2012 Minnesota Statutes

97C.011 MUSKELLUNGE LAKES.

(a) The commissioner may, after preparing a statement of need and reasonableness and holding a public meeting, designate waters with muskellunge as muskellunge waters.

(b) The commissioner may prescribe rules for each designated muskellunge waters that:

(1) restrict spearing from a dark house;

(2) restrict angling from a dark house;

(3) limit the open season to take fish;

(4) limit the size of fish that may be kept; and

(5) limit the number of each species of fish that may be kept.

(c) The commissioner must give notice and hold a hearing before adopting rules under this subdivision. The rules must have a termination date and may only be extended upon a showing by the commissioner, at a hearing, that the muskellunge population in the designated waters has been enhanced.

(d) The provisions of section 97C.385, subdivision 1, requiring the angling season on a lake to be closed in proportion to the spearing season do not apply to designated muskellunge lakes.

(e) The commissioner, in designating a muskellunge water on lakes wholly or partially within an Indian reservation, may not designate a whole lake larger than 29,775 acres in surface area, except that sensitive areas of lakes larger than 29,775 acres may be designated if clause (a) is complied with.

History:

1986 c 386 art 3 s 3; 1988 c 714 s 2