The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources encourages people in the Crow Wing County area to attend a virtual town hall meeting noon-1 p.m. Oct. 7 to share their thoughts on proposed special fishing regulations for sunfish, crappie and lake trout.
With the proposed changes, the DNR aims to protect and improve bluegill and crappie sizes by lowering bag limits on Borden, East Twin, Edward, Gladstone, North Long, Perch, Upper Mission, and Whitefish lakes and the stretch of the Mississippi River from upstream of the Brainerd dam to Highway 6.
Additionally, three mine pit lakes in Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area — Yawkey, Sagamore and Pennington — have the potential to support naturally reproducing lake trout populations and a minimum length limit is proposed to help achieve that goal. If adopted, the regulations will become effective next year.
The Oct. 7 virtual town hall is one of five town halls the DNR will be holding across the state on the bluegill initiative. Participants are encouraged to attend these virtual meetings, and use the online comment option, as an alternative to in-person meetings. Information on how to attend the virtual town hall is available online at mndnr.gov/sunfish .
Consistent with state law, the DNR will also host an in-person open house 4-6 p.m. Oct. 13 at Northland Arboretum, 14250 Conservation Drive, Brainerd. Meetings will be conducted in town hall style and will be limited to 10 participants indoors at any one time. The location has indoor and outdoor patio space available. There will be no presentation but DNR staff will be available to answer questions and take comments.
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Those unable to participate in the virtual meeting or the in-person meeting can utilize an online presentation and comment opportunity that was launched for the bluegill initiative in May. Thus far, the DNR has received 2,500 comments through the online survey. Comments will be accepted through Oct. 25.
