boat is running smoothly, since you probably haven’t started it up since the fall.
Additionally, anglers should be careful when putting their boats in, especially in Cass and Itasca counties. Drought conditions have left water levels unusually low on some lakes.
“I recommend in those shallower areas, do make sure it’s not like a rocky, propeller-damaging lake bottom,” Liensaid. "And if you find that it's just sand, you should be good just to pop it up on a plane as quick as you can."
Boaters who encounter an issue with low water levels at a DNR access can report conditions to their local DNR office or the statewide information center at 888-646-6367.
Lien also reminded folks to follow all aquatic invasive species prevention rules — clean, drain, dry — and check for special fishing regulations. And, don’t be scared to contact your CO if you see anything suspicious.
"That's what we're getting paid to do," he said, "be out there, make sure everyone's safe, following the natural resources laws so it's good for generations to come."
Funding for this environmental story was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
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