Results from Public Input Survey on Mississippi River Border Water Regulations

I tried posting this twice last week and after hitting submit it never showed up in the postings. Hopefully the third time is the charm.

Thank you to the ~850 individuals who took the time to attend a meeting or fill out our questionnaire. We recognize that 77 questions requires more than just a passing “click” on a website and that each of you invested your time to provide us with your input.

Our goal was to gather input from a broad spectrum of public stakeholders about their fishing habits, perceptions of current fish populations and regulations, and opinions about potential modifications to current regulations. Our upcoming meetings between the MN DNR and WI DNR staff will involve a review of all available scientific monitoring data for the Mississippi River border waters as well as the survey responses and additional comments we have received, and professional analysis and opinions of fisheries management staff with extensive river experience.

IF any regulation changes are proposed members of the public will have the opportunity to comment on those proposals through each states internal processes (for example and proposals would need to go through the Wisconsin Conservation Congress spring hearing process).

Note: 1)The responses included in the PDF are raw data and have not been processed or filtered for further analysis yet.
(For example each state is likely to want to look at results from their residents separately and then compare those to the results as a whole, and individual species occasionally included high numbers of No Opinion responses which make the “effective” count of responses less than the total of 850)
2)There were 850 responses. Not all of them were complete which results in certain questions having a total number of responses less than 850.
3)Written comments attached to questionnaires or provided separately are not included in this summary. They are still being reviewed and processed.

Feel free to contact me (info should be in my signature line below) if you have any questions. I will attempt to respond in a timely manner, but we are entering the beginning of our peak field work season, so if you don’t hear from me within a day or two just contact me again.

Thanks again for everyone’s interest in the Mississippi River fisheries resources!

Nick

Attachments:

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   Border-Water-Regulations-Review-Results-Summary-for-IDO.pdf
   

Thanks for posting the results, interesting read.

I would be interested to hear from the people who think the Catfish limits are too low…

404 ERROR wrote:

I would be interested to hear from the people who think the Catfish limits are too low…

They’re from Iowa.
They come here to catch fish…
Head scratcher

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

They’re from Iowa.

So simple education to differentiate bullheads from channels and flats is all that’s needed? That throws a wrench into things…

404 ERROR wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:</div>
They’re from Iowa.

So simple education to differentiate bullheads from channels and flats is all that’s needed? That throws a wrench into things…

Harvest culture in Iowa for catfish rivals Minnesotan culture for walleye. It’s what’s for dinner

Thank you for posting the results. It was fun to read how many people are thinking the same as I am. (not on all accounts )

Thank you for posting this.

It is extremely interesting to see others’ opinions on the posed questions. I really hope that any potential changes are subtle, yet well planned in a way that promotes sustainability. P4 seems to be in decent shape for most of the species I target (mainly walleye and sauger). However, protecting them as technology, pollution, pressure, and sedimentation all increase needs to strongly be considered.

My predicted changes in coming years:
-lowered panfish bag limits for all species
-lowered catfish bag limits for both species

Things that definitely won’t change in the near future:
-combined bag for bass
-15″ minimum walleye limit

My hopes:
-reduced walleye and sauger combined limit (4 or 5 fish per person with a 2 fish limit before May 1)

It was interesting the responses the one that still gets me is keeping the separate bag limits for Panfish, Perch and Crappies. The way Wisconsin is set up now is ridiculous to me anyway.

After going thru the responses there is no way I would like being the DNR no matter what gets changed there are going to be some mighty upset people on both sides..

Tom P. wrote:

It was interesting the responses the one that still gets me is keeping the separate bag limits for Panfish, Perch and Crappies. The way Wisconsin is set up now is ridiculous to me anyway.

After going thru the responses there is no way I would like being the DNR no matter what gets changed there are going to be some mighty upset people on both sides..

From the way I read the survey Tom, most people are in favor of a 10 fish limit for each species. As of now the limit for each species is 25? I believe?

I guess I don’t know why people would get upset? Changes, and not being able to take a limit of 25 of each species?

I would be all for a limit combined of all species, doesn’t look like the public is. This may be the next best thing too it. At least it’s lowering the limit for each species if it would become law.

