You’re Not Going To Believe This! WALLEYE, BASS…

Salmon, Crappie, Musky, Catfish, etc… Everyone is affected. Even if you are not a tournament angler you too will be affected down the road.

As many have heard, the DNR has a proposal to change the rules of tournament fishing. You will notice in the proposal not once do they mention Bass, Walleye, etc… they conveniently say, “tournament fishing”. If this proposal would happen to pass (I pray to God it doesn’t), I greatly fear what the DNR’s next proposal will be.

There are many changes the DNR is proposing which you can read in the link below if you choose to. But I will highlight a few…

– Organizers could hold tournaments on the opening day of seasons. Currently, tournaments are prohibited on the opening day of fishing seasons only. You think opening day is crowded now?!!! If there will no longer be summer tournaments you can bet your favorite lake will have a tournament on opening day next year. Can you imagine the boat ramp???)

– No catch-and release tournaments in July and August (so I guess it’s OK to have a catch and KILL?)

– The fee for tournament permits must cover costs associated with administering the permit program. money $$$ for DNR

– Tournaments would be required to get a permit if they had 20 or more boats or 100 or more individuals; if they awarded prizes totaling $10,000 or more; if they targeted trout on classified trout streams; or if they were live-release events with an off-site weigh-in.
hope you trout guys are ready to start paying fees

– There are also handling issues for the safety of the fish and steps to prevent tournament organizers and participants from inadvertently spreading invasive aquatic species. I am for this…

The bottom line is… Sit back, take a who-cares attitude, and the next thing you know there will be a proposal to eliminate all outboard motors that exhaust below the surface because the exhaust pollutes the water and triggers “incidental mortality” of all fish…….or, no painting of docks because the paint can trigger “incidental mortality”of all fish…….or, no fishing for two days after it rains because the pesticides washed into the water will trigger “incidental mortality” of all fish.

Sounds ridiculous right? Well, let the DNR pull this off and just wait until you see what their momentum brings next.

Here are the upcoming hearing dates and locations which need to be attended by us…

October 30, Fond du Lac – Holiday Inn, 624 W. Rolling Meadows Dr. (US 151 & 41).
November 1, La Crosse – Strzelczyk Great Hall, Cleary Center, UW-La Crosse, 615 East Ave., South.
November 2, Fitchburg – Fitchburg Community Center, 5510 Lacy Road.
November 8, Green Bay – Auditorium, Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary Nature Center, 1660 East Shore Dr.
November 9, Sturtevant – Suite IV, DNR Service Center, 9531 Rayne Road.
November 14, Spooner – Spooner Agricultural Research Station, W6646 Highway 70.
November 15, Rhinelander – Nicolet Technical College Theater, County Highway G.

Here is a link to the entire DNR story… DNR STORY.

-dave

Dave,
The meeting dates only show WI areas, is this (for now) a WI DNR issue?????
state to state, I know the different DNR’s do talk to each other. so hope no one thinks It won’t effect our other states also in the future.
good luck, and keep us other state members posted.
thanks.
Jack..

Oops, sorry Jack. Yes, this is a proposal by the Wisconsin DNR for the state of Wisconsin. There are so many things I want to say about why and how this developed but I’m sure most people don’t want to read it…

D-Nort,
I read about this in Wisconsin Outdoor News. I’m not a tournement guy, but do fish in one on Mille Lacs and one on the St. Croix each year. Do you know if this change also applies to border waters (St. Croix or Miss)? Either way, I agree it is a crock. Just seems like another way for the DNR to nickel and dime specific groups of people. I have no problem paying a couple extra dollars for my fishing license to cover costs of the DNR. I’m sure there are plenty of areas/programs the DNR currently spends my license $ on today that I don’t participate in (example: trout fishing). It would really suck if you were a non resident tourny angler and were fishing Wi. a couple times per year (pay $50 plus for your license) and then also have to pay a tourny fee on top of that. Then add the money they would spend on accomodations. Oh well.

Correct me if I’m wrong Dave, but it would include border waters.

Id be suprised if they can affect border waters without the cooperation of the bordering state.. at least NOT fisherman who DONT have a Wisconsin license.. if your a Mn resident.. they cant write a law to affect you on border waters…

Ok.
I read this…then re-read. Opened the links to the articles you supplied.

Opening day:
The opening day deal, sux for all. But if I where going to go fishing, not tourney fishing, I’d call my favorite bait store/resort and find out if thre was a tourney, and how big it was…Then make adjustments, or deal with it. (I’ve had this happen when going to Pool 4 numerous times. Just means we all have to SHARE the water better. )If I where a bit more pro-active, I might even call Dean before the day I decide to drive to pool 4!

Kill tourneys:
This is a fairly normal stance that the DNR is taking.
If you look at it from the DNR’s point of view. It looks like the DNR is trying to do the best they can to protect the fisheries, and yet allow tournaments. During the HOT months. There is supposedly a larger number of fish that die after being released. Rather than having them floating around and going to waste, the would rather have them go to charities. I’m ok with this. Along with fewer tourneys in those months.

I’m for more money for DNR’s. It usually means that they are trying to make what we do better. But that is my point of view from the Current and previous MN-DNR top guys. eh.

From what I read in the articles, it actually looked pretty good.

Border waters only would be affected IF the tournament is run from the WI side.

