POOL 10

New to this forum.I fish walleyes, mostly pool 10, but sometimes 9. I don’t see to many post pool 10, are’nt many people fishing 10?

as the days grow shorter I fish # 10 more & more. I wish we would take a lesson from our friends to the to the North & put a limit on sunfish, these tasty fish get hit hard through the ice.

WE should have seen their wisdom years ago with the crappies. Oh well! I may fish 10 between ducks this weekend. If so I will let you know how we do. Next weekend it;s back to #4 I think fishing should be picking up nicely by then…………………….Good luck & shoot to kill…………B

I will be out this weekend on 10 or possible 11. Will leave a post for ya if it ends up being 10.

Big B, I believe there’s a 25 bag on bluegill for Pool 10.

There is a 25 bag limit for blue gill, crappie, perch, and white bass on the Mississippi along the Iowa-Wisconsin border. Atleast, that is what I was told by a local baitshop.

That bag limit only applies to the Wisc. side of the channel, but why not do the right thing and use it for the Iowa side too.

Maybe the Ia. DNR won’t put limits on panfish, but that’s not to say we can’t do it ourselves. I know I do.

I couldn`t agree more. The days of “no limit” on panfish and 10 on sauger are outdated. The Iowa DNR should open their eyes to what`s going on on the rest of the river. I think that the 3 states bordering the river up here should get together and implement some regulations that are consistent for all 3 states and at the same time reflect the need to protect our fishery. Be it walleyes, saugers or panfish, overharvest doesn`t do anybody,or the fishery any good.

Beav

Glad to hear you guys agree. The bluegill & crappie fishing is nothing like it was just a few years ago, there may be other factors as well as overharvest but we have all seen the buckets full of fish taken daily through the ice. NO fishery can stand that forever&pool 10 is no exception. Beaver, I had”nt thought about the 10 sauger limit on the IA side of river but your right, I have seen some big boat loads of small sauger taken below the dam at Lynxville. Six per person is plenty for even the biggest appetites! I wonder if the IA. DNR watches this board or if they realize the support out here for panfish limits to help restore our fishery? On another note is anyone out on Pepin catching any slabs, fall has been very good to me there. …….thanks B

PS I also agree on the need for consistent regs. in all three states . It may be the best or only way to effectively monitor and enforce catch limits.

I would love to see it made in at least 4 states, Illinois included. I know people who go out each spring during spawn and each fall during feed bag time and fill there freezer with crappie and bluegill from pool 13 or 14. Makes me SICK. I used to be a panfisher foremost, but the hotspots I used to hit have been reduced to spotty at best. Illinois and Iowa have reciprical regs., so if enough pressure is applied to Iowa, Illinois will follow…hopefully.

Some people just don`t get it. I`ve run into people on several different pools while ice-fishing that all make the same stupid statement…..”Gee, the bluegill fishing just isn`t what it used to be. Man I miss those years when I could take home 2 limits a day, every day” Fishing`s not the same? No kidding?

Wake up….If you take double limits and try to fill your freezer over the winter, guess what, those fish are gone forever. They`re not going to spawn, they`re not going to get bigger.

Selective harvest. That`s what it`s all about. Police yourself and educate others.

Beav

Big B, I have to disagree with you on the state of panfishing on Pool 10 as well as Pool 11. After the flood in the early nineties (not sure what year it was) panfishing as well as bass fishing was just horrible. I used to run an ice fisheree and the biggest bluegill weight went from about 12 or 13 oz to about 3 oz. Over the last few years the size of bluegills and crappies have steadily increased and now there are many bluegills approaching that 12 oz size once again. I do alot of ice fishing and I believe the panfishing is the best its been in over 10 years.

The bag limit on panfish I believe is probaly a good thing only because I have a feeling alot of those buckets of fish in the past probaly never got cleaned. By restricting the number of fish you can take home hopefully more will be cleaned. I do believe that habitat changes will affect these fish alot more than overharvesting.

The Iowa DNR seems to agree with Birdman. Their stance is that fishing pressure has very little to do with panfish abundance or size, and other factors such as habitat and predator populations dictate stong and weak years. It’s not intuitive, but in this situation I’ll defer to the experts, as I haven’t the time, money, expertise, or inclination to carry out my own exhaustive studies. It would be interesting to see if the Wisconsin DNR has data available to back up their newly created limits, and also to see if the limits were due to fishing pressure or some other factor.

I have too many times seen a person take home a bucket of ‘gills or crappies and then say that they didn’t clean them all, and agree with Birdman that the problem is discipline amongst members of the fishing community. If you’re taking fish, at least have the decency to put them to good use.

This same subject has been hashed over before on other sites. So the only thing I’ll add here is to say that if I can go out and catch 15-20 nice gills or crappie,be it on hard or soft water, even if it takes all day, I’m a very happy person. And to be honest, I really don’t care to clean any more than that.

OK, I’m off the soap box!!

Gianni,

I’m certainly no expert either when it comes to fish biology. For what it’s worth, here is my two pennies. I’m wondering who knows best?? The Wisconsion DNR and the SD GF&P seem to have the same stance while Iowa and MN seem to stand together.

The GF&P in SD just lowered the perch limit on two well known lakes this week. Unfortunately the quality of fish in both lakes is already suffering greatly compared to 3 years ago. They are considering a panfish limit of 10 all across the NE region of the state. I don’t know if they have a huge amount of statistical data to back up there mindset, but I do know that social concerns also weighed heavily on this decision. Now days we(fisherman) are so well equipped and have so much access to knowledge, it doesn’t take long to wipe out some of the small glacial lakes in that region. One weekend you’ll see a 100 cars on a lake, by the next you’ll see over 1000. I’ve personally witnessed this. Another social concern is the department of tourism, if they lower the limits are you going to drive all the way to SD for a possesion limit of 20 perch vs. the 50 you could have last year???

I personally am glad to see the smaller bag limits even if all the data I’ve come across from the MN DNR states lower limits don’t have a very large effect on a fishery. I’m just a simple minded fella, but I don’t understand how lowering the limits wouldn’t help. Mille Lacs is the perfect example if you want to read up on the DNR’s stance. OK, I’m done blabbing.

This is always an interesting discussion, I’m just glad we all have the same concern here, save the fishery so our kids can fish it too. Educate, educate, educate!!!!