Specific to walleye and sauger, I would have liked to see more questions on the fishing tactics, locations, and months of the year.

While game fish seasons are closed for inland lakes in WI, a lot of anglers (including myself) head to the Miss. Additionally, most people fish within a mile of the dam on most pools. No doubt that harvest rates and even C&R fishing has an impact on the fish within this area. But being realistic, there are hundreds of spots throughout many pools that virtually never get pressured or fished at all.
Additionally, I would have liked to have seen a question asking the opinions on a limited slot (No kill 18-24″) for March 1st to May 1st

Riverruns sorry I did not make my self clear, set limit to a combined total of 25 Panfish. The way it is now one could take 100 Panfish, Crappies, Perch and if you include Stripers home in a day.

Randy I would at least like to see the scour holes below the dams as being closed in the spring time and maybe a little more..

Tom P. wrote:

Riverruns sorry I did not make my self clear, set limit to a combined total of 25 Panfish. The way it is now one could take 100 Panfish, Crappies, <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>Perch and if you include Stripers home in a day.

Randy I would at least like to see the scour holes below the dams as being closed in the spring time and maybe a little more..

I’m 100% against a combined 25 fish bag limit for panfish. 10 total for each species makes more sense. More often than not depending on tactic and location, you’re going to see bags of 20-25 fish of one same species (whatever is easiest to catch with size in a given area).

For example, there are community perch spots where from March and April…that combined bag of any species is going to be 25 mature, spawning female perch as they nearly jump into the buckets on shore for waiting anglers that are too dumb or greedy to know better. I think catching 10 each of quality perch, bluegills, and crappies would require more effort to get to 25-30 fish and be far less likely to happen in one outing at a spot then someone honing in on easy spawning fish and ripping 25 mature fish out with ease.

Randy Wieland wrote:

Specific to walleye and sauger, I would have liked to see more questions on the fishing tactics, locations, and months of the year.

While game fish seasons are closed for inland lakes in WI, a lot of anglers (including myself) head to the Miss. Additionally, most people fish within a mile of the dam on most pools. No doubt that harvest rates and even C&R fishing has an impact on the fish within this area. But being realistic, there are hundreds of spots throughout many pools that virtually never get pressured or fished at all.
Additionally, I would have liked to have seen a question asking the opinions on a limited slot (No kill 18-24″) for March 1st to May 1st

Agreed. 6 fish from March to May 1 is simply too much when the fish are so vulnerable. I like that slot AND a significantly reduced bag before May 1.

I dont get down to pool 4 too often anymore (only in the spring) but Q71 and 73 are intriguing to me. Would love to see what a protected slot would do for the overall size of the fish on pool 4, ESPECIALLY during the spring when fish are vulnerable + everyone and their mom is fishing the river. Let everyone keep their 15-19 inch males while protecting the larger females. Interesting to see what a “1 over” regulation would do later in the season as well. Something very similar to the regulations that LOTW has. Appease everyone looking to keep a dinner and those targeting the trophy fish.

I think keeping the 15 inch minimum is a must because some days I swear the only walleyes there are 14.99 inches. Helps keep idiots like me from keeping a limit!

Attachments:

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I just realized that folks who are not logged in cannot see the signature lines containing my contact info. Sorry I didn’t catch that earlier.

Nick Schlesser
Large Lake Specialist (Lake Pepin/Pool 4)
[email protected]
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
1801 S Oak St Lake City, MN, 55041
651-345-3365 ext 235

Are there more boats on pool 4 in the spring, or pool 4 in the summer…

No boats from pepin to wabasha in the spring. Lots of boats in that stretch in the summer. Is it crowded in the summer… No, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to less boats overall. There’s 80% more water to fish.

Regarding closing a section by the dam. I’d love to sturgeon fish up there but there is too many walleye boats drifting.

Most comments regarding closing a section of the river in the spring come from folks who cannot see past the almighty walleye to see the other fishable species!

There are days where the fishing is great in the spring and many boats are catching fish. Days, not weeks.
It isn’t busy from now until March 1 in that stretch. But y’all congregate for a month and it is detrimental to the “walleye fishery”. Naw.