MINNEAPOLIS — Anglers who fish Mille Lacs Lake will be allowed to keep one walleye and five northern pike this winter under regulations the Department of Natural Resources announced Monday.

The agency issued the rules one week after it gave the Mille Lacs area’s struggling tourism industry some hope by saying it would reopen the lake for walleye ice fishing this winter. The DNR took the unprecedented step of closing the summer walleye season on the lake in August after anglers exceeded a quota that was already set low. Gov. Mark Dayton had been pushing to allow at least some ice fishing for walleyes on Mille Lacs this winter.

Mille Lacs ice anglers will be allowed to keep one walleye between 18 and 20 inches or one longer than 28 inches. Last winter’s limit was two. The size restrictions haven’t changed. If the walleye harvest appears likely to approach the 5,000-pound winter cap, catch-and-release will be implemented so angling for other species can continue.

The DNR said its decision reflects a desire by its new advisory committee on Mille Lacs to allow walleye fishing all winter. In a statement, DNR fisheries chief Don Pereira called it “a conservative regulation allowing fishing to continue through the winter without risk of closure.”

DNR and tribal biologists agreed Oct. 15 to set the winter cap for non-tribal anglers at 5,000 pounds of walleyes after a study last month showed that populations of walleyes of spawning age and those hatched in 2013 were above the benchmarks researchers had set. Members of eight Ojibwe bands with treaty rights on the lake have their own quotas and typically take most of their share of the lake’s fish by netting in the spring. Non-tribal ice anglers took 3,100 pounds of walleyes last winter.

The winter walleye rules take effect Dec. 1 and run through Feb. 28. The northern pike regulations will run Dec. 1-March 27.

The northern limit will dropped from the current 10 for Mille Lacs to five. Anglers may keep one northern longer than 30 inches only if they first catch two pike shorter than 30 inches and keep both in their immediate possession. The pike limit on most Minnesota lakes is three, but the DNR liberalized it for Mille Lacs last year to provide alternative opportunities for anglers who had trouble catching walleyes they could keep to eat due to the narrow size restrictions.

Biologists say Mille Lacs’ walleye population is at a 30-year low, though they point to the strong survival of walleyes hatched in 2013 as a reason for optimism. They say the main reason for the decline has been few young walleye surviving to maturity. They suspect the cause includes a complex interaction of clearer water, warmer temperatures, invasive species and predation by larger fish.