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Slot limits: more or less

Published (4/8/2011)
By Sue Hegarty
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Public sentiment is as clear as muddy waters regarding how best to manage northern pike, a common fish found in thousands of Minnesota lakes that is the prize meal sought by anglers and spearers.

During the 1980s the Department of Natural Resources began to study why the number of big fish was declining in Minnesota lakes. The department sought public input and later imposed slot limits, which required the release of northern pike caught between varying lengths on at least 60 lakes. These experimental regulation lakes were then monitored. A few years later, interested parties once more got together to see how the experiment was working. As a result, the DNR put a self-imposed cap on the number of experimental management lakes at 125.

A University of Minnesota study found that anglers and spearers were split on whether to increase or decrease the number of designated lakes with slot limits. Anglers can remove a hook and return a fish to the water, but those who spear a fish inside a slot limit don’t have that option. If they accidentally do, they may be inclined to discard the fish to avoid getting caught by conservation officers.

The DNR has northern pike slot limits on an estimated 119 of 3,300 lakes. Some think that’s too few, while others believe it’s too many.

Rep. Tom Hackbarth (R-Cedar) sponsors HF984, the omnibus game and fish bill, which would reduce that number to no more than 60 lakes at one time. The lakes would be designated as experimental and special management lakes for 10 years, at which time the DNR would determine, based on scientific study, whether to discontinue the designation. The House Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee approved the bill April 5 and sent it to the House Government Operations and Elections Committee.

Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia) sponsors HF107 that would eliminate northern pike spearing slot limits altogether because spearers who catch a fish within the slot limit are unable to release the fish. He said spearers aren’t out to abuse fishing privileges, “they’re out there to catch a fish and eat it. Maybe there’s a way to allow a change or something where you get one fish in the slot if you do it by accident.”

DNR officials said they can’t think of a fair way to reduce lakes from the management program. “There is no fair or reasonable way to drop that number or cut it in half,” said Dirk Peterson, a DNR fisheries program manager. “It would probably result in a number of unhappy citizens across the state.”

Some of those would be members of the Minnesota Fish and Wildlife Legislative Alliance, according to Jim Lilienthal, alliance board chair. Lilienthal helped establish northern pike regulations before he retired from the DNR in 2008. He said the program is working and that three-fourths of spearers in central Minnesota reported spearing on regulated lakes, despite the slot limits.

But Roger Goeschel, a Minnesota Darkhouse and Angling Association member, disagreed. “When this regulation came out, we were behind this,” he said because it originally pertained to about 60 lakes. “Darkhouse guys don’t go to these lakes. If they’re out there fishing, they’re angling for something else. They’re not spearing pike because there’s nothing to take when you have a 24 to 36 (inch) slot,” Goeschel said.

Last year, a DNR report concluded that slot regulations resulted in larger fish on some lakes. Tim Spreck, president of the MDAA, said the DNR “cherry-picked” the lakes that showed improvement in order to show that slot limits work. “The DNR needs to be held to the fire and they need to justify that they’re seeing results on these lakes,” Spreck said. “Part of what they’ve been doing … is basically catering to lake associations that don’t want people on their lakes.”

In a related, but separate section of the bill, the DNR would be required to lift a spearing ban that’s been on Cass Lake since 1988. American Indians are still allowed to spear on the lake but others can’t.

DNR officials said lifting the ban would result in temporary spearing of big fish, but without a protected slot on the lake, the size of the northern pike would decline. The ban’s original purpose was to protect muskellunge from being accidentally speared. Muskies are similar in shape and appearance to northern pike.

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