walleyemaxx
04-08-2010, 10:16 AM
Hi everyone,
Here's an article as published in the Sawyer County Record on Wednesday April 7. Seems nobody is in favor of any of it.
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New Big Chip walleye,
panfish rule proposals
spark strong opposition
by Terrell Boettcher
News Editor
Published: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 10:08 AM CDT
As the April 12 statewide spring fish and wildlife rules hearings draw near, proposed new rules that would place stringent limits on daily walleye and panfish catches on the Chippewa Flowage and would open up all lakes in Sawyer County to motor trolling have sparked strong opposition from Hayward area resort owners and fishing guides.
Members of the Lake Chippewa Flowage Resort Association (LCFRA) are encouraging their members and everyone else at next Monday night’s hearing in Winter to vote “no” to opening up all lakes in Sawyer County to motor trolling, under which each angler would be allowed to use three lines.
Alternatively, a resolution will be introduced at next Monday’s meeting to allow motor trolling with only one line per person on Sawyer County waters. Also, LCFRA members are urging people to vote “no” to the proposed year-round open season for panfish on the Chippewa Flowage with the proposed daily bag limit of 10. Currently, the open-water limit is 25 panfish per day of which 15 may be crappie. The ice fishing limit is 15 panfish per day with no crappies allowed.
LCFRA members say the 10 panfish limit is not needed since the population of bluegill and other panfish on the Flowage is excellent. Since the 1980s, members of the LCFRA and of the Chippewa Flowage Area Property Owners Association have placed 5,000 fish cribs in the Big Chip to create habitat and protect the crappies. The population has rebounded, and with the current philosophy of not “slaying” the crappies when they are in the shallows spawning and current bag limits, members feel the current regulation should not be changed even if the Chip is opened up to year-round fishing.
An advisory question on next Monday’s hearing ballot asks if panfish (bluegills, sunfish, perch, crappies etc.) should be managed as separate species rather than lumped together. Another question asks if voters favor managing crappies separately, so that lower bag limits could be set on lakes and rivers north of Highway 8.
Also, LCFRA members are urging meeting attendees to vote “yes” to the proposal to open up the Big Chip and all connected upstream waters to northern pike and bass fishing (with current bag and size limit rules) from Dec. 1 to the first Sunday in March.
Another proposal would reduce the daily bag limit for walleye from five to three and increase the minimum size restriction to 18 inches on the Big Chip. The LCFRA opposes this. As an alternative, the Conservation Congress will call a “point of order” at next Monday’s meeting and introduce a resolution advocating no minimum size limit for walleye on the Big Chip, with only one walleye over 14 inches allowed in the daily bag limit of five. The resolution also urges the DNR to monitor changes in the fish community and modify the regulations as needed to minimize bass predation on and competition with walleyes.
Also, the LCFRA favors the proposal to eliminate the current 14-inch size minimum for angler-kept bass on the Flowage. They favor the advisory proposal to move all Sawyer County waters into the southern bass zone, which would allow the catch-and-keep season to open on the first Saturday in May instead of the third Saturday in June.
Guides react
At their spring meeting, members of Hayward Guide Service Inc. voted to oppose opening up all waters in Sawyer County to motor trolling.
They also voted to oppose the proposal that would create a year-round open season for panfish on the Chippewa Flowage with a daily bag limit of 10.
Also, the guides voted to oppose the new rule that would create a walleye bag limit of three per day with a minimum size limit of 18 inches, and oppose the proposal to eliminate the 14-inch minimum size restriction for smallmouth and largemouth bass.
Guides Association secretary and bait/tackle shop owner Randy Armsbury said he is “really concerned” about the proposed 10 bag limit for panfish.
“It's just one more limitation that will push potential guests to another area that isn't as restrictive,” he said. “But my real frustration is that I don't know of any biological or resource reason behind this proposed change. The bluegill population is very healthy and does not seem threatened.”
Armsbury adds that current DNR plans are for no additional winter draw down of the lake level, so bluegill habitat will be maintained. Reduction of the bag limit “would seem to invite stunting,” he said.
“The DNR has never been able to encourage fishermen to harvest smaller walleye or smaller bass — if a lot of small bluegill are the result of a bag limit reduction, then we'll be stuck with them because people simply will not keep small bluegills. If you're not convinced of this, then just check a lot of our area lakes. People don't even fish for bluegill on them because they know that they're all small.”
“We, and the entire state, rely heavily on tourism,” Armsbury adds. “This proposed reduction in a very popular species, added to everything else, will do nothing but push vacationers to a different area — an area which is less restrictive. As an out-of-stater said to me the other day: "Hmm . . . you can't keep bass, you're not going to be able to keep a walleye under 18 inches, the musky size limit is 50 inches, and if the bluegill limit is 10, then please tell me why I want to come to the Chippewa Flowage to fish?"
