Ice Fishing is open on the Chippewa Flowage
I got this forwarded over to me, Just wanted to post it so everybody would be aware of the new law on the Chippewa Flowage that opens up ice fishing on the Flowage for everything but muskie and walleye.
Effective December 1, 2010, fishing rule changes supported by a majority of voters at the 2010 Spring Hearings of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress will become effective on the Chippewa Flowage. This represents significant progress toward simplification of some rules that were unnecessarily complex and restrictive. The attached regulation sign will be posted at points of public access in the near future. With this message, I am asking our many supportive partners in the Chippewa Flowage community to share this information on websites, in newsletters, at group meetings, and at lake area businesses.
The Chippewa Flowage will be open to ice fishing this winter for all species except muskellunge (not open anywhere after November 30) and walleye (uniquely closed on the Chippewa Flowage). We anticipate that some unethical ice fishers may attempt to harvest walleyes illegally as they legally fish for northern pike with tip-ups for the first time on the Flowage. I ask that our partners maintain a vigilant watch and report such illegal activity accurately to wardens Sue Miller and/or Tom Heisler. But the best deterrent to such activity will be peer pressure, which we hope you will exert in order to give our walleye population the best possible chance to recover from years of low recruitment due to predation by largemouth bass and to a lesser extent northern pike. Some harvest of largemouth bass and potentially high harvest of northern pike through the ice may help young walleyes and muskellunge to survive in higher numbers in the future -- one reason to implement these changes now. If and when our walleye population recovers fully, we may suggest opening up the Flowage to ice fishing for all gamefish (except muskellunge) in order to expand winter recreational opportunity and simplify enforcement, but that is unlikely to happen in the near future.
Another major change is the abolition of special seasons and restrictions on panfish, especially crappie. We had no sound justification for those former complications, and I appreciate everyone's support for eliminating them. This does not mean that some meaningful panfish harvest restrictions may not be needed in the future. Crappie are particularly important in the Chippewa Flowage and throughout the Upper Chippewa Basin, but we currently have no reason to believe that the old 15-daily limit or winter harvest prohibition was necessary or helpful in managing the crappie fishery. Length limits can be more effective than bag limits in managing crappies; but we only recently (since 2008) began gathering the kind of information that would allow us to make an informed scientific recommendation in that regard. In another year or two, I suspect we will have the information needed to know how best to sustain quality crappie fishing on the Chippewa Flowage.
Another likely change on the horizon deals with the issue of bass harvest. This winter, I will submit a proposal to exempt largemouth bass (but not smallmouth bass) from the 14-inch minimum length limit on the Chippewa Flowage. We will do this by using a little-known statute (NR 20.35) that provides for such exemptions on a species-specific basis if growth rate for the regulated species is below a minimum standard of acceptability. As it turns out, largemouth bass are growing very slowly in the Chippewa Flowage, and smallmouth bass are growing just fine. Largemouth bass eat little walleyes; smallmouth bass eat mostly crayfish. I am optimistic that leaders in the Fisheries Management Bureau will now support this experiment in managing largemouth and smallmouth bass differently in the same body of water. If successful, the change could take effect at the opening of bass harvest season on June 18, 2011. We will change the regulation signs again next June if our efforts come to fruition. I wish I could report that the Northern Bass Zone seasonal harvest prohibition could be lifted also; but I have not yet convinced enough of my colleagues that we need to do that. I'll keep working on it. In the meantime, for your fireside reading, I have attached the two most recent Chippewa Flowage survey summaries prepared by LTE Fisheries Biologist Joe Krahn at Hayward.
Have a great deer season and enjoy ice fishing SAFELY on the Chippewa Flowage this winter!
Dave Neuswanger
Fisheries Team Leader, Upper Chippewa Basin
Wisconsin DNR, Hayward
715-634-9658 ext. 3521
