Mille Lacs: More Q&A with Brad Parsons, DNR point man

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By Dave Orrick, St Paul Pioneer Press
13 March, 2014



In this Sunday’s print edition, and sooner online, an abbreviated Q&A with Brad Parsons, the DNR’s new point person on Lke Mille Macs, will publish.

Here’s more from my conversation with Parsons:

Q. The Mille Lacs Input Group met Thursday, March 6, to discuss the upcoming season. Tell me about the meeting.

A. There were about 25 members of the Input Group who attended, and probably double that in the crowd.

We talked about the water clarity and invasives — zebra mussels and spiny waterfleas — and a lot of the other things going on in the lake. The water clarity alone is a substantial change. We were at 7-foot readings in the ’70s and ’80s, and now its 12 feet. That has to have an effect. We also presented ideas on changes to walleye and northern pike and smallmouth regulations and discussed them.

Q. Let’s go through those. Walleye first.

A. First of all we asked whether people were comfortable with a 1-in-3 chance of hitting the allocation, because if we hit it, after that we’d go to catch-and-release for the rest of the season. The majority of the group was OK with that. We talked about a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. ban on night fishing for the open-water season — except opening weekend. We also talked about starting the ban earlier, at 8 p.m., but there was very little support for that.

Q. You talk circle hooks and live bait?

A. Yes. With circle hooks, we had pretty good discussion about that, but there wasn’t a lot of support for it. Circle hooks do reduce mortality — Tom Jones of the DNR has done a published paper on that — but it’s hard to quantify.

Q. I have to tell you that when I’ve been to bait shops it’s really hard to tell exactly what would qualify as a circle hook and what wouldn’t. You want a hook that will pull straight out from the gullet if the bait is swallowed and hook in the lip, but I can’t tell from the labeling because so many are sort of circles or off-set or whatever.

A. You’re right. I’m not an expert, but I know what you mean. My father, who’s over 90, loves using them because you don’t have to make a hard hookset. You just reel them in. But it’s hard to tell in the stores.

Q. Live bait bans?

A. Certain live bait bans were brought up — no minnows or no leeches — and there was very little support for them.

Q. So when will the DNR release the new regulations?

A. It’ll be soon. I can’t tell you exactly, but soon.

Q. It sounds like we’re probably looking at the same scheme as last year — two fish between 18 to 20 inches with one allowed over 28 inches. But maybe the night ban is one the table.

A. We’re looking at that. The extended night ban is still on the table. Should we talk about northern pike?

Q. Sure. I always here the same thing from launch owners: Clients don’t want pike or bass, just walleye.

A. The great majority of smallmouth bass and pike are not kept. We have to do a better job of marketing smaller northern pike as a food fish, but recognize the value of larger northern pike.

Q. Mille Lacs isn’t really a hammerhandle lake, is it?

A. In the past two years, the number of small northern pike has really increased. A 10 1-pound pike can eat more than 1 10-pound pike. That’s just a fact.

Q. I’m trying not to laugh when I ask this, but you don’t think you’re gonna get people to eat 1-pound northerns, do you?

A. Oh no. I’m not saying that. But 2- and 3-pound pike maybe. Those fish grow much faster in Mille Lacs than other lakes because of the forage, so instead of thinking in terms of 18- to 22-inch fish, think more like 24 to 28 inches.

Q. OK, people might start salivating a little bit at that. So you’re talking about fish that are fun to catch on typical medium tackle, but also provide a good amount of meat?

A. Exactly.

Q. Still, how do you get people to keep more pike?

A. We talked about ways of expanding opportunities to harvest pike. The input group was extremely supportive of extending the ice fishing season, and there was very high support for darkhouse spearing.

Q. Currently Mille Lacs is closed to darkhouse spearing. The idea is you would just removed it from the no-spearing list?

A. Yes. And any rules proposed for angling would also apply for darkhouse spearing. We had four different slot and bags proposed:

•statewide: bag the fish with one over 30 inches
•the current 33- to 40-inch protected slot and one over 40
•30- to 40-inch protected slot, with one over 40 and increased bag limits of 6,8 or 10 fish
•an expanded bag of 10 or so, with only three over 26 inches and only one over 30 inches
Q. Was there any consensus on any one of those?

A. No there wasn’t. All four had about the same support. And I should add that we’ve tried increasing bag limits on pike elsewhere in the state, and it hasn’t really made a difference. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider it here. I’m not sure we’ve really sold the value of small pike as a food fish enough.

Q. Smallies. Last year, it loosened up to a 6-fish bag, with a protected slot of 17 to 20 inches and one over 20. What are you guys floating now?

A. We presented that as well as the normal statewide rules: no slot, six fish. Another idea was six fish, with only one over 18 inches. Statewide, smallmouth goes to catch-and-release one the second Monday of September. Some people supported getting rid of that, but I don’t think there’s really much pressure then.

Q. People just don’t really want to keep smallies.

A. This is about expanding the opportunities for people to harvest fish. Another idea was opening the harvest of bass in conjunction with walleye opener. About ¾ thought that was a good idea, too.

Q. Now you’re talking about taking smallies on their spawning beds. Isn’t the whole idea of the later opener to avoid that?

A. In a lot of cases, both largemouth and smallmouth are still spawning on opening day for bass harvest anyway.

Q. Yeah that’s true, just like walleye. But you know you’re gonna hear about this from the pro-smallie crowd if you do that.

A. Yeah I’m sure, but we know that few people target smallies for harvest anyway. And we can revicit these issues on an annual basis. If suddenly people start harvesting, then we could adjust.

Q. What about the blue-ribbon panel that’s supposed to look at Mille Lacs.

A. The bios are available online. These are people who are widely respected and have come across challenges on other large lakes like Mille Lacs. We’re equating this to a peer-review process. They’re reviewing our work.

Q. Are any public meetings planned?

A. There’s not really going to be a meeting. It’s showing them the data and having them examine it.

Q. Is there some report they’ll issue?

A. I don’t think so. If they have ideas to help us answer more questions, they’ll give us feedback. And they’ll learn from studying our work. That’s part of peer review. It goes both ways.

Q. I guess I was thinking of it more like the Wisconsin deer trustee report: A review with a report at the end. But it sounds like that’s wrong.

A. I don’t think there will be a single report. It’ll be more of an ongoing dialog. If they see things that were missing, they’ll tell us. It’s one of the strengths of the peer review process.

Q. Yeah, but it’s not as neatly wrapped in a bow as if they said “Hey Minnesota, your DNR is right about Mille Lacs” or “Hey Minnesota, your DNR is a bunch of dumbos and really ruined the lake.” You don’t have to answer that.