Experimental Fish Regulations 1/14/25:
Hi All,
Some of you might not know me, but I am the Area Fisheries Manager out of the Sauk Rapids office. There are a couple of reasons for my email, first, I was contacted last week by our Internal DNR Panfish Technical Committee inquiring about interest in testing a new experimental regulation for sunfish on a few lakes in my area. The current sunfish regulation on Mink/Somers is a 5 sunfish daily possession limit (you can still have 20 in possession you just have to fish for 4 days).
The experimental regulation would increase the possession limit back to 20; however, only 5 sunfish > 8 inches would be allowed in the possession limit. They are looking for 15 – 20 lakes statewide to test this new experimental regulation. I chose Mink/Somers as a potential option because it has had a 5 fish bag limit on them for about 25 years now and while there are still larger sunfish in the population, I think we have seen the size structure of the sunfish population stagnate. We have seen the sunfish population increase while the average size decrease compared to what it was within the first 5 – 10 years after reclamation. So, I think there is an opportunity to allow anglers to harvest more sunfish while protecting and possibly increasing the number of larger individuals in the population by only allowing 5 fish over 8 inches in possession.
Secondly, I would like to address a couple of the other current regulations/rules. The first regulation that I would like to address is the 17-inch minimum length limit and possession limit of 3 walleye. This regulation has been in place for 25 years and while it was probably a good idea to have it early on, it has since run its course. Even with regular stocking we have seen a decrease in walleye numbers since 2006. From a management standpoint since we are not trying to create a naturally sustaining walleye population, I see no reason to protect these fish and would like to allow anglers the opportunity to harvest these fish if they so choose. On top of that, there is a better than 50% chance that the statewide bag limit for walleye will be reduced from 6 to 4 within the next year or two. There are a handful of lakes currently with a minimum size regulation for walleye with most seemingly not doing anything. We had the same regulation on Pearl Lake in Stearns Co. for 10 years and we repealed that regulation in 2018. On Mink/Somers lakes we have not seen an increase in the population size and the average size has stayed the same.
The other rule that I would like to revisit, is the Possession or Use of Live Minnows is Prohibited. While I again think there was a time and place for this rule early on when the lake was reopened to fishing, I think that time has also passed. Carp have been in the system for many years now an while we have not seen any bullhead in the lake to this point, I think the fish populations established in these lakes have enough predators that they should be able to keep any bullhead numbers in check so long as we don’t experience any extreme winterkill. Also, to my knowledge (outside of designated stream trout lakes), these are the only two lakes in the state that does not allow the use of live minnows on them. On top of that, I have had discussions with the local Conservation Officer, and he said he has written a few tickets for possession of live minnows over the last couple of years only to have the Wright County Court System throw them out. So, I think this would be a good time to move forward with the removal of his rule. I know this may cause some angst for some lake residents.
I am happy leaving the bass, crappie, and pike regulations as is. They seem to be doing fine.
A timeline would look something like this:
December 2025 – propose changing the sunfish regulation from a 5 fish daily possession limit to a 20 fish possession limit of which only 5 can be ≥ 8 inches. I would also propose evaluating the walleye and live bait rule at the same time
May 1 – Oct. 1, 2026 – Post public access that regulations may change.
May – Oct. 2026 – Online public input accepted. Virtual public meeting held sometime Sept. – Oct. An in-person meeting could be arranged but, in my 20+ years with DNR we very rarely get any attendees to show up and more recently we get better input from online surveys and online comments.
December 2026 – decision made
March 1, 2027 – New Regulation goes into effect.
Most experimental regulations would be in place for 10 years and then reevaluated. I would suspect that we might see some better results with this regulation over the current regulation as hopefully we will see some harvest of smaller sunfish therefore reducing their density thus increasing growth. I also think this regulation may be more palatable to anglers as we would be allowing anglers more opportunity to harvest a few more fish if they so choose while still protecting a majority of the larger adults. The walleye and live bait regulations would just drop off after March 1, 2027.
I am open to your thoughts. Again, the experimental regulation is just for sunfish, the walleye and live bait regulations would be up for discussion while the bass, crappie, and pike regulations would stay the same. We are just in the vetting stages for potential lakes, and nothing has been finalized.
Thanks,
Joe Stewig
Area Fisheries Manager | FAW – Section of Fisheries
Serving Wright, Stearns, and Sherburne Counties
Aeration Update 2/25/25: In the winter the DNR tests our lakes for oxygen levels every 2-3 weeks once it is safe for them to go out on the ice. They recently tested on Thursday, February 20th and found levels that would indicate it is very unlikely we will need to perform aeration this year. Things can still change based on amount of snow we receive through March, but it is unlikely, especially considering warm weather this week has cleared most of the snow allowing for sunlight to once again reach plants, beginning oxygen production again. We will notify you if things change and aeration is required.
Water Resource Restoration | Water Quality Experts – There are many options out there, here are a few we’d recommend reviewing:
https://eutrophix.com/
http://everbluelakes.com
http://www.lgsonic.com/
Limnopro Lake Survey
2020 Property Owner Survey Results
Mink-Somers Outlet Restoration Project
Input-Watershed and Culvert Project
Limestone Filter Report 2021