Two advisory proposals on next Monday’s ballot ask if people favor managing smallmouth and largemouth bass as separate species, and if the minimum length for a kept musky on Whitefish Lake would be increased from the current 34 inches to 50 inches.
Bass viewpoint
Jim Onarheim, a Moose Lake resort owner and president of the Hayward Lakes Visitors and Convention Bureau, said, “The Hayward Lakes area is becoming known for its terrific bass lakes by many fishermen throughout the United States. Bobby Whitehead of St. Louis, Mo., president of the Midwest Outdoors Writers Association, told me that he was totally impressed with his bass fishing trip that he took up here last year. In fact he is coming back again this year.
“Because of all the research and studies that have been done on largemouth bass, we know that they do consume little walleyes,” Onarheim said. “I feel we have to be real careful in managing the bass fishery so that this great fishery does not get ruined. Walleye and bass management has to be a balancing act.”
Bass “may take very little money to manage, because some lakes in our area are more conducive to bass fishing than walleye,” Onarheim added. “Many times we may have to look at a lake and jump-start it with (walleye) stocking. Yet sometimes we may have to continue stocking because of the lack of natural reproduction, overharvest and predation.
“Yes, everyone wants walleye because they taste better. Sometimes we can make that happen with good management but sometimes we cannot. So often we are up against Mother Nature and it just will not happen. At times we have to admit, that we just have to take what we have.”
Onarheim believes that “there are many lakes (in which) largemouth bass and walleyes cohabitate very well. But in all cases the walleye have the upper majority and the lake perhaps has not been infested with milfoil and large bluegill populations.
“I have been told that there is no scientific evidence that bluegills eat walleye fry. All we can go by is that there no evidence that they don’t eat the walleye fry either,” Onarheim said. “There are many articles that do state the fact that bluegills definitely are a problem.
“I hope for the sake of tourism we can continue being a leader as a premier fishing and vacation location,” Onarheim adds. “I’m sure if we all work together we can get this accomplished. We are very fortunate that we have many fishing professionals in our area that have years of experience, knowledge and history.”
More opinions on the current walleye, bass and motor trolling proposals may be viewed in the letters section of this edition of the Record.
An advisory proposal on next Monday’s ballot asks if people support state efforts to phase out the use of lead fishing tackle less than one inch long and less than one ounce in weight for use in Wisconsin waters. This is aimed at reducing lead poisoning in shorebirds, waterfowl and secondary poisoning of
raptors such as eagles and osprey
Looks like the meeting at Winter High School next Monday night should be very active.
Walleyemaxx
Here's an article as published in the Sawyer County Record on Wednesday April 7. Seems nobody is in favor of any of it.
comment(s) | Rate | Text Size
New Big Chip walleye,
panfish rule proposals
spark strong opposition
by Terrell Boettcher
News Editor
Published: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 10:08 AM CDT
As the April 12 statewide spring fish and wildlife rules hearings draw near, proposed new rules that would place stringent limits on daily walleye and panfish catches on the Chippewa Flowage and would open up all lakes in Sawyer County to motor trolling have sparked strong opposition from Hayward area resort owners and fishing guides.
Members of the Lake Chippewa Flowage Resort Association (LCFRA) are encouraging their members and everyone else at next Monday night’s hearing in Winter to vote “no” to opening up all lakes in Sawyer County to motor trolling, under which each angler would be allowed to use three lines.
Alternatively, a resolution will be introduced at next Monday’s meeting to allow motor trolling with only one line per person on Sawyer County waters. Also, LCFRA members are urging people to vote “no” to the proposed year-round open season for panfish on the Chippewa Flowage with the proposed daily bag limit of 10. Currently, the open-water limit is 25 panfish per day of which 15 may be crappie. The ice fishing limit is 15 panfish per day with no crappies allowed.
LCFRA members say the 10 panfish limit is not needed since the population of bluegill and other panfish on the Flowage is excellent. Since the 1980s, members of the LCFRA and of the Chippewa Flowage Area Property Owners Association have placed 5,000 fish cribs in the Big Chip to create habitat and protect the crappies. The population has rebounded, and with the current philosophy of not “slaying” the crappies when they are in the shallows spawning and current bag limits, members feel the current regulation should not be changed even if the Chip is opened up to year-round fishing.
An advisory question on next Monday’s hearing ballot asks if panfish (bluegills, sunfish, perch, crappies etc.) should be managed as separate species rather than lumped together. Another question asks if voters favor managing crappies separately, so that lower bag limits could be set on lakes and rivers north of Highway 8.
Also, LCFRA members are urging meeting attendees to vote “yes” to the proposal to open up the Big Chip and all connected upstream waters to northern pike and bass fishing (with current bag and size limit rules) from Dec. 1 to the first Sunday in March.
