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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | QUESTION
1: Establish a statewide, continuous open season for bass
fishing but allow harvest only during the current traditional season
Some people have expressed an interest in increasing fishing opportunity by allowing year -round fishing for largemouth and smallmouth bass. Under current rules, bass fishing is generally allowed during the traditional fishing season that begins on the first Saturday in May and continues through the first Sunday in March and is closed for two months in early spring. Many rivers, their impoundments, and Lake Winnebago currently have a continuous open season. There is already a catch -and- release season for smallmouth bass in the northern bass zone that begins on the first Saturday in May and continues through the Friday preceding the third Saturday in June. Our surrounding states do not have closed seasons for bass. The current closed season does not protect bass from fishing pressure during their May to June spawning season and is not needed for that purpose. A catch-and -release bass season in March and April is not expected to result in an increase of bass mortality. A catch -and-release bass season could make it more difficult to
enforce the closed season for other species such as walleyes and norther
n- pike during March and April. However, possession of bass, walleyes, or northern-pike would continue to be prohibited and would continue to be readily enforceable by conservation wardens.
What's your feelings on this one? |
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Posts: 1668
| Your surrounding state to the West has a closed Bass season. |
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Posts: 323
Location: Elk River, MN | Brian Hoffies - 4/2/2018 3:25 PM
Your surrounding state to the West has a closed Bass season.
Yep. Minnesota's Bass season starts the end of May til Feb. Recently they have opened up a catch and release season on Bass starting on Walleye/Pike opener.
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Posts: 270
Location: SE WISCONSIN | I'm all for year round bass fishing. The closed season is supposed to protect the spawning but 90 percent or the time the largemouth bass have not even started the spawn by the 1st weekend of may. |
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| Closed fishing seasons are tradition driven in the first place. I am all for year round open fishing seasons on every species. The same guys who will cry about people using this as an opportunity to fish for muskies before the season opens are probably right but these are the same guys that will fish the northern WI opener no matter what stage of the spawn those fish will be in. What really is the difference??
Edited by Cfollow 4/3/2018 6:27 AM
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Posts: 1668
| I would take the view that the Bass in Wisconsin seem to be pretty healthy and provide a good opportunity for fisherman. Whatever regulations got them to this point seem to work and I see no reason to change them. FWIW the same subject gets brought up yearly in Minnesota also. |
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Posts: 267
| In MN in most years the annual bass opener around Memorial Day does nothing to protect spawning bass. They are usually on nests and subject to harvest. Catching bass on nests does nothing to harm bass year classes, but it does potentially increase the harvest of bigger bass if anglers are inclined to harvest bass. Luckily most bass are released anyways voluntarily. The best option, IMVHO, would be to keep it open year around and then start a harvest season in early June. And then a statewide slot protecting bigger bass would be valuable. Allow harvest of abundant smaller bass. |
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Posts: 32789
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Brian Hoffies - 4/3/2018 7:28 AM
I would take the view that the Bass in Wisconsin seem to be pretty healthy and provide a good opportunity for fisherman. Whatever regulations got them to this point seem to work and I see no reason to change them. FWIW the same subject gets brought up yearly in Minnesota also.
Very little to do with management, much more to do with warmer water. Overpopulation is a serious issue on many of our Northern tier lakes now which makes walleyes difficult to manage. There's been a 5 bag no size limit on the Minocqua/Tomahawk chain for a few years, and it has not even scratched the surface. The LMB fishing is off the charts for fish to 3#, not so much for big fish, though there are some available. Even the Chip has issues with too many largemouth unbalancing the preferred fishery....walleyes.
Many of the smaller lakes that offered an occasional bass in the past are burgeoning largemouth bass fisheries now. Muskies get along just fine, but the smallmouth populations and walleye populations directly compete. |
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | From an enforcement point of view this is a nightmare unless all species remain open. If this passes, I'll become be biggest Bass Master Icefisherman on the planet.
If the biologists believe no other species would be harmed by opening this up to just Bass, I'm ok with it. But I see this as nothing more than a means for people to CPR every species, "Oops, there's a Musky, I'll just take a quick few pics and toss her back".
