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Posted

All you folks out there slaying the bass already, consider yourself lucky!! Us Wisconsinites get to wait another week and a half until the season opens up. I'm betting these last 10 days will about as slow moving as this whole winter was.

Posted

Can't you still fish for them just not keep them?

Posted
11 hours ago, Hower08 said:

Can't you still fish for them just not keep them?

Not in Wisconsin. Some river systems are open now, but nothing near me. Mostly all bodies of water in WI open up first weekend of May for bass fishing. Smallmouth Bass have a very weird open season, it depends where you are fishing in the state. Some areas, smallmouth bass fishing is only open from May-June...but most bodies of water the open season is from May-March.

Posted

Agreed. Wisconsin needs to simplify their regulations regarding game fish seasons. I understand that there are reasons to have an off season, such as protecting spawning fish, and that it makes "the opening day/weekend" a big event. But to me these reasons aren't really justifiable when you consider bass and other species spawn all throughout the spring and summer months, and that the open water season is as short as it is. I don't want to take the month of April (and the end of March if we are lucky with ice) OFF when there isn't a good reason I shouldn't be fishing. The Wisconsin fishing window for bass is pretty much may - October, and if you ask me the fishing shuts off and gets hard in September, which gives us around 4-5 months to enjoy open water fishing (still talking bass here, I understand some species continue to have a good bite into the colder months). To me the closed season is ridiculous, especially when Wisconsin is a state that hangs it's hat and takes pride in the outdoorsman offerings of hunting and fishing. I would really like to see "catch and release only" replace the closed season here.

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Posted

IN NY, we used to have to wait until the 3rd Saturday in June.  Now it's C&R during off season, with the exception of one region.

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Posted

@wisconsin heat - I completely agree man! I understand that we want to protect the fish so they have time to spawn etc. but I don't see any issues with C&R during late March through April.

 

@J Francho - That would be awful!! How long ago did they change it from the 3rd Saturday in June to C&R during the off season? I would love to see WI follow suit in the near future!

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Posted

Wisconsin was a good place to grow up and a great place to visit.....was also a good place to move away from.  As a kid, I didn't understand the whole snow bird thing....now, it makes a LOT of sense.  I might be willing to move back for the five weeks of summer.  Closed fishing seasons just adds insult to injury.

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Posted
13 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Wisconsin was a good place to grow up and a great place to visit.....was also a good place to move away from.  As a kid, I didn't understand the whole snow bird thing....now, it makes a LOT of sense.  I might be willing to move back for the five weeks of summer.  Closed fishing seasons just adds insult to injury.

The snow bird is still around! Expecting a couple of inches of snow on Saturday in the southern half of WI. Now, THAT is insult to injury if you ask me!

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Posted

I've never lived in a state that had a bass fishing season.  I can understand catch and release but how do they define fishing for bass?  

Posted
5 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I've never lived in a state that had a bass fishing season.  I can understand catch and release but how do they define fishing for bass?  

Here is what it says on the DNR website for WI. It's been this way ever since I could remember. Just hoping one of these years they will change it to C&R from end of March to beginning of May!

Capture.JPG

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Posted
1 minute ago, Largies4Life said:

Here is what it says on the DNR website for WI. It's been this way ever since I could remember. Just hoping one of these years they will change it to C&R from end of March to beginning of May!

Capture.JPG

My question is,  how does a DNR officer know you're fishing for bass?  "No officer,  I'm fishing for crappie with this 10in worm"

Posted
2 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

My question is,  how does a DNR officer know you're fishing for bass?  "No officer,  I'm fishing for crappie with this 10in worm"

That's where it becomes very subjective. I've seen kids out on ponds fishing for bass with 5" swimbaits already! Assuming the DNR officer has been fishing for bass before in their life, I feel like you wouldn't get by saying that, but I could be wrong. I'd rather just not take my chances and just wait it out like everyone else (or mostly everyone else). I get where you are coming from though, just not worth it for me. :) 

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Posted

Worse here in MN. Bass opens for C&R only on May 11 (Mother's Day weekend). Finally get to keep them starting May 25 (Memorial Day weekend).

 

It is a BIT of an improvement...years ago you couldn't even target them until Memorial Day weekend.

Posted
Just now, MN Fisher said:

Worse here in MN. Bass opens for C&R only on May 11 (Mother's Day weekend). Finally get to keep them starting May 25 (Memorial Day weekend).

 

It is a BIT of an improvement...years ago you couldn't even target them until Memorial Day weekend.

