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| kdawg - 1/31/2023 4:49 PM
Under normal circumstances, I would agree, bad idea. But, take into consideration what some of these businesses have been through, through no fault of there own,the last couple of years, with the ridiculous lock downs and mandates that damaged small businesses throughout the country. This could in a sense be viewed as a small business revival plan. What happened to some of those small businesses was just awful. Kdawg
Interestingly, some small business in northern WI did quite well. Fishing boomed, The Musky Shop had record sales. The small resorts on our chain with a few cabins had their best years in decades. Obviously, that is not the case for all. |
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Posts: 1760
Location: new richmond, wi. & isle, mn | In our neck of the woods(Polk/St Croix), I'm guessing has very little natural reproduction. The bass crowd hammer pre season muskies. I see it every year. I'm usually turkey hunting or walleye fishing, but I see the pics from friends. They dropped our stocking in this area in 2006. To lump our area with Hayward and NE Wisconsin has always been crazy. I know they drew a line in when, the early '80's.
They micro manage walleye and panfish is it asking too much to do the same with the state fish?
Just a thought. |
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Location: oswego, il | kdawg - 1/31/2023 5:15 PM
ToddM - 1/31/2023 5:03 PM
kdawg - 1/31/2023 4:49 PM
Under normal circumstances, I would agree, bad idea. But, take into consideration what some of these businesses have been through, through no fault of there own,the last couple of years, with the ridiculous lock downs and mandates that damaged small businesses throughout the country. This could in a sense be viewed as a small business revival plan. What happened to some of those small businesses was just awful. Kdawg
Fishing skyrocketed during COVID and since the border was closed they went stateside.
I am sure opening up the season will give the darkhouse spearers some confidence to continue to want to bring Wisconsin into their fold. A" dark house" spearer has no seasons, it's always open. kdawg
True but they want to expand their boundaries. |
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Posts: 333
Location: SE Wisc | To those who bring up “micro managing” what exactly do you mean? Many of you bring up the bass guys that are taking muskies so are you proposing changing the bass seasons to coincide with Muskie spawning? Do you mean having different openers for individual lakes based off of when the resident fish typically spawn?(that would never work). I’ve always liked the phrase “keep it simple stupid”. Not sure the average angler would keep up with all the additional regulations let alone abide by them. Same with our WI DNR.
As for the small businesses up there. I’d imagine for the tourist industry(which is what we’re talking about) they did better than they’ve done in a long time. Canadian anglers all stayed home and targeted lower 48 destinations. The housing market was insane, and it wasn’t any different up north. Did any of you try buying a lake property up there? Good luck without an all cash offer we’ll over asking price and no contingency. So I’m not buying the “small business revival” BS. Why destroy a resource long term for a short term and minor potential economic growth. |
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| I think the micro managing reference was regarding the individual lake regulations. For instance, there is a 10-10-25 panfish limit on the chain where I live, but not on other lakes in the same township. Pike size is another example of that.
I am going to search again, maybe this time I can get a better handle on why this is being proposed. I did talk to a warden, who fishes musky. He didn't know reasoning but said if he got a chance to talk to a biologist he would see what he could find out but he reminded me that initiatives like this don't have to come from DNR.
There is a spot right next to my dock where we often see musky spawning in the spring. Time of year varies, depends on water temps. Sunny days accelerate the spawn. |
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Location: Vilas | North of 8 - 2/1/2023 8:13 AM
I think the micro managing reference was regarding the individual lake regulations. For instance, there is a 10-10-25 panfish limit on the chain where I live, but not on other lakes in the same township. Pike size is another example of that.
I am going to search again, maybe this time I can get a better handle on why this is being proposed. I did talk to a warden, who fishes musky. He didn't know reasoning but said if he got a chance to talk to a biologist he would see what he could find out but he reminded me that initiatives like this don't have to come from DNR.
There is a spot right next to my dock where we often see musky spawning in the spring. Time of year varies, depends on water temps. Sunny days accelerate the spawn.
I emailed our local biologist about this last year... his response was Jordan Weeks email address |
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Posts: 639
Location: Duluth | I think it's pretty well demonstrated that more angler contact means more mortality, longer season means more contact and more mortality. So if seasons are going to be longer, stocking efforts better compensate, wheres the cash for the extra fish come from, who raises and stocks them?
Questions like this are another great reason musky anglers should join MI. |
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Posts: 1399
Location: Brighton CO. | I took a trip a couple years ago to Wisconsin (a last minute trip) the border was closed and everyone had to fish I the lower 48.
