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| I might ramble here.
For the past few years I've(and other avid musky anglers on the flowage) been seeing an exorbitant number of fish leaving the flowage in the 38-43"(prime spawning females) range by angler catch. We've been discussing a size limit increase on Petenwell, Wisconsins biggest musky lake. We've decided on 45", as most fish being taken are under that size, and it would still allow an angler to keep a high 40 inch range fish if they so choose, as they are normally pushing the 30lb. mark at that size. This could only help, as the Flowage sees such light stocking for its' size(23,000 acres). It would be such a boost for the locals who can't afford to travel, and want to see a musky. Note that the river between Merril and Wasau is already 40", and Petenwell is at 34". We've(many local musky anglers of all ages) been very excited to note that our local fisheries manager, Scott Ironside agrees with us, and supports us fully.We plan to put this up as an advisory question this spring at the DNR hearings, so please help our cause!!!!
Now the kicker. Yesterday was the Musky Clubs Alliance annual meeting in Stevens Point, and I am the rep for a local club. I could not make the meeting so I sent a friend and trustee, Don Kempen. I thought this would be a great platform to get support for our hopeful fishery improvement, and I wrote a 1 page letter explaining the details of the plan. I also allowed room for discussion as to where the boundaries would be. I feel Portage, Wood, Adams, and Juneau Co. on the WI river would all benefit, as they all exhibit the same trophy potential, and incidental harvesting.
Don gave copies to the reps from the other clubs in attendance, and was met with full opposition. They have no time for any size limit increases in WI, as they say it is making the fisheries worse, and they feel it is just a platform for the DNR to get out of stocking more fish. They also stated that of we want to fish a trophy lake, that we should go to Canada or Minnesota to do so. This was comin from our Musky Clubs????
Let me state this,I have no complaints about the Alliance and I support them fully. I show this by being one of the top ticket selling clubs in the state for the boat raffle each year. It is a well run organization, and I thank them for allowing our club to participate. I just feel that I am hitting a brick wall if I can't even get our states' musky clubs to agree on improving the fisheries of certain waters in our state.
I'll close by saying, a few of them said that the future would be bleak, and our children would not have the good fishing like there was in the past if we raised limits. I can tell you of 7 or 8 young musky fishing kids right now who are backing me, and would love to see the limit increased on Petenwell.
Please respond with thoughts, and email me with your sugestions if you choose. Please distribute this to every musky fisherman you know, that fishes the WI river, and we will win this one, and the muskies will thank us!!!
Jason Schillinger
[email protected] |
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| By the way, get out on April 8th and vote, as there are plenty of other lakes and issues at hand as well that could use all of our help! |
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| Jason, good luck I am with you on this one. I hope it passes. It's just a start to what they need to do to this lake. |
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| My honest opinion is I wannaa state wide 45" size limit!!After fishing minnesota this summer for the first time,I could not believe the size of the fish that were 48" and better,Who doesnt wanna catch bigger fish?We also saw a lot of 30" fish too,I would say dont stop or give up now,keep pushing it and thinks will happen sometime. |
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| Hi Jason...maybe the WI Chapters of MI can help you. Shoot me a private email and I can give you some info that might help you.
Jono
[email protected]
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| That is a perfect water for that type of size limit, I dont understand why they think that way.
Dont they understand.. How MN and Canada got to be good...Size limits!!!.
Doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure that out.
Yes you dont have to stock as much, when the size limits are high. You have to have a balance of preditor to prey. But the excess dollors can be used to benifit other fisheries. Right now many lakes only get stocked every four years in Wisconsin.
I think it has more to do with the location,,, that is they dont want to help central Wisconsin.[:blackeye:] |
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| Hi,
I agree with you.
According to a DNR guy Wisconsin lakes get "40 times more fishing pressure than Canada", yet we have way lower limits. We should at least be at 45" to protect the prime spawning fish, then people could still keep a trophy if they really wanted too.
Thanks,
Don |
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| That is a good point Don. One that should be taken into consideration. |
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