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Posts: 1173
| Who's fishing this weekend? Anyone fishing north of Hwy 10?
It seems the vast majority of WI anglers were opposed to the new statewide opener, even attempting to get it overturned through input at the spring hearings. The righteousness of musky anglers shouldn't surprise me anymore. But given the lack of evidence that the new opener would do anything to hurt the fishery, I was a little surprised. I listened to the podcast with Jordan Weeks on the matter a while back and the information and his support made sense to me. I live very close to the previous Hwy 10 zone divider so that may be one reason I don't see it as a big deal. I primarily fish the WI river, and sections from Dubay all the way up to Merrill will be virtually the same water temp as Stevens Point, so why not? If most of the lakes rely on stocking anyways, is targeting muskies during the spawn really a problem? Not to mention, they're not apt to chasing lures in the middle of spawn. Snagging fish is illegal if the season is open or not so that's a non-issue to me.
I won't be around this coming weekend so will miss the opener. But I am certainly looking forward to being able to target muskies before Memorial weekend. The number of guys saying they'll wait until the normal northern opener is laughable in my opinion. |
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Posts: 62
Location: Janesville wi | Seems to be the biggest gripe is guys messing up the spawn by targeting fish in the shallows that are doing their thing.Not targeting Muskies during an open bass and pike season is an unenforceable law anyway. Anyone that would have been harassing spawning fish could have been doing it anyway.
Hopefully it doesn’t lead to non musky guys keeping fish they’d have otherwise had to throw back. That’s the one part of it that I could see being harmful. Raising the size limit seems like the best way to prevent that but catch and keep is already almost non existent.
I really have a hard time believing casting at fish or even catching a fish will somehow make them not spawn the eggs that are already developed.
Until guides and Muskie industry folks making a living off the resource start donating a percentage of their profits to spawning and habitat I have a problem taking their opinions serious about protecting a resource. If every guide donating $25 to buy a new fish to stock for every half day trip they’d do a lot more than blowing up social media and podcast crying about the season being open a few weeks earlier. |
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Posts: 640
Location: S.W. WI | Outdated, antiquated rule from another time when all fish were catch and kill. Almost zero reason season cannot be opened with rest of gamefish season.
I also enjoy the fishermen who know so much more than actual fisheries biologists.
This had overwhelming support a few years ago when the question was asked for regulation changes.
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Posts: 1682
Location: Brighton CO. | Won't be up for the opener I live in Colorado, I've never fished the opener but love coming up later in May or early June fishing with Bass/Walleye and Panfish gear. Twitch a minnow, cast a Rapala or a Smaller Mepps or a Bettle Spin and on any given cast catch anything from a Perch to a 50 pound Muskie. and for the most part it's nice and cool. Well I'm old enough to be around back in the day of the general opener, the idea came around a 45 pound Muskie being kept by a Walleye fishermen. Yes we will have some fish being kept with would else been released (after all the best way to catch a early season Muskie is not to fish for them) with conventional muskie tackle. Now the good news when I fish for everything as pointed out above I can bring a Muskie net without getting the look and we don't have to play the fish as long to get it in a big net VS stuffing it in a small net or trying to land it by hand. That will help with survivibility of the fish. |
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