Either way this proposal is in many ways illegal and discrimanatory. There is alot of underwriting and wording in the whole proposal….

Other states are watching to see what will happen…and its not a good thing!!!

Big J- I see you are a tournament fisherman. I don’t know if you follow bass fishing closly or not, but please tell me when you have EVER heard about bass dying and floating all over the rivers or lakes following a major bass tournament? Hold on…there is one more thing to add before you answer, Of the bass tournaments you list please EXCLUDE the ones which the DNR was doing a study on. Exactly.

Do you think as a walleye tournament guy this won’t impact you? Like I said earlier, let this pass and wait until you see what is next. It will involve a lot more than Wisconsin too.

I wonder what rules they can dream up for guides? It may not be that long before we find out… .

And you watch….after the craziness and pissed off anglers on opening day there might be NO open day tournaments the following year. Which means the following weekend? Getting shorter even yet….you watch…
Thanks, Bill

ps. There are already no tournament permits given out by the DNR on the Mississippi River in Minnesota during the summer.

How about this…

Tournament anglers will get tried of not competing July and August so they will start having catch-n-kill tournaments (donate the fish of coarse) then a few years down the road the DNR will realize the fisheries are starting to decline because of the increased death-toll that didn’t exsist with catch and release.

I certainly don’t want to fish a tournament opening day. Besides, if the tournament is on an inland Wisconsin lake, HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSE TO PRE-FISH FOR THE TOURNAMENT when you can’t target bass or walleye??? DUMB!

Here is a response I heard which shows you how rediculous this all really is…

A guy from Alabama writes, “Hey, I saw that the DNR is putting rules on tournament fishing way up there because of the “HOT” water in July and August. What? You guys don’t even know what HOT water is!”

Here is the way I see it. A person buys a fishing license for the ability to catch (and keep if they choose) up to a limit of fish per day. What does it matter if they are just fishing for fun or fishing in a tournament? Tournament fishermen tend to be the most conscientious stewards of natural resources of any sportsman. After all, they have a vested interest in doing so.

As far as kill tournaments, most tournament leagues take great pain in ensure the healthy release of all tournament caught fish. And in most cases they do a great job of it. At almost every organized tournament tour there is an average annual survival rate well over 95%. This release rate is on par with the immediate catch and release survival rates. Could this be better? Sure and tournament officials are continually coming up with better ways to handle the fish to ensure a safe release. Sure, in a few rare cases there is an excessive kill but if all summer tournament are mandated to be kill tournament then all fish die. Where is the advantage in that?

Some people just don’t like tournament because the launch of their favorite lake may have a lot of trailers parked there on tournament day or they can’t fish their favorite spot on tournament day. Again, tournament anglers purchase a fishing license which entitles them to use that ramp or fish that spot just like any other fisherman in the state. There is no difference. These people are delusional if they think this problem will go away if tournament are not held on these bodies of water. We are tournament fishermen but first and foremost we are fishermen. We will still be fishing if there is not a tournament.

For those people who think that further restricting tournament will be helpful to the fishery you better contact your government representatives about also eliminating all guided and charter fishing trips as well. They are essentially the same as a tournament fisherman. They try to put as many quality fish in the boat for a profit. Or how about forcing anglers to keep the first limit of fish they catch and be done fishing for the day? After all, catch and release fishermen possibly handle and release more than their daily limit of fish therefore they may kill more than their limit due to release mortality. Those that think that summer tournaments should go away because of the warmer weather affecting live release potential need to think about this. What is the difference if I go out and catch and release ten walleyes in a tournament or if you go out and catch and release ten walleyes for fun?? It is the same thing and believe me if this passes these are the next issues that will come up.

Any outdoors man that is sitting back and saying “well, I do not fish tourneys. This does not affect me.” think again. This affects the very aspect of fishing…and hunting for that matter. Once the minority starts imposing their will and changing the laws for the rest of us who knows where it will end. I can tell you this though if we don’t stand together on this we will find out soon enough.

My two cents.

diddo.

Dave be careful giving the DNR anything. Why should we be singled out for greater inforcement of invasives just because we have shiney boats? The DNR could have gone hard on everybody years ago and did not. Know they are looking for a scape goat.

Doesn’t seem too strange for a state the prohibits trolling on lots of water

MN already requires permits for big events IIRC

Dave I wished that I had some answers.
Last year I spent hundreds of hours reading and writing letters about The US Fish & Wildlife service Propsals.
Then they send us all a 43 page book of what they wanted us to see. The document was 700 pages long. You should see the crap they have in it. And that passed into law for the next 15 years. Tournaments are going to take a big hit.
We all need to be organized and have our voice heard in DC there are too many Lobbists with lots of cash.
This was a federal thing you are dealing with the state issuse hopefully BASS or another group will help and chime in.
It seems to me that a few really control what the rest of use can or can not do.
All I can say is write letters and send e-mails.
Good luck

I agree with waht you are saying gater. I have been fishing bass tournaments for 30 years and our mortality rate for all those years ranged from 2% to 5%. I do find it interesting that these rule changes come just after a high kill rate of bass after a bass tourney. I believe this happened two times and both times the DNR was involved with “testing” bass caught in a tourney. This was during hot weather and on the river. I have never heard of such a high mortality rate after a bass tourney any where in the country. If this does go through, we will all be effected because it will come to Minnesota.