Wisc river New Walleye reg’s

Snow got me bummed. so might as well pick on the DNR.

What do you guy’s think of the new slot 20″to 28″ one over 15in minimun. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t have a problem with the 20″ to 28″ love trophy eye’s but I think they missed the boat by not removing the minimum size to allow harvesting of the numerous eater,s.

I fished the dam below Castle Rock five or six times last year and caught ten to twenty 12in to 14 3/4 eye’s in a couple hours of fishing. Last time I fished from a boat we went thru a pail of minnows 100 plus day before we caught a keeper.

Sorry so long winded, the point is how do they figure a WALLEYE is going to reach 28″ if it has to compete with thousands of smaller eye’s. It’s a great place to take a kid fishing but could have been made better, what do you think ?

Chippman, hopefully this year all those 12 to 14 inchers will have grown to be 15 to 18 inchers. I don’t know the reason for the rule change but usually I’m not for special regulations unless there is a real problem that only these (special regulations) can address. All to often well meaning regulations often have a negative side effect, turning more people off to fishing. Many people would rather not fish then take the time to figure out complicated fishing regs. I fish the lower Wisconsin and the size limit down here is 18 inches for walleyes and 15 inches for saugers. I find it ironic that this forces us to keep the bigger fish for eaters at a time when the upper reaches of the Wisconsin are having their bigger fish protected with a slot limit.

not to be sounding snotty or anything but the new regulations above the sauk city dam is not what you have stated. The new slot limit is 15 – 19.9 ” on walleyes and saugers and one maybe over the 28″ limit. Those caught in the 20-27.9″ range must be thrown back. Hope this clears it up for you and good fishing.

Chippman,

How deep of water are you fishing there?

I am not familiar with the situation on the Wisconsin River. I do know that ten years ago on Little Bay De Noc (before the current regulations) we caught a lot of 12-13″ eyes and rarely a big one. Now we can harvest 1 walleye over 23″ per day and 4 fish 15 to 22″ in length. We now catch 23-28″ eyes frequently. Normally the number and size of “teenage” eyes is greatly affected by the spawning success of that year/class and the available forage base during their growth the next few years. I hope it works out well for your waters in the future.