Wright County Government: DNR To Hold Public Meeting To Discuss Proposed Fishing Changes

St. Michael MN

24 September, 2021

4:37 PM

Description

Press release from the Wright County Government: September 24, 2021 The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will be conducting a public meeting from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7 at the Corinna Township Hall to discuss new proposed fish-limit restrictions on four Wright County lakes – Crawford Lake in Rockford Township, Mink Lake in Corinna Township, Somers Lake in Corinna Township and Sugar Lake in Corinna and Clearwater Townships. The changes for Mink Lake and Somers Lake pertain to sunfish and crappies – keeping existing reduced daily limits and bring the lake in compliance with statewide possession limits. The changes for Sugar Lake pertain to crappies – keeping existing reduced daily limits and bring the lake in compliance with statewide possession limits. For Crawford Lake, the proposed regulation change is to bring the lake into compliance with state regulations for multiple species, with the exception of 14-to-20-inch protected slot for largemouth bass. Crawford Lake is one of two lakes in Minnesota (along with Clear Lake in Anoka County) that have expanded questions pertaining to them. Crawford Lake has a set of special regulations that were put in place in 1998 with the intention of building a sportfish population following a chemical reclamation. The special regulations have not achieved the intended goal and statewide regulations are deemed to be sufficient protection, with the exception of the largemouth bass. The largemouth bass has developed into a high-quality fishery and a special regulation is still warranted. The proposal would be the remove special regulations for sunfish, crappie, walleye and yellow perch and put them into alignment with statewide limits and possession numbers and change the special regulation for largemouth bass with a protected slot for fish between 14 and 20 inches (must be released) and allowing the anglers to take one largemouth bass 20 inches or longer. Input on the proposed changes to Crawford Lake can also be submitted via an online survey through Sunday, October 31 on the DNR website at Input opportunities for proposed fishing regulations | Minnesota DNR (state.mn.us) (The Crawford Lake question is No. 54 of the survey). This press release was produced by the Wright County Government. The views expressed here are the author's own.