New statewide Pike Regs

[DTro]

Coming soon to a lake near you:

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/fish_wildlife/roundtable/2015/fish/pike.pdf

[FISHINGURU]

Do you think people will cry about it?

[DTro]

Well something needs to be done. There is no doubt about it.

The one that surprised me a bit was the 2 under 30" for the NE part of the state. In other words no harvest of any trophies, period.

[merkman]

The one that surprised me a bit was the 2 under 30" for the NE part of the state. In other words no harvest of any trophies, period.

What surprised you... that it came too soon?

Edging our way to Zero Harvest. ...

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[gunner55]

The lake we're on has been keep 9 up to 22,a > 22-36 slot,with 1 over 36 for ~ 10 yrs or more.It seems to be working as I seen my first > 30 in 10+ years this season.Just in the last 2 or 3 season has it appeared to me that the 16-22 size is slowly disappearing.

[DTro]

Zero harvest is hardly the proposal in the central region.

Big pike are great for a water body.

[merkman]

Zero harvest is hardly the proposal in the central region.

[delcecchi]

What surprised you... that it came too soon?

Edging our way to Zero Harvest. ...

.

I guess you didn't read the slides. 2 under 30 is hardly zero harvest.

[Note from admin: edited. Please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.]

[merkman]

What surprised you... that it came too soon?

Edging our way to Zero Harvest. ...

.

[20lbSloughShark]

I am exited to see these new regulations. I agree, I don't know about the no trophy fish allowed. If they expect no change, why change the regs for the north east? I sure hope they allow the north central region 10 of the smaller pike. There are just way too many hammer handles. One thing I did not see is a season change. I have always been in support of a no harvest season. Shorten the harvest season to about 7 months of the year, and have the spring a no harvest season. I think that is the best way to protect the fish, and keep fisherman happy.

[delcecchi]

[Note from admin: edited. Please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.]

[live4chrome]

I love the idea of zero harvest on pike over 30"! Maybe we will start seeig some bigger fish. Wen it comes to fisheries you can't have your cake and eat it too.

[20lbSloughShark]

I love the idea of zero harvest on pike over 30"! Maybe we will start seeig some bigger fish. Wen it comes to fisheries you can't have your cake and eat it too.

The problem is, its not really fair to anyone but us catch and release guys. I like the special regs put on certain lakes, but I don't want to see a whole region limited like that. The problem in central MN is a strong majority of lakes are hammer handle lakes. With too many pike of any size competing for food, growth has been shown to slow significantly. That just leads to even more stunted pike. On the other side, not all lakes need to be trophy lakes. It can be a blast, especially with kids, to just enjoy the never ending action of small pike lakes. Then you have spear fisherman, which has been a Minnesota tradition for generations. How are you supposed to get new spear fisherman into the sport if all you are allowed to harvest is tiny pike?

[LunkerCity]

Yeah this does not make me happy. I live in NE and no trophy harvest would really grind my gears, might as well turn my shack into a sauna. Trophy pike is all I'm all I'm after really, I spear one small fish a week to fry up. Its not like I'm out there killing one over 40 every other day either. Haven't seen one in two years, but I have let a lot of 30+ fish swim since if I kill one I can't spear the trophy... I hope the Darkhouse association is fighting this tooth and nail.

[live4chrome]

Yeah this does not make me happy. I live in NE and no trophy harvest would really grind my gears, might as well turn my shack into a sauna. Trophy pike is all I'm all I'm after really, I spear one small fish a week to fry up. Its not like I'm out there killing one over 40 every other day either. Haven't seen one in two years, but I have let a lot of 30+ fish swim since if I kill one I can't spear the trophy... I hope the Darkhouse association is fighting this tooth and nail.

I can see your frustration. Maybe they should allow zero harvest of 30-42? This would allow harvest of a true trophy, or else you may have to change your method of catching a trophy to angling. ( I am not anti-spearing please don't take that as an attack) Have you tried sight fishing? Its pretty thrilling.

