Wisconsin walleye have hit a wall, study finds

# fakenews.
I have been swimming and drinking the water in MN all my life and haven’t noticed any of this, however I have been watching Ellen and Oprah alot more lately.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

# fakenews.
I have been swimming and drinking the water in MN all my life and haven’t noticed any of this, however I have been watching Ellen and Oprah alot more lately.

I just assumed watching those shows was a MN resident requirement

Dutchboy wrote:

Tech plays into it. But limits have decreased and if you believe the DNR there are less anglers so things balance somewhat. I don’t think you can point a finger at any one thing that hurts a lake. It’s a combo of many, many things.

Good reply.

A lake will have specific dynamics that makes it a viable, sustainable fishery. A river or stream likewise. Change any of those components to that dynamic and watch things go downhill fast. I’d be willing to bet that its not so much any given body of water per se that’s seeing a walleye recruitment issue so much as it is the environment around that lake that’s causing the decline. Same with a river or stream.

Riverruns mentions the Mississippi River and sauger numbers. Since the 70’s and 80’s when the sauger fishery was likely better than the walleye fishery a lot has changed in the general dynamics of the river and in doing so has changed how sauger interact to the change….in this case less favorably…..sauger simply are loosing what it takes to support them.

Thanks for sharing!!

They used to say that 10% of fishermen catch 90% of the fish. If that’s still true, I wonder if those same 10% have all that elaborate electronic gear on board.

I got my first “Fish Hawk” fish finder flasher in about 1974. I caught 6 walleyes over 7# in Lake Geneva when I got it. I wonder if it’s my fault the walleye fishing has deteriorated. I don’t fish them anymore. Every lake has a different formula that usually starts @ 15″. I fish crappies now. At least they are good to eat when you get a big one.

buckybadger wrote:

There’s no reason for a 6 fish limit in my opinion, especially from March through May 1st. A 3 fish limit would suffice.

gim wrote:

The walleye/sauger, crappie, and sunfish limit should all be cut in half immediately.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Today, I own a big boat with a big motor and Side Imaging fish finders and GPS saved locations…I can get to those same spots in 30 seconds and then scan entire shorelines in minutes and then only focus on the spots that I can see fish at

JoeMX1825 wrote:

My point is, how can anybody argue against technology not having a impact on today’s diminishing fish populations?

I’m young, so I dont know what fishing used to be like but as I mentioned on another thread- it seems to me that most of the most popular lakes in MN/WI have seen either a recent, or current, decline in the walleye population. Leech, URL, Pool 4, and Winnebago to name the first that come to mind. Have limits been decreased because theyre so popular? Or because theres actually a decrease in fish populations?

The best part about the perpetual swings in the fish population, perceived or otherwise, are that the welfare recipients at the government socialized “resource management” bureaus get money either way.

Fish populations up? We’re doing a great job. Give us more money!
Fish populations down? We don’t have enough resources. Give us more money!

For them there is no scenario in which they would/should contract in size rather than to constantly expand.

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” – Thomas Sowell

riverruns wrote:

Where have the white bass (stripers) gone. Another example.

I run into them often enough while trolling that I now fillet and eat them.

So Snap, if you were in charge how would you go about eliminating the natural fluctuations that all fish populations encounter?

Buffalo Fishhead

Wall? Tell that to Tom Boley.

Curious how this thread got resurrected after over 2 years since I originally posted it.

The important part of the discussion was to have read the article I attached the link to in the my first post.

Not sure if/how many read the article, but the follow up comments veered way off the original issue of walleye recruitment.

Comments/theories ranging from blaming liberal limits, advanced technology, road salt, tiling farm fields, white bass etc., all unrelated to the original issue.

I opened the thread finding a similar situation in Wisconsin lakes that shared the same diagnosis for Mille Lacs walleye decline back then.

Two years later perhaps the scope is looking elsewhere.

If you keep looking, you’re bound to find a problem that you can blame on based solely on your own personal tunnel vision.

Buffalo Fishhead wrote:

So Snap, if you were in charge how would you go about eliminating the natural fluctuations that all fish populations encounter?

Buffalo Fishhead

There should be no one “in charge”. Why do you feel you need a leader? We are not the Cro-Magnon of old, huddling around the fire anxiously awaiting the alpha-chest thumper to tell us which cave we’re migrating to next like some tribe of gorillas. We are free individuals capable of making our own decisions and running our own lives. One of the saddest modern day beliefs is that if we didn’t have some lying politician telling us what to do and what not to do that there would be chaos. Homo-Sapiens are 200K+ years old. There are millions or billions of years left to go. We don’t happen to be living in the end-state of social organization. We will evolve past this too.

