Wisconsin's Proposed Trout Rule Changes

[Driftless]

On February 18 there was a trout chat with Wisconsin DNR experts about the upcoming proposed rule changes. First off I asked the experts what the typical Wisconsin trout angler looks ? Do they have a fly rod in their hand? Do they have a spinner attached to their rod or are the vast majority of Wisconsin small stream anglers worm or live bait anglers?

Matthew Mitro WDNR answered my question by quoting a 2011 mail survey, sent to a random sample of Wisconsin trout anglers, indicates that about 55% of resident trout anglers "often" or "always" fish with bait, about 44% "often" or "always" fish with spinners or lures, and about 27% "often" or "always" fly fish.

I responded and asked if the typical Wisconsin trout angler is 55 percent a bait angler....why are they being excluded from the extended seasons proposed. The current trout season runs from the first Saturday in March through the last Sunday in April as a catch and release only and artificial only season. The live bait anglers are excluded currently from that season. The regular season opens the first Saturday in May to all anglers.

The new proposals by the WDNR trout experts is to extend the seasons. Season would begin on January 01 as catch and release and artificial only anglers and this season would run through the last Sunday in April.

The live bait anglers who are the vast majority of trout anglers in Wisconsin again are totally ignored. One of the other proposals is to extend the season through October 15th. And I bet you guessed what type of season it will be? It will be a catch and release only and artificial only season. The 55 percent or majority of trout anglers in the state will be excluded. If the WDNR experts have their way there will be 4.5 months of catch and release only with artificial lures and 5 months of the possibility of keeping trout.

I asked the experts three different times why the majority were being ignored. The fish manager from LaCrosse "Jordan Weeks" told me to write a proposal to the Conservation Congress at the spring meeting if I was so concern. I felt like the 55 percent when my comment was ignored by Weeks.

I was a Conservation Congress member for half a year. I had to resign due to medical reasons. In the short amount of time in the congress I met many like minded trout anglers. I ran in to one of the heads of the congress Larry Bonde and he told me that the bait and spinner anglers that liked keeping trout were not represented on any committees and he welcomed me to the congress. Larry told me he had heard for years from congress members that the bait angler and spinner angler was being ignored by the WDNR when it came to rules.

He helped me get in on a trout committee through the WDNR. He appointed me as the Conservation Congress representative.

Later two more names were added to the committee. These two conservation congress members were not appointed by Larry and he checked to see how they were appointed. Larry had them removed from the committee. Both anglers removed were catch and release advocates.

Monday, April 14, 2014, 7:00 p.m.is the yearly Conservation Congress Meetings throughout the state. There are six proposed rule changes on the agenda. I am one of the 55 percent anglers that are tired of being ignored by the WDNR. Go to your meetings in your counties and vote "NO" on extending seasons that leave out 55 percent of the trout anglers in the state.

The minority "27 percent" should not rule when it comes to trout fishing. Locals I urge you to go to those meetings and let your voices be heard.

[mwal]

LenH

So typical of the TU stream Improvement/ sanitizer crowd. They are doing to trout in reverse what MN Dnr has done to Mille Lacs. Create streams with 5000 4 inch trout per mile with fly only c&r regs that used to have trout of all sizes and year classes. I agree with you

Mwal

[Slabasaurus]

Couple of issues here. First, the minority "27 percent" only includes fly anglers, you said yourself there are another 44% or so that use artificial on gear, so yeah. Second, no way are the vast majority of trout anglers in the state bait anglers. I'd say it's a split majority, or close to it, that's according to the numbers you posted above.

Another issue I have here is that you seem to be wishing to regulate a resource based on human activity (read: fairness to humans), rather than managing a resource based on the activities of that resource. Here's a nice extreme analogy for ya. If 60% of the anglers in the state thought that rotenone was the most effective means of fishing a creek, I'm mostly positive that you'd be opposed to that, even though a majority of people in the state are in favor of this, it's just not good for the fish.

I think you'd have better luck with reg changes/getting heard by the DNR a bit better if you were to look at this issue from a fishery standpoint, rather than a sociological one. Figure out a way to "prove" that trout do not take worms deeper and more aggressively than any other method. That'd be a place to start (my own observations counter that idea though... not sure you'll find the results you're lookin for).

I'm fine with the season ending in sep though, once mid september comes I'm up north chasin oncorhynchus mykiss of an "anadromous" nature... (quotes because they aren't exactly TRUE anadromous fishes...)

[live4chrome]

I'm not seeing the issue. They are opening the season to allow extra fishing opportunities during a time the season was closed, but are limiting from Bait fishing to protect the fish from harm and make it more difficult to catch them during the season that would normally be closed anyways. Trout mortality with bait is very high, so if allowing people a catch and release season it seems logical to me that they would keep bait out of the equation. Or am I missing something here? Switch your crawlers over to nymphs and you can still catch plenty of fish, and have a good time enjoying trout fishing when you otherwise couldn't. Then again stream trout fishing to me is not about harvesting but about getting out and enjoying being outside and having a good time. I don't need to kill fish to do that.

[DTro]

I wish they would expand catch and release seasons for all fish.