Edited by Gander Mt Guide 4/3/2018 9:32 AM
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| Gander Mt Guide - 4/3/2018 9:27 AM
From an enforcement point of view this is a nightmare unless all species remain open. If this passes, I'll become be biggest Bass Master Icefisherman on the planet.
If the biologists believe no other species would be harmed by opening this up to just Bass, I'm ok with it. But I see this as nothing more than a means for people to CPR every species, "Oops, there's a Musky, I'll just take a quick few pics and toss her back".
The harm in that would be what exactly? I love guys pretending actively spawning paired up muskies cruising the shallows are actually catchable. |
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Posts: 323
Location: Elk River, MN | Cfollow - 4/3/2018 12:55 PM
The harm in that would be what exactly? I love guys pretending actively spawning paired up muskies cruising the shallows are actually catchable.
I get what you're saying, but I think it opens up a whole can of worms at that point.
The very limited amount of natural reproduction that goes on in our lakes would be greatly disturbed. Paired fish do occasionally eat out of aggression, and people would sit on a pair until one ate or they "snagged" one. |
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| That's probably true. The northern pike season is already open 3 weeks before muskie in N. WI so the cat is really out of the bag at this point anyhow. |
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | The harm is to more than just Musky, it's also to pre-spawn and spawning walleyes. |
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Posts: 323
Location: Elk River, MN | We've all probably seen people out "fishing for pike" in the weeks leading up to Muskie opener. |
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | Cfollow - 4/3/2018 1:39 PM
That's probably true. The northern pike season is already open 3 weeks before muskie in N. WI so the cat is really out of the bag at this point anyhow.
In a lot of cases, by the time the northern/walleye season starts, the Musky have ended their spawn and are back to actively feeding. If ice out is in March, like it was two season ago, and this open Bass season was in effect, you basically open CPR musky during the prime of their spawn. Hell, in the southern zone there's no doubt you would hit pre, spawn and post spawn. |
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Posts: 452
| Wisconsin should embrace the change in its fishery. Like Steve said some lakes are becoming great Bass Fisheries. Why close a season on a fish that can handle the pressure? |
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | If the fish biologists here say that other species could also handle that pressure, I'm on board. |
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Posts: 267
| Gander, there are walleye fisheries open pre-spawn already with no ill effects. Rainy River and Mississippi River below the Twin Cities. On natural muskie lakes I agree, maybe we should close the season. But on lakes that are maintained by stocking, why not allow muskie fishing? I see no down side. The water is cold, perfect for catch and release fishing. Catching them in the hot summer is worse. |
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Posts: 444
| Interesting stuff. |
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | Smell_Esox - 4/4/2018 7:56 AM
Gander, there are walleye fisheries open pre-spawn already with no ill effects. Rainy River and Mississippi River below the Twin Cities. On natural muskie lakes I agree, maybe we should close the season. But on lakes that are maintained by stocking, why not allow muskie fishing? I see no down side. The water is cold, perfect for catch and release fishing. Catching them in the hot summer is worse.
I'm 100% cool with leaving species open year round if populations remain healthy. Maybe there needs to be test lakes for the Bass idea in the Northern Zone? |
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Posts: 8719
| Some of the lakes where we used to stumble across the occasional 12" LMB have gotten stupid in the last 5-10 years. A decent LMB used to be a novelty, and we took great care to release them. Now I'm contemplating eating the #*^@ things. They're eating all my walleyes!  |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | I think this is something that will be more common in the near future in many states. Fishing will be open for all species open year round with specific harvest seasons. |
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Posts: 300
Location: Minocqua, WI | The more interesting question on this year's ballot is the discussion of opening up tournament participation to those lower population density bass lakes regulated by the 18-1 rule? So this will give tournaments exemption, and let Hot-Rod in his nascar jersey take an Instagram picture with 5 fish, while me, you, and others only get our 1. And most of those lakes only have 500 or fewer bass in them all total. The adult fish in these lakes are 20+ years old too. Current regs are intended to maintain them that way and to grow & preserve big fish........
