Special fishing regulations on 15 Minnesota lakes -- designed to boost the average size of northerns there – will be dropped Nov. 1 as the result of a law passed this year capping the number of such lakes at 100. The controversial law forced the DNR to remove 15 lakes from the 115 that have special northern regulations. The DNR usually imposes the size restrictions with approval of lake associations and fishing groups. But spearers lobbied legislators last session, arguing that the restrictions prevent them from using those lakes.Legislators had proposed cutting the number to 60 or 90 lakes, but compromise legislation capped the number at 100. "To comply with the new law, we are dropping regulations on 15 lakes where fisheries biologists believe the regulation is least likely to achieve its management goal or is a smaller lake connected to a larger lake that also has a special northern pike regulation,"said Al Stevens, DNR fishing regulations coordinator. The 15 lakes are Campbell in Beltrami County; Cotton and Big Floyd in Becker County; Louise in Cass County; Latoka in Douglas County; Caribou in St. Louis County; Scrapper, Haskell, Rice and Schoolhouse in Itasca County; North Branch Kawishiwi River, which is part of the Garden Lake chain, in Lake County; Ogechie in Mille Lacs County; Long and Crooked in Stearns County; and Little Sauk in Todd County. These lakes will revert to the standard statewide northern pike regulation – a three-fish limit with no more than one greater than 30 inches in possession. The DNR said the changes are being done temporarily through an expedited rulemaking process to get them in effect by Nov. 1, as the law requires. Stevens said the DNR will also post the lakes this fall and hold local informational meetings in January before making the changes permanent. Meeting times and locations will be announced in early January. Because the law enacted this summer also narrowed the definition of allowable special or experimental designated lakes for northern pike to those with length limits, regulations on another 17 lakes with catch-and-release or reduced bag limits will also be dropped from special or experimental regulations. The status of these lakes will be addressed through other DNR rule-making authorities in the months ahead. During the past 20 years, the DNR has introduced many special and experimental regulations to improve the average size of fish. For northern pike, special regulations typically require anglers to immediately release fish in a specified size range, often 24 to 36 inches, and limit the harvest of fish larger than the size range to one fish.