I could not find a cabin to rent on a good muskie lake so we started out in Racine (my dad's old home town) headed up North a night in Rhinelander a night in St. Germain then back home. The resorts were doing good. Dinner was good but to find a place to eat lunch? Most of St. Germain was closed for lunch we had to eat in Sayner. |
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Posts: 554
Location: WI | I guess I’m skeptical that opening it a couple weeks sooner will bring that much more pressure on them. I’m sure there are already people jumping the gun with pike fishing open and it seems to be a time of the year where true incidental catches aren’t uncommon. I’m also skeptical of an economic benefit so overall I don’t really see the point.
Edited by raftman 2/1/2023 10:57 AM
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Posts: 159
| Managing walleye and panfish are completely different than managing muskies. Walleyes and panfish are generally targeted for harvest, muskies are not.
Walleyes and panfish are also often targeted during the winter during ice fishing season, muskies rarely are.
I've personally never targeted a muskie before about June, simply because the season was never open. Even if it was, the water seems way too cold. Let them do their spawning thing and reproduce without being harassed by lures. |
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Location: PA Angler | Back then we didn’t have a very good stocking program for Muskie. The season never closed. Every time I fished the bodies of water that had them back then, never even saw one.
They started stocking and keeping up with certain waters that are healthy with them from their surveys. These waters get stocked every year and are very good populations of them. I finally even see them swimming or jumping around. Plus I think what helped was they changed how many you get to keep and size limits. Still with no closed season.
As far as natural reproduction going on IMO is very little activity. It’s more the stocking program that is helping big time. |
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| Story in the Rhinelander paper yesterday stated that the reason the question about the earlier season is being asked is that the fisheries folks were hearing from anglers in the north that they see a lot of people supposedly fishing for bass now that the season is open year round for catch and release bass fishing that are actually targeting musky.
Living on a musky lake in the north, I really have only seen something like this once or twice. Couple years ago I was pan fishing and three people in a boat were tossing pretty large top water baits to an area of emerging vegetation, but what was suspicious was the giant musky sized net. But, that might have been the only net they owned? |
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Posts: 159
| North of 8 - 2/8/2023 1:15 PM
Story in the Rhinelander paper yesterday stated that the reason the question about the earlier season is being asked is that the fisheries folks were hearing from anglers in the north that they see a lot of people supposedly fishing for bass now that the season is open year round for catch and release bass fishing that are actually targeting musky.
Living on a musky lake in the north, I really have only seen something like this once or twice. Couple years ago I was pan fishing and three people in a boat were tossing pretty large top water baits to an area of emerging vegetation, but what was suspicious was the giant musky sized net. But, that might have been the only net they owned?
Not uncommon at all for a bass angler to pile into a muskie. I don't think anyone would argue that.
The red flag in your situation would be the presence of a muskie sized net. If the season is closed, and you aren't targeting them, why do you have a muskie net? Because its only one you own? Not a chance. |
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Posts: 35
| I love the replies from the "on the chain where I live" guy. Must meet!
Edited by Shroomskie 2/8/2023 4:16 PM
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| If the prime motive to make this change is to boost tourism in the Northern Zone, it's not going to work. Back in the day, that first Saturday in May was often accompanied by tens of thousands of folks heading North to go fishing. Friday night used to look like the last scene from "Field of Dreams" heading North. But, almost none of us were going musky fishing. Walleye anglers were the bulk of THAT annual ritual . Since then, family resorts have all but dissappeared, and Walleye fishing generally has declined ( or at east posession limits have). Affordable weekend lodging on the water has gone away, and fuel prices also push the traffic down. My point is that the traffic is already way down for that first Saturday in May over the last 40 years. Opening Musky that weekend is NOT going to reverse/fix that trend in angling traffic and tourism $$$$ in a meaningful way.
I hooked my first musky in the 1970's...Chased them ever since. From this old man's perpspective, these CLEARLY are the 'good old days' of Musky fishing. Our 7 yesr old Grandson caught one off of our dock last year for pete's sake. That story would have been laughed off when i was that age. I believe that the late/split opener has been a major contributor in making musky fishing better.
Lastly, on our chain of lakes, the later opener has created a form of 'Musky Watching' ritual much like our Eagle nest watching. We get our docks, lifts, and boats in the water, and then many of us will cruise slowly and quietly near spawning areas and see how many Muskies we can spot, and estimate the sizes of the biggest ones we see. We have watched paired muskies swimming under our dock on Memorial Day. it's a beautiful thing. Zero Muskies have been stocked in our chain for almost 50 years, and the numbers are FINE. I would shudder to soon see others 'casting' at these vulnerable fish...like i was nauseated when watching two spearing boats come into our area of the lake a few years ago. WHY push back against such a successful regulation change (the split opener) for that species? it just seems idiotic. |
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