April 12th DNR spring hearings results

Hi everyone,

The Saywer county meeting was very well attended as the bleechers were full and folding chairs were set up to accomodate everyone.

Since the voting is counted by electronic ballot machines, I do not yet have the exact count of how the voting went. I should have exact numbers by tommorow.

But I can say that at our meeting, 95% or more thought along the same lines as all of us. There is a major concern to bring the Walleyes back to prominence in the Chippewa Flowage.

I hope to have complete details tommorow.

Walleyemaxx

Here are the final results from monday nights meeting.

After clicking on the link, put the font to 100 or higher to read the document.

Walleyemaxx

What happens when local DNR fisheries people present a reasonable management plan to Madison that gets completely changed around by those higher ups and they say anything about those changes??? Well they get a letter like this from HQ!! No wonder all the states proposals got voted down in Sawyer county. Just why do we have local fisheries staff if Madison knows best??

"the Department's spring hearing regulation proposals are the official position of the Department as approved by the Secretary and the Natural Resources Board.**Regardless of your own personal opinion on a Department policy, it is your job to fairly and accurately portray that position in a public setting.* And in the case of a public hearing, it is your*job to carefully listen to and accurately report the input that we receive.**It is not your job to advocate for alternative policy options of your own choosing while acting as a representative of the Department.**
*
In this specific situation, we have been made aware that there is a lot of public controversy about the*proposals for the Chippewa Flowage.* There are also strong differences in opinion/judgment among the many professional fisheries biologists and scientists that have peer reviewed these proposals, and at this point the Department has put forward what it believes to be the best option to restore the walleye population in the Flowage for public comment.* As Steve says below we will consider all public input (eg any resolutions that may pass) before making a final recommendation to the Natural Resources Board.* And regardless of our final recommendation, we will also make all public input available to the Natural Resources Board so they can make a final decision.* However, the Department is*NOT advocating for the defeat of any spring hearing questions and we are NOT advocating for the passage of any alternate resolutions."*
*
Michael Staggs
Bureau of Fisheries Management
PO Box 7921, 101 S. Webster
Madison, WI* 53707-7921
608-267-0796
608-266-2244 (fax)
mike.staggs@wisconsin.gov

Thanks John,

Just so everyone knows, what John posted is a letter that the fishery's head of the Wisconsin DNR sent to the Sawyer County fishery biologist Mr. Frank Pratt.

As most of you know, Mr. Pratt is one of the most respected Fishery biologist in the state. Mr Pratt circulated a letter to the crowd at the Sawyer County meeting to let every one know that he did not suggest the 18" size limit for the Big Chip. In the letter, it is clear that Mr. Staggs wants to shove this proposal down everyones throat, and basically told Mr. Pratt to like it or shut the f*** up.

Not only does this show the tax payers of Wisconsin how unqualified the fishery's head of the DNR is, but also how unprofessional he is. In his letter, Mr. Pratt informed us that he has been the fishery biologhist for Sawyer County since 1974.

I for one would like to thank Mr. Pratt for all of his years of hard work and dedication to his job. We should all rally behind him and support him in any way we can.

One of my fears is that this 18" size limit will completely end the population of Walleyes in the Chippewa Flowage. it is no secret that the huge bass population is eating all the Y.O.Y. Walleyes, and the Walleye fry, now Mr Staggs seems to want anglers to kill all the prime spawners.

The Chippewa Flowage is historically Walleye water. The WI. DNR should be working tirelessly to restore her back to that again. Instead, they are coming up with regulations to destroy the Walleyes in the Big Chip. How sad.

I welcome your opinions

Walleyemaxx

Thanks for providing a better understanding of the Pratt/Staggs letter. I am not sure that I agree or disagree with the LMB assessment that they are eating all the YOY fish. It always seems that there are lots of problems that have to be looked at associated with population declines. Currently drought seems to be one of the impacting factors. Last years cool, if not cold summer probably didn't help matters integrating more YOY 'eyes.

But I will most definitely agree with the assessment that allowing harvest specifically for walleyes over 18" is one of the worst regulations that I have heard, period!!! Why is it that the Canadian slot is 18"-21"??? And in MN, almost all of their lakes slots start at 18" and extend from 24-26" and up??? Because those are the prime spawning FEMALES!!! Yes there are males that attain larger size, but they are not nearly there in the numbers of them as there are the opposite sex.

Why are we just setting up to crop off the most important fish in the population...

Mark

Hi Mark,

I know that the bass aren't eating all the Y.O.Y. Walleyes, but the DNR did a study that proved that the Largemouth Bass are one of the main contributers to the predation of the Y.O.Y. Walleyes. I quess the same study said the Smallmouth Bass do not predate on the Y.O.Y. Walleyes so bad. At any rate, we need our prime spawning Walleyes to remain in the system, not on the dinner plate.

Another reason we need the larger Walleyes in the system, is they predate on the Y.O.Y. bass to help keep thier numbers in check.

The whole problem with the Chippewa Flowage is they do not lower her every winter like they used to. They used to draw her down up to 16 feet every year. That would kill a lot of bass and blugills because they weren't smart enough to move to the deeper portions of the lake. The draw down also killed a lot of weeds. Now, since the early 90's, they do not do a draw down of more than 3 feet. That helped the bass and panfish numbers explode. to make matters worse, the weeds have grown out of controll.

If they would do a draw down say once every three years or so. I'm sure someone could do a study, they could probably maintain healthy numbers in both Walleye and bass numbers. And help control the weeds.

Walleyemaxx

Hi everyone,

Just took a look at some of the results by county. Interesting that onieda county which only has two lakes open to trolling saw fit to pass it for Sawyer county. Vilas County which has no lakes open to trolling, and is very adamantly against trolling, defeated it for us by only two votes. What a bunch of hypocrites.

Walleyemaxx

Respect-Earned not given.