A two walleye limit might keep some meat hunters away from the Chip. That's good and bad. I don't think the Chip has any problems as far as walleye fishing goes but I'm glad the DNR and others think there is a problem so more stocking continues. I think the main issue people are having with the Chippewa Flowage walleye fishery is changing the way they fish. The lake has changed drastically in the last five years. Sometimes old ways die hard. West side anglers are the main ones I hear complaining about not catching fish. Funny thing is the west side was our best numbers side last year for walleye with most being in the 15 to 19 inch range. We had quite a few low to mid twenty inch fish also. I always have a policy to throw back anything twenty inches or over for good future genetics. We usually don't keep anything under 15 either. Actually, a lot of the guys I take out just want to catch fish and don't even care to keep any. That or maybe they've seen me clean fish before........pretty painful to watch.

I'm all for protecting a fishery to some extent. Walleye should be managed as a put and take resource though. You can't have tribal spearing and angler harvest and expect the resource to take care of itself. A lot of the resorts finally got together to work with the DNR and the tribe to help out the walleye population. Last year was a great stocking year for walleye on the Chip so hopefully the trend continues. A big thanks goes out to everyone that was involved.