New Regulations for WI Fishing

For those that dont know, the new regulations were posted on the DNR website, the biggest change is that Walleye/Sauger went from a daily bag limit of 5 to 3 statewide on most inland lakes

https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/sites/default/files/topic/NewRegs20242025.pdf

There were some other changes too, to more specific lakes, not statewide. There is more detail if you go into the full regulations document on the DNR website

The overall daily bag limit reduction is interesting, as are many of the specific regulation changes.

The 13″ minimum + a slot of 16-24″ with one over is an interesting change for a lot of those Northern lakes listed. I don’t care what the book says, there’s no way I would waste my time or energy putting a knife to a 13″ fish. I’m assuming that’s part of the intent with the 13″ minimum as well.

I’m pretty neutral on the idea, but I think it’s not a matter of “if”, but “when” Minnesota goes to the 4 fish daily limit.

Thanks for posting definetly some changes in my area of fishing but I have no problem with the changes.

Did WI change the panfish limits?

Very interesting. So if I understand correctly..daily bag limit is 3. Total daily bag limit is 5 (meaning you can keep 5 walleyes in a day but not more than 3 could come from a single lake) Possession limit is 10.

Clock is ticking for MN to make a change.

Icefisherguy wrote:

Very interesting. So if I understand correctly..daily bag limit is 3. Total daily bag limit is 5 (meaning you can keep 5 walleyes in a day but not more than 3 could come from a single lake) Possession limit is 10.

Clock is ticking for MN to make a change.

If that is the case dont see how that would be enforceable.

Icefisherguy wrote:

Very interesting. So if I understand correctly..daily bag limit is 3. Total daily bag limit is 5 (meaning you can keep 5 walleyes in a day but not more than 3 could come from a single lake) Possession limit is 10.

Clock is ticking for MN to make a change.
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The current regulations are daily bag limit of 5 walleye/sauger in total of any combination on most bodies of water with a possession limit of 10. This remains in effect on inland bodies of water that the season does not close or the specific lake doesnt already have a lower daily limit

Starting on 4/1, the new daily limit is 3 in total of walleye/sauger – any combination of them and the possession limit will then be 6 (2x the daily limit).

This is how I understood the new regulations

The back of the reg book (page 96) reads:

“the new rule does not affect the total daily bag limit for walleye and sauger (5 in total per day from all waters fished that day), nor the possession limit (10 in total).”

So the way I read it…the only real change is that you can only keep 3 from a single lake per day. You could still keep 3 from lake “X” and 2 from lake “Z” for a total of 5 in a single day.

But maybe I’m the crazy one

Clear as mud.

Haha! Agree…clear as mud.

The WI DNR has a separate page explaining the difference in limits and gives this example (will try to link):

For example, if you fish a lake in the ceded territory with a bag limit of 3 walleye, you may then go on to a lake with a reduced bag limit and catch and harvest two more walleye. Thus, you would remain within the total daily bag limit of 5 walleye. The possession limit remains 10 walleye.

https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Fishing/questions/possessionlimit.html#:~:text=An%20angler%20may%20not%20possess,waters%20fished%20for%20that%20day.

Wow, they (the DNR) really know how to make things confusing and leave things open to be interpreted many different ways