Based off the request of the MN Catfish and Sturgeon Alliance, the MN DNR has agreed and embraced a series of Catfish Workshops to talk about the issues the MN Cat fisherman faces.
The goal is to improve cat fishing throughout the whole state of MN.
Catfish Workshop Meeting Notes
September 29, 2011 – Meeting #2
DNR Fisheries Area Office – Hutchinson
Present: Joel Stiras, Larry Haugh, Dennis Topp, Dave Scott, Brian Klawitter, Brad Koenen, Scott Mackenthun, Scott Shroyer, Jack Lauer, Brian Raleigh, Darren Troseth, Dennis Steele, Greg Berg, Phil Meier, Chris Howe, Brett Oberg, Scott Hillesheim, Steve DeMars, Mike Larson, Krista Howk (taking notes).
Absent: Chris Winchester, Ben Tahja, Jim Hruska, Rob Neumann, Doug Stange and Brian Petschl.
Introduction: Jack Lauer covered; an overview of the last meeting, had the participants introduce themselves, and listed topics to be covered in this meeting: Population management, Education/Outreach, User-Base perspectives.
Population Management:
Jack asked for Area updates from each of the DNR four regions on regional catfish populations and monitoring efforts.
R1 – Dennis Topp:
Area covered: Mostly Red River and its tributaries. He described the fishery and the types of anglers in the area. He also discussed the positive effect removal of three dams has had on fishery.
R2 – Greg Berg:
Area covered: upper Mississippi R & St. Louis River. He said catfish were found in the Mississippi in 2007, and on recent surveys, they are finding 3-4 times as many fish. It is a young/growing population and fishing is just really starting. The St. Louis River has a healthy, slow-growing population of channel cats.
R3 – Joel Stiras:
Area covered: MN River, Lower Miss., Missouri, and St. Croix. Joel discussed the Metro Catfish project, a four-year project with sampling, tagging, fin clipping, and taking spines to determine age (Pool 2). The St. Croix hasn’t has as much success as Pool 2- Miss. They have had a really low electrofishing response.
R4 – Brad Koenen:
Area Covered: MN River. The only research this year has been IBI ( ) Sampling on the MN R. Flow was very different from the lower MN to the Upper portion. The upper had much higher flows which made electrofishing difficult. They only saw five flathead catfish on the entire river due to high flows.
Scott Mackenthun:
Area Covered: Mostly Lakes, some reservoirs and metro kids fishing ponds. Fountain Lake, Albert Lea, did very well for catch rates of Channel Catfish. We’re also looking to get easements on rivers.
Steve Shroyer:
Talked about research he was doing on MN River flathead catfish in the LeSeuer area. He said the fish didn’t move around a lot in late summer, but in fall they moved a lot. Most fish that were tagged in 2008, after leaving, came back to the same place. There was some discussion about fish movement and this year’s catch rates / high water.
Issues around catfish management were discussed:
Border waters limits was a big item. Many were concerned especially with the MN/WI border regulations.
Also catfish tagging was discussed. Jack commented on the two types of tagging (tags & telemetry tags). The pros and cons of having non-DNR personnel (contractors, tournaments, anglers, etc.) tagging was also discussed. Many issues were brought up including costs, bias of tagging, data integrity, lack of data (if can’t catch fish, still don’t know where they went), if telemetry is used, it is very costly.
Joel Stiras discussed issues with using anger diaries and getting incomplete data or getting data back at all. Several anglers commented that there was too much info to input and that they forget to mark end times or times when no fish were caught.
Jack Lauer talked about what a creel clerk and creel survey is and some of the issues with that including cost and safety. Some of the conservation officers added input about the safety of doing night creel surveys.
It was agreed that future management proposals should add the question to creel surveys, “What is the biggest flathead to keep for reasonable consumption?”
Ways to come up with funds for surveys was discussed including anglers for habitat and a fishing license fee increase.
Other ways of collecting information were discussed including phone apps, website tracking, fishing tournaments, and online surveys.
Size limits and restrictions were also discussed as a method of catfish management. This carried into a discussion about trophy fish, regulations/enforcement, and the biological response of the fisheries to regulation changes and less harvest of big fish.
Jack Lauer shared information on the history of catfish regulations, and results from the State Fair opinion poll about the number of fishing lines. He also shared the U of M angler survey which now includes a question on cat-fishing and passed out two drafts for those in attendance to look at.
Angler bait use and gear types:
Cast nets cannot be used to catch bullheads – goes too deep and catches other things. Umbrella nets aren’t legal. Steve gave examples of issues he had with gathering bait and said the rules are very confusing, especially for taking bait in infested waters (pg 70 of fishing regulations). Bait issues for other type of angers was discussed and the cost of buying bait.
Joel Stiras commented that many rules or proposed bills are made by legislators as a result to quick-action invasive species.
Phil Meier commented that some of the rules about taking bait home and not bringing it back even to the same lake came about because of VHS disease.
It’s a tough balance between errors on the side of the resource vs. limiting anglers.
Golden shiners were used as an example – anglers are not able to harvest bait, but bait dealers are allowed as long as the bait dealer and any helpers are certified.
Darren suggested that most of the group would be willing to get certified.
Dave Scott suggested being able to use sunfish as bait even if they have to stay within the bag limits.
Some of the issues with using game fish as bait, especially enforcement concerns were mentioned by Jack and Phil. And, Steve DeMars thought there were too many regulations to change to be able to use game fish. He thought the best option would be able to get and use bait from the same water body (not transported).
The size of bait/bullheads was also brought up. Darren Troseth said this is one of the biggest issues and that it shouldn’t matter what size bullheads were used.
Dave Scott – said there were so few bait options and that it was getting to be a hassle to go fishing.
Jack Lauer suggested that as a group it would be good keep positive and work on how to increase angler opportunity with bait.
Brian Klawitter brought up the new regulation with three hooks on a line as an added opportunity.
Jack Lauer explained that it would be beneficial if 1-2 Catfish Workshop participants could present at the Roundtable to update the attendees on the topics and potential opportunities this group is working on.
As time went beyond three hours, the next meeting topic was agreed upon and meeting #3 will be December 13, 2011, and as needed thereafter.
Next Meeting Items:
Bait usage – Roundtable item
Next meeting in December –
Invite Luke Skinner (EWR) to go over AIS issues related to bait. Paula Phelps or Neil Vanderbosch (FSH) to discuss commercial bait law and related topics.