Anyhow, to the poster's initial question:
I am absolutely in favor of establishing a statewide open season for bass fishing under the condition of closed harvest and no possession of smallmouth from the time gamefish harvest season closes (first Sunday of March) through mid June. Smallmouth should fall into the C&R only category for spring and be kept that way. Largemouth meanwhile should be as-is with their year-round harvest, with harvest open to thin the herd as some lakes need it really bad. For the infested fisheries like Minocqua chain, these places need to be kept open for harvest year round. Just because 1 lake chain has its problems shouldn't dictate the rest of the state's black bass management plan.
Bass in WI also don’t spawn during March and April in Wisconsin either. So spawning won't be impacted. Our lakes in the northern half of the state are also mostly ice covered at this time too, with ice-out usually not happening until mid April most years. The current rules for March and April, with total 100% closed fishing season for gamefish, is the most antiquated rule in the book. It’s bad for the tourism industry and economics. Bass fishing generates millions of dollars to Wisconsin economies and the fishing/outdoors industry. The current program is not scientifically supported either. Southern and Central WI will greatly benefit from this one most.
People who are ignorant and don’t care will harvest fish during closed seasons anyways. They will also create excuses to fish for species off limits. Nothing will stop them from their destructiveness. It’s the criminal mind. Open the season to catch and release fishing, and employ more game wardens and officials to enforce regulations and laws.
An open fishing season that is mandated for 100% catch and release and ZERO POSSESSION (made specific for waters) will keep bass anglers happy statewide, and create and open new early season fishing opportunities to the southern half of Wisconsin.
Obviously if/when this passes it will open up new cans of worms as we all predict...... |
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Posts: 32789
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | 'The more interesting question on this year's ballot is the discussion of opening up tournament participation to those lower population density bass lakes regulated by the 18-1 rule? So this will give tournaments exemption, and let Hot-Rod in his nascar jersey take an Instagram picture with 5 fish, while me, you, and others only get our 1. And most of those lakes only have 500 or fewer bass in them all total. The adult fish in these lakes are 20+ years old too. Current regs are intended to maintain them that way and to grow & preserve big fish........ '
Study up before insulting competitive bass angling; I would assume that would be unwise to do considering your profession. Or better yet, take it elsewhere.
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Posts: 261
| Howdy,
I would gladly trade closed seasons (for all species including muskies) for more restrictive size and harvest regulations.
Whether a fish is removed from the system pre-spawn or post-spawn doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me. They are gone either way.
I would much prefer letting people fish year round, recognizing that spawning recruitment will suffer for some species, but compensate for that by proportionally reducing harvest and managing for maximum size potential. This would include "None over" limits on all species as well.
Take care,
Ruddiger |
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Posts: 441
| A lot of small lakes, in northern Minnesota, get raped, during the spawn. I've witnessed it, first hand. People keep all the bass they catch. They will catch a limit, in the morning, then be right back out, in the afternoon. the bass numbers in the small lakes I fish, has gone way down. It doesn't take long to hurt a population of smallmouth, on a small lake, when you are taking 5-10 year old fish, off the beds.
I notified the Game Wardens, in the area, and they have been making a few arrests, in the last couple of years.That will help.
That being said, I think they should have a catch and release season, from the opener until July 1st. That would give the bass a good chance to spawn. |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | A protected season for LMB bass in Wisconsin is pure nonsense, imo. Perfectly fine with C&R year round.
Personally, I think a protected season of Muskies in lakes in which they don’t successfully spawn is also potentially not as helpful to them as most people think it is. If you were out in a boat chucking baits this April in Southern WI, for example? Well...good luck 
Edited by Musky Brian 4/14/2018 11:19 AM
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | "employ more game wardens"
and please while you are at it State of Wisconsin, please do something about this herd of unicorns that keeps eating the apples off of my trees.
jersey - check
hero shot - check
at least make it hard ...
Edited by jonnysled 4/14/2018 11:43 AM
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Posts: 300
Location: Minocqua, WI | Well ya got me there! We will all coexist........ |
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