 It's the middle of fishing season in Minnesota, but one lake in the Brainerd Lakes area, there is a temporary ban on catching walleye. Minnesota DNR announced that between July 6th and July 27th anglers are banned from catching walleye in Malax Lake. The DNR says that the ban is an effort to conserve the walleye population and reduce the risk of hooking mortality which increases as water temperatures rise. During the warmest summer months is when we have a lot of fish that are released from fishing that die after that release. Even though those fish weren't harvested, they're part of the fishing process so the fraction of that die have to be accounted for in the state's allocation that's referred to hooking mortality. Fishing for all other species on Malax Lake is open including bass. Malax Lake was recently named by Bassmaster the top lake in the country to fish for bass. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.