Originally Posted by
Ty Sennett
I'm going to throw my opinion in here. I don't want to offend anyone so I want to say it again........opinion.
I think the bass are a scapegoat for the DNR. Our DNR has absolutely no money. None! If a fishery isn't producing they can't stock more fish because they have no funds to do so. To save face the DNR has to blame the lack of fish on something because they can't provide a solution. The largemouth bass population was just as strong on the west side 30 years ago but you didn't hear of any walleye troubles then. 50 to 100 bass days were not uncommon back then. There are not as many bass as you think out here. Try to catch a largemouth bass on the east side. It's relatively hard to do with the exception of a few small bays. Two years straight now people had trouble catching bass for the "you catch em' we cook em' " deal that is set up to harvest bass and raise funds for stocking. That's people specifically trying for largemouth. There are times when it's easy but not always. The DNR also said the pike are eating all the muskie fry. They said that for years. Now research shows this not to be true. You cannot tell me that crappie and bluegill don't eat walleye fry. There is an overabundance of panfish out here that it makes it almost impossible for any fry to survive. Next we'll be asking to harvest panfish. Smallmouth bass don't eat walleye fry?.....................they eat whatever goes by them. But the DNR will tell you they don't because the former head of DNR here loves smallmouth fishing.
The lake changes constantly and one species will go on an upswing and then crash. If you really want to have a great walleye fishery and still have both tribal spearing and angler harvest then we(Wisconsin anglers) need to follow Minnesota in their stocking efforts to have a strong walleye fishery. We need to treat the lakes as put and take lakes until the numbers are strong enough to handle the year round harvest. Luckily the resorts now get it and are funding the walleye stocking efforts because they know if they wait for the DNR to do anything it will not get done.
When someone doesn't catch fish sometimes blaming other fish species isn't the solution, it's looking in the mirror to see who harvested the fish that were in the lake that is.
I know I contribute a lot of money toward the stocking program and that is one way to better a resource fast. Doesn't make me better than anyone but I do know it helps the resource and that's a start.
Again, opinion. If this offended anyone these are just my thoughts as someone that spends too much time on the water.
I totally agree
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