Anglers like lower limits on Mississippi

LAKE CITY — Tighter sunfish regulations on Mississippi River pools 5, 5A and 8 have shown no sign they have helped increase the size of fish, but it's still quite possible they will be made permanent. Anglers like the new rules.

But bigger things are brewing for fishing regulations on the Mississippi.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is considering a plan to have consistent limits — and more restrictive limits — on all fish on all waters of the river in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. The rules now are quite different, leading to an enforcement headache.

The special regulations now in effect in Minnesota waters cover the river from the Alma, Wis. dam down to the Winona dam and from the Dresbach to Genoa dams. They limit anglers to 10 sunfish, while anglers can keep 25 when fishing other pools, and 20 on inland waters.

The DNR began looking at the special regulations around 2000 when the number of sunfish was crashing and it appeared the river was in deep trouble, said Dan Dieterman, assistant DNR fisheries supervisor in Lake City. Before that, there were a few years of droughts and then high waters that, for reasons still not understood, caused major algae blooms. They blocked sunlight and growth of plants, leading to all kinds of problems for fish and wildlife, he said.

"Many people were worried it was the beginning of the end for the river as we knew it," he said. "It was a pretty ugly situation at that point."

The DNR wanted to try to limit sunfish harvest as a way to maintain numbers, and size of fish.

Not all angers were happy, but the regulations were still put on the three pools.

As it turns out, fears of a Mississippi ecological collapse fell apart. "The river has shown time and time again it still has resiliency," Dieterman said. The river has come back strong and sunfish numbers and size also came back all over.

Biologically, the DNR couldn't find any difference between pools with tigher regulations and those without, nor could they find any difference between the regulated pools on this side of the river and the Wisconsin side, said Kevin Stauffer, area fisheries supervisor. Because of the good growth all over, it's hard to truly evaluate the regulations. "There's a lot of noise out there," he said.

Another factor adding noise is more perch that love to eat young sunnies, he said.

What it did see was that fish in the three pools lived longer, though there's no difference in size. Apparently, "there is not much of a correlation between age and size," Dieterman said. Maybe there are more of the fish, so they don't grow as fast, he speculated. Sunnies tend to be home bodies and don't move around much, he said.

Anglers don't care about age, just size, Stauffer said.

But then, the DNR also said the river of late hasn't had the dramatic drought/flood cycle of the late 1980s, so it can't say whether the special regulations would help in that situation, Dieterman said.

This year, the DNR has to decide whether to drop the special regulations or make them permanent, because they end March 1, 2015.

"Biologically, there is not a good reason (to keep them) but societally, there's a lot of interest," Dieterman said.

The feeling among anglers since the regulations were first imposed has done a 180-degree turn. Now, people are telling the DNR that they like the lower limits. "We never hear anything negative about the regulations, and in general, we get very very positive comments," he said.

In fact, they're seeing some Wisconsin anglers coming to Minnesota waters because they think Minnesota has bigger fish, he said.

Once the DNR decides on the sunnie regulations, it would like to start looking at common interstate regulations. Because of the complexity of setting common regulations, many on the river are more liberal than inland waters. For example, the limit for northern on the river in Minnesota is five daily, but it's three on inland waters.

Getting three states to agree on common regulations is difficult, so the DNR is working now only on the one for sunfish in the three pools. But that could dovetail with trying to get the three states to agree, he said.

Dieterman thinks it would be easier now to get those common regulations because more anglers are looking to catch fish, not so much for a meal. "Most people fish for enjoyment, and I think that has changed the culture," he said. There is much more of a push for conservation.

Right now, panfish limits are so high that they are essentially unlimited, he said.

Also, it would be more enjoyable if anglers had to know about only one regulation on the river, no matter which pool or which side, he said. "I mean, why not? That's part of what we're thinking," he said.

Maybe there could be aggregate limits like those on reservoirs around Rochester, where anglers are limited daily to a total of 10 sunfish, crappies and perch (no more than five crappies), Stauffer said.

The DNR wants to hear from anglers about how they feel about the three-pool regulation and seeking common regulations on the entire river in the three states, Stauffer said.

"It's their fishery," he said.