While it seems you are an ethical fisherman/spearer, the majority of anglers and spearers will still harvest a pike over 30" if they are allowed. With party fishing being legal, the law really does nothing to protect those bigger fish, because even if you harvest your 34" pike for the day, and you catch another, as long as you are not fishing alone you can take as many fish over 30" as you have people in the group. I would ask many anglers when the last time they caught more fish over 30" than their group was allowed to harvest? It is probably not a normal occurrence, although surely there are exceptions with some anglers on certain lakes.

For most lakes a 30" plus pike is a large fish and not common. There was a lake near duluth that used to be phenomenal pike fishing, with many large fish in it. In a few years the tip up brigades had all but cleaned the lake out ( its a pretty large lake too) I cant even count the number of big pike I saw go home in buckets.

Something needs to be done to protect the fisheries and turn the ever shrinking size structure around. If that means we cant kill any trophy fish I am fine with that. It is better to solve a problem before it is too late than to sit and wonder where all our big fish went 20, 30, 60, 100 years down the road. It wasn't that long ago when you could catch literal stringers of trophy sized fish all over the state. Its not that way anymore and for the most part its not getting better, but getting worse.

Like I said before, you cant have your cake and eat it too.

[DTro]

I'm not saying what is right or wrong, but as I've posted a few times before, I have no interest in killing a trophy fish (any species) and for that reason and it would be nice to have an entire region in which the big pike are protected.

[leechlake]

I see the DNR starting a trophy northern lottery system, you get drawn you get one tag.

[LunkerCity]

I'm not saying what is right or wrong, but as I've posted a few times before, I have no interest in killing a trophy fish (any species) and for that reason and it would be nice to have an entire region in which the big pike are protected.

Well then let them do it in your region... I'm just angry because it basically ruins spearing.

[LunkerCity]

Maybe they should just make it one over 36 instead of one over 30... I don't know about this no trophy rule. They will make a lot of spearers P.O.'d

[delcecchi]

Is party fishing legal?

[Nick Kuhn]

Maybe they should just make it one over 36 instead of one over 30... I don't know about this no trophy rule. They will make a lot of spearers P.O.'d

You can't have harvest AND have trophy fish. Pike exploitation is so high that under current regulations it is very rare for them to reach 40 inches in many of our waters. Years of fishing being harvest of pike have turned what should be one of Minnesota's biggest fishing assets into basically a joke of a species in the majority of lakes.

There is hardly any appeal in hammerhandle factories. Something has to be done, and they only way it can get done is to drastically reduce the harvest of large fish.

[delcecchi]

Won't happen because there are some folks whose whole sport is built around harvest. And they seem to have a disproportionate influence in the legislature.

And pike anglers are not organized like the Musky guys or even the Bass guys. Pike have never gotten any respect in Minnesota. They have been treated nearly as rough fish.

[live4chrome]

Is party fishing legal?

yes, it is in minnesota.

[Spike76]

Fishing is a hobby to me, not a sport. Every fish is a trophy to me. I would choose northern to eat over any other fish. Minnesota fish regulations should be science based for a healthy and sustainable population. Slots should only be for this reason, and not for larger pike. The slots have pretty much ruined my fishing on Lower Mission. I've fished this lake since 1964, and I don't run to other lakes.

[DTro]

That’s the whole point, People can’t keep culling through the hammerhandles to find a “keeper”. That just compounds the problem. Read the proposal I posted. Most people consider a keeper at about 24” We need to protect those fish larger than 30” because the smaller ones will actually eat more than the larger fish (Biomass statistics). Also the study shows 3 distinct populations of pike that relate to regions of the state. In the central part they are encouraging MORE harvest.

Although I admit it does negatively affect spearing as we know it today, the proposal is directed towards pike fishing as a whole and is meant to shift the balance of pike in a lake to lower density and bigger size, which in the long run is much better for not only the pike but all the other fish in the system. Plus I thought there was this new “look and release” movement for spearing so that should help right?

As far as the 2 under 30” bag and doing it in my region, heck I’d be in favor of doing it statewide if we could. I don’t need to eat a pike over 30” and I certainly don’t need to nail one up on my wall. But that is just my personal opinion.