I was just checking the MN DNR page! I was thinking, maybe, just maybe, your season would open up this weekend and I could travel up there for the weekend. Wrong!! What are your thoughts on changing these rules to C&R from March-May instead of an off season?

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Posted
1 minute ago, Largies4Life said:

That's where it becomes very subjective. I've seen kids out on ponds fishing for bass with 5" swimbaits already! Assuming the DNR officer has been fishing for bass before in their life, I feel like you wouldn't get by saying that, but I could be wrong. I'd rather just not take my chances and just wait it out like everyone else (or mostly everyone else). I get where you are coming from though, just not worth it for me. :) 

Don't get me wrong.  I'm a firm believer in following the game & fish laws.  I just don't see how they can enforce it.  Especially,  if LM are in season and SM are not.   

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Largies4Life said:

I was just checking the MN DNR page! I was thinking, maybe, just maybe, your season would open up this weekend and I could travel up there for the weekend. Wrong!! What are your thoughts on changing these rules to C&R from March-May instead of an off season?

I'd be for it...but the DNR is very much about making sure there's a relatively uninterrupted spawn to insure continued presence. So they set those dates up for that reason...it was only after a thorough survey after fishers complained that they opened the C&R season.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Largies4Life said:

 

@J Francho - That would be awful!! How long ago did they change it from the 3rd Saturday in June to C&R during the off season? I would love to see WI follow suit in the near future! 

It's been over a decade since they changed the law.

Posted
6 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Don't get me wrong.  I'm a firm believer in following the game & fish laws.  I just don't see how they can enforce it.  Especially,  if LM are in season and SM are not.   

If it were the case where LM are in season and SM are not, then I'd be on your side. Because how is one supposed to know if you're fishing for LM or SM with literally any type of bass lure.

 

3 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

I'd be for it...but the DNR is very much about making sure there's a relatively uninterrupted spawn to insure continued presence. So they set those dates up for that reason...it was only after a thorough survey after fishers complained that they opened the C&R season.

That makes sense, but I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Why doesn't every other state have these regulations in place? Is it because of the water temps? That's the part I don't understand.

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Posted
1 minute ago, Largies4Life said:

That makes sense, but I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Why doesn't every other state have these regulations in place? Is it because of the water temps? That's the part I don't understand.

Could be a combination of things. Water temp is probably the biggest.

 

As for other states...I don't know what their stocking programs are like. Do they stock bass there? I know that in MN, walleye, rainbow and muskie account for the lions share of stocking; bluegill and largemouth are stocked in a small number of lakes. Those lakes with a good breeding population, however...like Minnetonka...are skipped. I think they want to keep the bass stocking low and work for a 'natural' population as much as possible. The three species they do extensive stocking with are massively targeted and the stocking is to keep the populations up.

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Posted

consider yourself lucky too most of us in ontario have to wait until the middle-end of june

Posted
40 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Don't get me wrong.  I'm a firm believer in following the game & fish laws.  I just don't see how they can enforce it.  Especially,  if LM are in season and SM are not.   

The only thing open before the first saturday in May is panfish. So either you're targeting them which is easy to tell, or youre illegal. From there you get varying times for catch & release vs harvest which is also easy since youve either kept them or not. One gray area is musky season in the north half of the state opening Saturday before memorial day. You could argue youre targeting pike before then, but its up to the game warden i believe.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Scarborough817 said:

consider yourself lucky too most of us in ontario have to wait until the middle-end of june

I don't know how you guys do it up there. But when the time comes, there are some true trophy fish up in your neck of the woods so the wait could all be worth it in the end!

1 hour ago, Vilas15 said:

The only thing open before the first saturday in May is panfish. So either you're targeting them which is easy to tell, or youre illegal. From there you get varying times for catch & release vs harvest which is also easy since youve either kept them or not. One gray area is musky season in the north half of the state opening Saturday before memorial day. You could argue youre targeting pike before then, but its up to the game warden i believe.

There's just a lot of gray area in general when it comes to these regulations and I have this talk with myself every year and can never get over the fact. LOL

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Posted
32 minutes ago, Largies4Life said:

I don't know how you guys do it up there. But when the time comes, there are some true trophy fish up in your neck of the woods so the wait could all be worth it in the end!

There's just a lot of gray area in general when it comes to these regulations and I have this talk with myself every year and can never get over the fact. LOL

I agree an open season with catch & release during the spawn would be much clearer and shouldn't hurt the fish any more than current regs. I know Michigan moved to a continuous season for musky. The toughest thing for me is figuring out the walleye limit on any of the lakes I fish since they're all different. That's the problem that comes along with the blessing of having thousands of lakes in the state that all need to be managed differently.

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