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| This is the worst thing to happen to Pike and Muskie ever, this legislator has been influenced by Anti Muskie and anti Pike regulation interests, they want to spear all MN lakes and they want to take away legislative powers of the commissioner to regulate Pike, this could mean the complete collapse of the northern Pike fishery and harm the large pike in the 26 Designated Muskie Lakes, this is also throwing away the Long Range Muskie and Northern Pike program that all fishing interests worked for over a year on, Ive also talked with one of the Dark house assn. to ask if this is a push by the entire group, he said it was the first he had heard of it and did not support any legislation that limited the Commissioners power to regulate Pike or any fish, and felt it is the actions of a small number of people, not their entire group, I would hope that we could contact as many people as we know to stop this legislation, contact your friends and your legislators along with Rep Bud Heidgerken, we need to stop this in its tracks, I am not anti spearing and this is not a anti spearing effort, I and every member at the Esox Workshops supports and feels the need to have the spearing community enjoy its pastime, but this legislation will jeopardize the resource, please take a few Minutes to E-mail then write him and your Rep on this matter.
Thank You
John Underhill
H.F. No. 3676, as introduced - 85th Legislative Session (2007-2008) Posted on Feb 29, 2008
1.1A bill for an act
1.2relating to game and fish; providing possession and daily limits for northern pike;
1.3authorizing spearing of northern pike statewide; requiring rulemaking; amending
1.4Minnesota Statutes 2006, section 97C.401, subdivision 2; proposing coding for
1.5new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 97C.
1.6BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
1.7 Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2006, section 97C.401, subdivision 2, is amended to read:
1.8 Subd. 2. Walleye; northern pike. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b), a person
1.9may take no more than one walleye larger than 20 inches and one northern pike larger
1.10than 30 inches daily.
1.11(b) The restrictions in paragraph (a) do not apply to boundary waters.
1.12 Sec. 2. [97C.407] NORTHERN PIKE.
1.13(a) The possession and daily limit for northern pike is three, of which no more than
1.14one may be larger than 30 inches.
1.15(b) Northern pike may be taken by spearing on all lakes within the state.
1.16(c) Notwithstanding sections 97C.001 and 97C.005 or other law to the contrary,
1.17the commissioner may not adopt rules to take northern pike that are inconsistent with
1.18this section.
1.19 Sec. 3. RULEMAKING.
1.20The commissioner of natural resources shall amend Minnesota Rules, chapters 6262,
1.216264, and 6266, to conform with sections 1 and 2. The commissioner may use the good
1.22cause exemption under Minnesota Statutes, section 14.388, subdivision 1, clause (3), to
2.1amend the rules. Minnesota Statutes, section 14.386, does not apply except as provided
2.2under Minnesota Statutes, section 14.388.
2.3EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the day following final enactment.
Bud Heidgerken (R) 13A
* 237 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55155
(651) 296-4317
(800) 339-6071
E-mail: [email protected]
* Prefers interim mail at this address.
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Posts: 207
Location: Mpls, MN | This was brought up at the Twin Cities Chapter Muskies Inc board meeting on Tuesday. Pretty alarming that is for sure. Last time something was slide in like this was to overturn the DNR'S ruling to not allow spear fishing on French Lake using some provision or maybe it was a law to override the DNR, if I remeber that correctly. That was a few years ago. Just do not get it. I cannot remember all the details from the meeting.
Edited by mm12463 3/6/2008 10:38 PM
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| Hiya -
Folks - this is one bad piece of legislation.
Regardless of your views on spearing or other management issues, stuff like this should scare the daylights out of you if you care about Minnesota's fisheries.
This bill would lift the spearing ban on Minnesota's designated muskie lakes. The battle over those lakes was one of the ugliest moments in MN fishing history (I was there for some of it). It's not a battle we want to begin again at a time when all MN anglers need to be working together to tackle some of the very challenging issues we have before us. For 26 lakes, vs the 4,000-odd others where spearing is allowed, better to let sleeping dogs lie.
This bill would toss all the efforts the DNR has made toward developing quality pike fisheries in the state out the window. All the special and experimental regulations on lakes like Lake of the Woods, Upper Red and dozens of others - regulations that have created quality pike fisheries that haven't been found in the state since the 1950s - would be nullified by this legislation.
What's worse though is that it would completely remove from the DNR Commissioner's office - and by extension the DNR itself - any authority to manage pike in the state of Minnesota. Basically it would take the management of pike, which are found in 4,000 lakes statewide, away from the fisheries professionals and put it in the hands of legislators, many of whom quite likely don't know a fish from a filing cabinet. This would set a horrible precedent. When fisheries management becomes a contest of influence at the Capitol, we ALL loose.
I would urge you to contact this Representative, by phone or email, and (respectfully) ask him to withdraw this bill.
Rob Kimm |
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| OK - so you've rung the alarm bell, help us help you.
