Kevin Naze

• Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, 1999

“…the economic impact of the sport fishery is far greater because it fills the hotels, it fills the restaurants, the bait shops. It’s incredible.”

“Someday I think the commercials are gonna be gradually run right out of business. I can see it happening because the good of the lake has to come first. I hope it doesn’t happen that way….”

“We finally got them to close down the sport fishery by our sport fishermen request. You would never have seen the commercials go and ask for a closed season. But we went and we said hey, the perch are hurting in recent years. We want the spawning season closed for two months….”

“The commercials, I’m friends with some of them. They’ve argued the points for years that they’re always too tightly regulated, but they have the equipment that can really devastate a fishery in no time at all….

Lyle Teskie

• Ellison Bay, Wisconsin, 1999

“Yeah, I think it’s been mismanaged. I think technology has hurt. There’s things that political. The conservation has turned into a political thing. I do believe that.”

“We call ‘em [DNR] the Gestapo. There’s a lot of names we would call them and stuff and it’s probably not right. They have children too. They have wives too.”

“I don’t understand the DNR because they’re not accountable to anybody and I don’t think any government thing like that is good. Maybe not even the DNR but anything that isn’t accountable to somebody leaves too big of a door for something to go haywire.”

Don Nichols

• South Haven, Michigan, 1999

“…as soon as they saw that this recreational fishing is where the money is, that commercial fishing was dying anyway, so they slowly put those folks out of business and they had good reasons for what they were doing. The fishery was in bad shape….”

“The DNR are human. They’re just like us. They study different parts to get the job that they have and they’ve made some big blunders, some they don’t even want to talk about. Some a long time ago….”\

Richard Stephenson

• Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, 1999

“And yet, and they [DNR] want to just pull you over and do whatever they want. They can sit there and go through your stuff on your boat, you vessel, or whatever. They’re not very nice people around here either. If they pull you over, they’re gonna give you a ticket for something. I think that should change. They should have the same jurisdiction as a police officer.”

Roy Holmquist

• Ellison Bay, Wisconsin, 1999

“…I’m really impressed with our DNR up here, they really try and help ya.”

“…we run two benefits a year. We have fish frys that — we have walleye frys now. And all the money we make out of that we usually donate back to the DNR for the stocking program.”

Lynn Ray

• Traverse City, Michigan, 1999

“I would like to have something more uniform as far as the Native Americans and their — how do I want to say it — the enforcement on it. I don’t believe there’s been enough checking on it. I don’t think that — they pretty much do what they want to do.”

“The judges have taken a very liberal look at it [the treaty] and seem to — Judge Fox was the one that really, really put the monkey wrench in things for the state as far as I’m concerned. And Judge Enslen now is better, a lot better, than Fox was….”

“… a sportsman doesn’t dare go out and try to take revenge out on them [tribal fishers] by cutting their nets or anything else. They’re only hurting themselves. So you don’t see much of that.”

Scott Anderson

• Traverse City, Michigan, 1999

“…what did the treaty mean back when it was signed, here’s what the treaty meant and is this what the treaty should mean in 1999. And I think that’s the nuts and bolts of the whole thing. They’re [Native Americans] doing very well in the casino. They get a very, very nice return.”

“Actually I don’t understand if it’s the DNR or who makes these regulations, but that boundary out there. We got 16 miles out there where we can fish. I don’t know if it’s 16 to 20 but I know it’s 75 miles across. Now why don’t we get half of that? Michigan gets three quarters of that lake right there. I don’t think that’s fair either.”

"Coho" Bob Maynard

• Pentwater, Michigan, 1999

“People who were at the head of things believe that the salvation is to stick with sport fishing and eliminate commercial fishing.”