GARRISON — Businesses on Lake Mille Lacs are dealing with further uncertainty, now that walleye fishing has been shut down, and prospects for state aid under a special legislative session are extremely unlikely.

No one, including fisheries managers with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, can say whether walleye fishing will be allowed on the lake this winter. In July, the agency banned walleye fishing until Dec. 1 due to the species’ declining population in the lake.

“I’ve been on this lake my whole life, and I’ve never felt like this,” said Eddie Lyback, 60, the third-generation of his family to live on the lake and rent out fish houses. “Everybody’s nervous. Everybody’s wondering what’s going to happen.”

Lake Mille Lacs resorts like Lyback’s maintain a transportation system by plowing miles of roads on the ice and charge fees to fish house owners who enter the roads from the resort properties. But the uncertainty already is affecting advance reservations.

“We’ve been getting reservations, but a lot of our out-of-state reservations have disappeared,” he said. “They’re bypassing us, going to Red Lake and Lake of the Woods. It would be very nice if they had the ability to keep at least one.”

Gov. Mark Dayton asked state lawmakers to hold a special session to offer interest-free loans to businesses that rely on walleye fishing for income. A bipartisan committee has held several meetings, but co-chairs from both parties have said they want to avoid a special session, which essentially means the resorts won’t receive state aid before the Legislature convenes next year.

The state Department of Natural Resources is performing a major stocking of the lake in the spring. It’s also creating a Mille Lacs-dedicated office and seeking about $3.5 million in funding to build a hatchery and research center on the lake.

Within the next two months, the state is expected to announce the rules for the new fishing year, which begins Dec.1 on Lake Mille Lacs. Officials with the state Department of Natural Resources repeatedly have refused to speculate on what those rules will be.

“We don’t need stocking and we don’t need a loan,” Lyback said. “What we need is a real solution, and that means fixing the lake.”