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Maybe Wisconsin has it right with the 15″ minimun
I’ve always thought so. I think 15″ is a bit aggressive. 13″ minimiun is realistic. A 13″ fish is a decent eater, but it’s getting down to the pretty small size.
Here on Wissota (which is a very prolific walleye lake, so it puts out large numbers of small fish) we have a 14-18″ slot which need to be immediately RELEASED. You can keep two fish under 14″ and one fish over 18″. A couple 13.5″ fish can have some meat on them. I don’t fish for the freezer, either, I fish for enjoyment and the occasional (fresh) dinner. Anything smaller than 14″ is legal, but I can’t imagine fileting an 8 inch walleye. Either way, the slot protects the spawners – females around 15″ and over generally tend to be mature enough to spawn on Wissota, so the idea is to protect those fish to keep the population up. (check out this article that Sully posted – unique management for this lake BTW, thanks Sully!!– http://www.idofishing.com/forum/showflat.php/Number/792304/fpart/1/wissota-walleye-slot-size-limit-yields-larger-fish )
Anyway, since the slot was introduced, the walleye population has responded for the better. We are seeing so many more walleyes in the slot (14-18″ – remember these need to be released immediately) and also many more over the slot (over 18″) because of the protection. Taking out small walleyes many people believe is actually good for the population – less mouths at the table so to speak. Plus, I’d rather catch a mess of 17″ walleyes and have to let them go than catch one legal fish and eat it. More fun to catch numbers even if they have to be released, and these regulations help us get that.
These regulations certainly aren’t right for every lake, but I’m glad they have them on Wissota. Many of these flatland/lowland resovoir type of lakes are very productive but usually don’t grow as many big fish as other lakes (for example, a lake like mille lacs or other cold, clear, deeper lake that harbors ciscos as a forage base for big fish might necessitate different regulations than a lake like Wissota – the trophy ~28″ limits and keeper slots between 14 and 18″ (or similar regs) might come into play here to protect the real big fish and the big female spawners)…
For the 15″ WI minimum size limit…. I’m sure its right for many lakes (especially lake that are maintained by stocking only — if there is no productive spawn in a lake, there is probably not a reason to keep the mature females around, other than for sport… Since eating walleyes brings in WI tourism, the DNR tends to manage more towards that goal more often than towards trophy management), but there are also other lakes that might benefit from a slot type of regulation, protecting the larger spawning fish. 15″ minimums select the larger females to be taken out of the system, which eventually means less eggs/fry/walleyes, depending on the productivity of the system. Anyway, as the article states, protecting those spawning 15-18 inchers for a few years really helps both the female to male ratio as well as the general walleye population as a whole.
As far a keeping an 8 inch walleye… We’ve kept small ones ice fishing LOW (air bladders blown out, won’t go down the hole, etc), but you sure don’t get much meat off of anything under 12 inches, thats for sure. Skinnier than a perch of the same length… You could certainly contact the local fisheries biologist and inquire about the regs.. maybe you could get a minimum size limit introduced if there is none in place?? If nothing else, you could politely bring up the point to those fishermen, but I would be leary about starting any sort of arguement… Not worth a fight…
my 2 cents, I could be wrong.
Mike
