10-Brook Trout Bag Limit Proposed at October NRC Meeting

Today, the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) will meet at the MSU Diagnostic Center located at 4125 Beaumont Road, Lansing, MI 48910. If you are unable to attend, please join us on Facebook for the MUCC live stream starting at 1 p.m.

The Policy Committee on Wildlife and Fisheries will kick the meeting off at 1:00 p.m. There will be addresses to the committee from both the DNR Fisheries Chief Jim Dexter and DNR Wildlife Chief Russ Mason. On the agenda will be fisheries regulations and preliminary elk season results along with a deer check update from Mason.

The NRC Committee of the Whole will be starting at 2 p.m. There will be a director’s report from DNR Director Keith Creagh. Topics that he and his staff will be covering include updates from parks and trails, Office of the Great Lakes, invasive carp and chronic wasting disease among others.

Information

Up for information are regulations on coldwater fish species such as trout, salmon, whitefish, lake herring and smelt. Proposed in the regulations would be a 10-fish bag limit for brook trout on certain designated U.P. waters,  where the previous limit has been five. MUCC is opposed to the regulation where it will likely decrease brook trout populations over time and have a negative effect on the species and their sizes. The specific fisheries order can be found here.

Also up for information are warmwater regulations that would reduce the bag limit of perch from 50 to 25. MUCC is in support of this regulation to ensure a sustainable perch population for years to come. MUCC is going to suggest to the NRC to have within the bag limit no more than five perch exceeding 12 inches to ensure the size of perch does not reduce over time and that we can promote age-class diversity. The specific warmwater fisheries order can be found here. Accompanying these species regulations up for information are hook size regulations and gear restrictions

These fisheries orders will be up for possible action in November.

Action

Items for action include a fisheries order to expand required tournament registration to walleye and muskellunge tournaments, similar to the bass tournament registration that has been in place for several years. A fisheries order lifting the restriction of the possession of scented bait in six designated waters is up for action. Lastly, a fisheries order is up that will remove the Black River and Dickerson Creek from designated trout streams to statewide regulated streams, which will provide more angler opportunities in those waters.

New Faces of the NRC

MUCC welcomes David Nyberg to the NRC to fill the seat of Christine Crumbaugh, who resigned last month. Nyberg is well known to the conservation community, as he served as MUCC’s legislative affairs manager from 2008-2011 and went on to work on Governor Snyder’s staff, before recently joining as a Director of Corporate Engagement for Northern Michigan University.