Early trout season opens March 6

MADISON – Trout anglers will find new maps, loosened tackle regulations, and dozens of new trout waters when the early trout season opens March 6.

The 2010 catch-and-release season begins at 5 a.m. with several changes over recent seasons:

•Anglers are not required to use barbless hooks. Artificial lures and flies are still required.
•Wisconsin's official list of classified trout streams has been updated and contains 58 more streams that have been classified as trout waters since 2002. Most of those 260 miles are found in west central and southern Wisconsin counties and will be open for the early season.
•New online maps and interactive maps will make all of the trout waters easier to find and provide other information to increase anglers’ success.
“It should be a good season,” says Larry Claggett, Department of Natural Resources trout specialist. “Trout populations have recovered from the floods of 2007 and 2008, we’ve identified new trout waters for anglers to try, and our new maps should make it easier to get to trout waters once the snow melts.”

If the snow covering much of Wisconsin as of mid-February hangs around, access to some streams will be more difficult for the opener. But the cold, snowy winter is good for the trout, replenishing the groundwater that feeds the streams with the cold, clean water the trout need.

An estimated 230,000 anglers fish for trout, based on sales of inland license stamps, with a smaller proportion fishing the early season, Claggett says. Across both the early season and the regular inland season, trout anglers caught an estimated 1.6 million trout in 2006-07, according to results from a mail survey of anglers during that calendar year.

Regulations

The season opens 5 a.m. on March 6 and runs until midnight April 25, when there is a week “rest” before the regular season opens. The early season is catch-and-release. Only artificial lures and flies are allowed, but new this year, barbless hooks are not required.

Most trout streams are open to early fishing with the exception of most Lake Superior tributaries and most streams in northeast Wisconsin; check the current trout fishing Regulations pamphlet for specific waters.

New trout waters identified
Wisconsin's official list of classified trout streams has been updated and is available online through the DNR Web site.

The county lists are available as well as printable maps in either black and white or color. The county-level maps make finding precise access points a whole lot easier. The online offerings also take anglers to interactive maps where users can customize the maps with whatever information you want, including type of ground cover and the location of structures, which could come in handy for knocking on doors to ask permission to cross private property and access remote stretch of water.

Crawford County has 12 of the 58 newly identified streams, followed by Barron County with ten and Monroe County with eight.

Dave Vetrano, longtime fisheries biologist for the area including Monroe, Crawford, La Crosse and Vernon counties, says the new round of upgrades brings the miles of trout water in those counties to more than 1,000, up from the 654 miles of trout water listed in the 1980 version of the Wisconsin Trout Streams book.