ORMAN DAM - With five walleyes tucked in the live well and 40 more swimming in memory, Bill and Paul Miller were ready to call the day a qualified success.

And it was qualified only by the fact that they had to release more than three dozen walleyes, any one of which would have been a perfect for the frying pan or foil pack on the grill.

Paul Miller grumbled about that just a bit, until his son reminded him that having to release a 15- to 17-inch walleye, a size protected under a state limit at the lake, is a chore that many anglers would envy.

"Dad would be disappointed and say, 'Oh, this one's too big to keep,'" Bill Miller said. "And I'd say, 'Dad, we're complaining because we're catching all these 16- and 17-inch walleyes. That's a pretty good problem to have, isn't it?'"

It is indeed. And that's the "problem" anglers at Orman have faced all spring.

Oh, the joyful complications of a nearly full lake, a strong population of walleyes and well-intended fish management by the state Game, Fish & Parks Department.

Regular rains this spring helped raise the seasonally fluctuating water levels in Orman Dam - also called the Belle Fourche Reservoir - to where the lake is 80 percent full. Water continues to pour into the lake through a diversion canal from the Belle Fourche River system. And only recently have farmers in the downstream irrigation district started to call for reservoir water for their fields.

That means the lake is much higher than it has been in the recent succession of drought years. And it means more visitors to the lake and to the new Rocky Point State Recreation area, which opened in 2006.

"The water's up, and the flow hasn't changed coming in," park manager Brad Nelson said. "We're going to have really good water conditions for the Fourth of July holiday."

Instead of the shrinking shorelines of previous years, visitors next week will see bays full or water and a main boat ramp where water has spread out into the nearby cottonwood stands.

And for those equipped with boats and intent on catching walleyes, the chances are fine - depending on the weather.

"It's been really good, although it slowed down when we got those 90-degree days," Nelson said. "There's a big population of walleyes in there."

GF&P officials are conserving that population with a slot limit that requires walleyes from 15 inches to 18 inches to be released, and limits anglers to one walleye longer than 15 inches in the four-fish daily limit. That puts the angling pressure on the younger and smaller walleyes, less than 15 inches, limits the harvest on big walleyes and protects completely the mid-sized fish.

GF&P fisheries chief Dennis Unkenholz of Pierre said the regulation was aimed at providing a better distribution of the dominant classes of walleyes in the reservoir.

"At the time that regulation went in, there was a large year class or two that were 13 to 15 long," Unkenholz said. "And the way harvest was going, there wasn't going to be a fish that survived, because there wasn't any protection for that population. The thought was to protect the middle-size fish and let angler take one larger fish."

As a GF&P fisheries biologist in Rapid City, Bill Miller understands the logic in that size limit. And he also expects it to pay off later this year and next with strong population of walleyes more than 18 inches long.

"By fall, there should be a lot of 18-inchers coming out of here," he said.

Of course, anglers will still have to return all but one of those fish. But catching and releasing a bunch of 18-plus-inch walleyes is a problem that Miller is ready to face.

"I just hope it keeps raining," he said.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com