The Minnesota DNR asked for public input in 2020 on a Quality Sunfish Initiative aimed at trying to increase the number of large sunfish in many of the state’s waters that have been targeted as having the potential to produce those fish.
As a result, 94 of Minnesota’s inland waters now have new sunfish limits as part of their special regulations this year. The new regulations will lower sunfish limits on these lakes to protect more big fish in the system after the DNR said anglers raised concerns over the declining size of sunfish in Minnesota waters.
“Robust public input and support helped us move forward with the Quality Sunfish Initiative. We had more than 3,700 comments and over 85% of them were in favor of trying to improve sunfish sizes,” said Dave Weitzel, Grand Rapids area fisheries supervisor. “It’s clear Minnesota anglers treasure sunfish and want to make sure we have lots of large sunfish in our lakes.”
Lakes in and around the Douglas County area that are impacted by these changes are:
Irene Lake (Douglas County) -- daily limit of 10 sunfish
Whiskey Lake (Douglas County) -- daily limit of 5 sunfish
Lake Osakis (Douglas and Todd County) -- daily limit of 10 sunfish
Beauty Lake (Todd County) -- daily limit of 5 sunfish
Buck Lake (Todd County) -- daily limit of 5 sunfish
Cedar Lake (Todd County) -- daily limit of 5 sunfish
Lady Lake (Todd County) -- daily limit of 5 sunfish
Lily Lake and connected Long Lake (Todd County) -- daily limit of 5 sunfish
Little Sauk Lake (Todd County) -- daily limit of 5 sunfish
Mary Lake (Todd County) -- daily limit of 5 sunfish
Moose Lake (Todd County) -- daily limit of 5 sunfish
Gilchrist Lake (Pope County) -- daily limit of 10 sunfish
Grove Lake (Pope County) -- daily limit of 10 sunfish
Special regulations on all Minnesota lakes that are impacted can be found on page 38 of the 2021 Minnesota Fishing Regulations booklet.
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The 10-fish bag limit applies to lakes where the goal is to maintain current populations of large sunfish. The 5-fish bag limit applies to lakes where the desire to increase sunfish size quality.
On any lake, anglers can voluntarily help protect big sunfish by releasing or limiting their harvest of large sunfish, which are typically considered about eight inches or bigger.
In spring and early summer, sunfish nest in large colonies. Male sunfish compete for the best spawning sites in a lake. Only the largest sunfish build and defend nests. When anglers keep the largest sunfish, competition for spawning decreases and there is less need for smaller males to devote energy to grow larger.
Instead, with a lack of spawning competition, they devote more energy to spawning at younger ages and smaller sizes. In lakes where large sunfish become overharvested, sunfish may not grow as fast as they once did.
The new regulations for 2021 modify only the daily limits on these waters. Anglers can catch a limit and return the next day to catch another as long as they do not exceed the statewide inland-water possession limit of 20 sunfish per angler.
Statewide, 44 waters will have a new daily limit of five sunfish, 31 will have a limit of 10 sunfish, 17 will have a limit of five sunfish and five crappie, and two will have a limit of 10 sunfish and five crappies. There are 57 waters that previously had reduced limits for sunfish and these regulations remain in effect.
“We’ve evaluated previous special sunfish regulations and found that reducing harvest can indeed produce large sunfish,” Weitzel said. “Sunfish grow slowly—about an inch per year—so a large sunfish can be more than a decade old. It’s critical to protect these large fish from excessive harvest because they aren’t easily replaced.”
Minnesota fishing regulations use sunfish as the generic name for bluegill, pumpkinseed, green sunfish, orange-spotted sunfish, longear, warmouth and their hybrids. More about sunfish biology and the Quality Sunfish Initiative is available on the DNR website .