Another proposal would reduce the daily bag limit for walleye from five to three and increase the minimum size restriction to 18 inches on the Big Chip. The LCFRA opposes this. As an alternative, the Conservation Congress will call a “point of order” at next Monday’s meeting and introduce a resolution advocating no minimum size limit for walleye on the Big Chip, with only one walleye over 14 inches allowed in the daily bag limit of five. The resolution also urges the DNR to monitor changes in the fish community and modify the regulations as needed to minimize bass predation on and competition with walleyes.
Also, the LCFRA favors the proposal to eliminate the current 14-inch size minimum for angler-kept bass on the Flowage. They favor the advisory proposal to move all Sawyer County waters into the southern bass zone, which would allow the catch-and-keep season to open on the first Saturday in May instead of the third Saturday in June.
Guides react
At their spring meeting, members of Hayward Guide Service Inc. voted to oppose opening up all waters in Sawyer County to motor trolling.
They also voted to oppose the proposal that would create a year-round open season for panfish on the Chippewa Flowage with a daily bag limit of 10.
Also, the guides voted to oppose the new rule that would create a walleye bag limit of three per day with a minimum size limit of 18 inches, and oppose the proposal to eliminate the 14-inch minimum size restriction for smallmouth and largemouth bass.
Guides Association secretary and bait/tackle shop owner Randy Armsbury said he is “really concerned” about the proposed 10 bag limit for panfish.
“It's just one more limitation that will push potential guests to another area that isn't as restrictive,” he said. “But my real frustration is that I don't know of any biological or resource reason behind this proposed change. The bluegill population is very healthy and does not seem threatened.”
Armsbury adds that current DNR plans are for no additional winter draw down of the lake level, so bluegill habitat will be maintained. Reduction of the bag limit “would seem to invite stunting,” he said.
“The DNR has never been able to encourage fishermen to harvest smaller walleye or smaller bass — if a lot of small bluegill are the result of a bag limit reduction, then we'll be stuck with them because people simply will not keep small bluegills. If you're not convinced of this, then just check a lot of our area lakes. People don't even fish for bluegill on them because they know that they're all small.”
“We, and the entire state, rely heavily on tourism,” Armsbury adds. “This proposed reduction in a very popular species, added to everything else, will do nothing but push vacationers to a different area — an area which is less restrictive. As an out-of-stater said to me the other day: "Hmm . . . you can't keep bass, you're not going to be able to keep a walleye under 18 inches, the musky size limit is 50 inches, and if the bluegill limit is 10, then please tell me why I want to come to the Chippewa Flowage to fish?"
Two advisory proposals on next Monday’s ballot ask if people favor managing smallmouth and largemouth bass as separate species, and if the minimum length for a kept musky on Whitefish Lake would be increased from the current 34 inches to 50 inches.
Bass viewpoint
Jim Onarheim, a Moose Lake resort owner and president of the Hayward Lakes Visitors and Convention Bureau, said, “The Hayward Lakes area is becoming known for its terrific bass lakes by many fishermen throughout the United States. Bobby Whitehead of St. Louis, Mo., president of the Midwest Outdoors Writers Association, told me that he was totally impressed with his bass fishing trip that he took up here last year. In fact he is coming back again this year.
“Because of all the research and studies that have been done on largemouth bass, we know that they do consume little walleyes,” Onarheim said. “I feel we have to be real careful in managing the bass fishery so that this great fishery does not get ruined. Walleye and bass management has to be a balancing act.”
Bass “may take very little money to manage, because some lakes in our area are more conducive to bass fishing than walleye,” Onarheim added. “Many times we may have to look at a lake and jump-start it with (walleye) stocking. Yet sometimes we may have to continue stocking because of the lack of natural reproduction, overharvest and predation.
“Yes, everyone wants walleye because they taste better. Sometimes we can make that happen with good management but sometimes we cannot. So often we are up against Mother Nature and it just will not happen. At times we have to admit, that we just have to take what we have.”
Onarheim believes that “there are many lakes (in which) largemouth bass and walleyes cohabitate very well. But in all cases the walleye have the upper majority and the lake perhaps has not been infested with milfoil and large bluegill populations.
“I have been told that there is no scientific evidence that bluegills eat walleye fry. All we can go by is that there no evidence that they don’t eat the walleye fry either,” Onarheim said. “There are many articles that do state the fact that bluegills definitely are a problem.
“I hope for the sake of tourism we can continue being a leader as a premier fishing and vacation location,” Onarheim adds. “I’m sure if we all work together we can get this accomplished. We are very fortunate that we have many fishing professionals in our area that have years of experience, knowledge and history.”
More opinions on the current walleye, bass and motor trolling proposals may be viewed in the letters section of this edition of the Record.
An advisory proposal on next Monday’s ballot asks if people support state efforts to phase out the use of lead fishing tackle less than one inch long and less than one ounce in weight for use in Wisconsin waters. This is aimed at reducing lead poisoning in shorebirds, waterfowl and secondary poisoning of
raptors such as eagles and osprey
Looks like the meeting at Winter High School next Monday night should be very active.
Walleyemaxx