Who are the contact points to act against this? How could this be reworded to be reasonable?
Lines 1.17 & 1.18 are deal killers along with the lines about ALL lakes being included. |
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| adding on to my first post....
I doubt pressure on the legislator who introduced the bill will be 100% effective. Additional pressure on other voting legislators is necessary too. That is who I was referring to in my request for the contact points. This is not a MN only issue, fishing is a big revenue draw for MN, collectively non-residents can make an impression. |
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Posts: 32880
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Email sent. |
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| I'd imagine a greater impact could be made if each MI chapter voiced an opinion to legislators, in addition to the individuals. I'll be bringing this issue to my MI chapter.
When is the vote? |
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Posts: 1516
| Is it to late to have a petition or some other protest document to be at one of the Muskie Inc. booths at the show this weekend? How many signatures could be collected? The document could then be sent to lawmakers and the Governor |
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Posts: 2894
Location: Yahara River Chain | Message sent |
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Posts: 85
| I actually have a muskie lake in my District so I really made the point of protecting her own District resources in the email I sent to my rep. I certainly hope that will be enough to gain her support!
Chris Haider |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | Good morning Gen,
As you are one of the Senators that has spent a great amount of time fighting for the betterment of the environment and sportsman, I felt it necessary to bring this bill to your attention.
This bill has been prompted by a small community of dark house anglers Roger Greshal and Kirk Schnicker (spearers) to undermine the DNR. If you look at the bill it will reverse the regulations that protect muskies from spearing on 26 lakes (including Minnetonka). It is known in the muskie community that there are many spearers who illegally target muskies on the few waters where spearing is allowed. I have MAY pictures of fish who have escaped the spear and have the scares to prove it. We need these regulations to remain on these lakes if we are to continue to be THE tourist destination for muskie fishing IN THE WORLD!
Muskie fishing has grown exponentially from 2% of licenses sold in 1990 to 7% in 1998 to 14% in 2006! Muskie fishing in the ONLY segment of freshwater fishing that is growing in our country. Spearing on the other hand is literally dying a slow death. There are only an estimated 15,000 spearers left in MN compared to over 150,000 muskie fisher people. This does not include the roughly 25,000 people who come to MN to fish muskies from out of state that spend millions of dollars here annually.
It will also eliminate protective slot on northern pike regulations. These regulations have proved to be VERY successful in improving the size structure of northern pike in ALL of the lakes that have been tested. The DNR has this data and has presented it to the Esox Roundtable which I am a part of and which includes the Dark House Federation. The reason why these regulations are so important is because when you remove the large northern pike in an ecosystem, you eliminate the control of these animals. Northern pike keep their own numbers in check by design though cannibalism. When you eliminate the larger fish, small pike or "hammer handles" takeover the lake. This is detrimental to the perch, panfish and walleye populations of lakes and can make it even harder for our DNR to manage those waters correctly.
This bill is very disheartening to all those that have spent countless hours in the Esox Roundtable. Sportsman's groups came together from all over the state and put aside our differences. We all worked together to produce a long term management plan for Esox (pike and muskies) only to have a couple people go behind everyone's back and above the heads of the Commissioner with this bill. This process took over 1/2 dozen meetings over 2 years to complete!
Please work with us to kill this bill! The Commissioner and his people need to be the ones making fisheries policy, not two people who know how to manipulate the political system. I know that you are very busy and especially so now that you are in session, but I would really love to spend 2 minutes talking to you about this bill. You can reach me anytime day or night at 612-201-0209.
Thank you for your time,
Shawn Kellett
President
Twin Cities Chapter
Muskies Inc
414 Division St
Excelsior MN 55331 |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | Here's the link to find your representative:
http://geo.commissions.leg.state.mn.us/districts/start.html
Feel free to steal anything that I wrote. There, now you don't have an excuse 
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Posts: 2
| I saw the post and contacted my representative. This is his response.
I am very confident that this bill is NOT going anywhere! It does NOT have a companion in the Senate and the bill has NOT been granted a hearing in the House. I will watch for any attempts to amend it on to any other legislation as the session progresses.
I do NOT support HF 3676!
Tom Hackbarth
Rep. Tom Hackbarth
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155
Office: 651-296-2439 Fax: 651-296-3918
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Posts: 79
| Treats I copy and pasted some off your stuff and sent it to my Rep....
Thanks all for watching over our fisheries
Gary M |
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Posts: 355
Location: Long Prairie, Minnesota | Just sent off my response to my rep. I will also see her at the church fish fry tonight and will definately be cornering her and getting some feedback from her. Went out and looked at the site and saw the bill has now been sent to the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Just hope this bill gets killled but quick. Also found on the site that some Rep named Juhnke has introduced a bill "allowing a nonresident to take fish by spearing from a darkhouse", hope that one gets killed as well. Treats, I borrowed your stats to send to my Rep. Thanks. |
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