Snap:

The question still remains, “How would you go about eliminating the natural fluctuations that all fish populations encounter?”

Buffalo Fishehad

The question presumes I would even try to.

Snap wrote:

There should be no one “in charge”. Why do you feel you need a leader? We are not the Cro-Magnon of old, huddling around the fire anxiously awaiting the alpha-chest thumper to tell us which cave we’re migrating to next like some tribe of gorillas. We are free individuals capable of making our own decisions and running our own lives. One of the saddest modern day beliefs is that if we didn’t have some lying politician telling us what to do and what not to do that there would be chaos. Homo-Sapiens are 200K+ years old. There are millions or billions of years left to go. We don’t happen to be living in the end-state of social organization. We will evolve past this too.

And here’s the inevitable proof to what I just brought up previously on this thread at 6:05 PM CST 7/9/20.

This all started about walleye decline in Wisconsin and has now devolved into some kind of paranoia that “the man”, some “man” is out to control us all.

The missile originally was aimed on course, but then “another man” hijacked this thread with his own stray missiles, I liken him to “rocket man”, a distraction of sorts…

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tbro16 wrote:

Pool 4,

Feel free to show me data from the DNR that this is true.

Lowering the limits was due to PUBLIC SURVEY. It had nothing to do what the fishery could sustain.

Facts or your just spewing garbage!

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

And here’s the inevitable proof to what I just brought up previously on this thread at 6:05 PM CST 7/9/20.

This all started about walleye decline in Wisconsin and has now devolved into some kind of paranoia that “the man”, some “man” is out to control us all.

If you don’t like it, don’t click on it

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tbro16 wrote:</div>
Pool 4,

Feel free to show me data from the DNR that this is true.

Lowering the limits was due to PUBLIC SURVEY. It had nothing to do what the fishery could sustain.

Facts or your just spewing garbage!

Oh he has been “educating” people on “conservation” this week in here and other sites. I was going to bring this up on his other thread and call out some of the other lakes he was talking about but lost interest.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

If you don’t like it, don’t click on it

Good one Andy, great suggestion.

And BTW, thanks for lassoing this thread back to it’s original intent…fish population concerns.

Smallmouth bass eat a lot of walleye fry.

So do northern pike. And of course, bigger walleyes.

Tuma wrote:

I have read that some of this is to do with all the salt we use on the roads that get washed into the water system. But WI doesn’t use salt on their roads (I believe). I am sure it is a combination of thing but who really knows what it is.

Around the lake I live on they use sand only, usually the roads are packed down with snow. Melting times are treacherous but it’s worth it.

It should be noted that walleye populations on the lake has gone down as the flowage has aged. Natural recruitment is down and the lake survives on stocking. Fish sticks are the DNR answer. They wont allow us to put in cribs to augment the decline of wood. We also have put in rock for spawning reefs and the fish show up in spring but somehow the vast majority dont make it. Boom shocking in the fall proves it

Long as this has gotten off topic, might as well chime in. Woody has a valid point, well as the others in regard to internet and technology being far more advanced, and utilized, than ever in the past. This is not going away and will only progress. The Fox River fills up within hours of a hot spring report. Youtubers have taken over the fishing industry with showing locations to fish well has how to fish them. Livescope, GPS, SI, etc. are only going to get better. The learning curve is gone. Combine that with other stressors on fish, be it hormones entering the water, salt, changes in habitat, fishing pressure, etc. and poor spawning years enhance the problem further. Sure, some fisheries still are “good” (i.e. pool 4), but that is zero reason not to be proactive. None of this stuff will get better and we as conservationists have to realize that. That will mean lower bag limits everywhere, maybe even permanent catch and release such as pool 2. I like eating fish like everyone else, but if systems are better off with limited take- that is more important than me being able to keep. So, even if the DNR considers public input on where fisherman would like to see the “future” go, I am ok with that long as it is proactive rather than reactive. This world is filled with more problems than solutions.

Being as this thread is 3 years old….I think the WI Walleye, like Aaron Rodgers, feel disrespected by the front office (DNR) and are thinking of taking their talents elsewhere or just sitting out a season or two.

404 ERROR wrote:

The biologists are all wrong. It’s the Green Sunfish resurgence that’s hurting the Walleye population…

Sadly, it falls upon me to inform the forum of the death of Merican Eagle. Unfortunately, he was hit by a dark green pickup truck. Sadly the truck’s driver, in an apparent attempt to render aid, then backed over him. Witnesses saw a partial logo on the side of the vehicle with the letters DN_. The last letter could not be seen as the vehicle sped away.

Some have suggested his demise was actually a Department-of-Natural-Resources-ordered hit/coverup after he discovered “the truth” about something or other. I’m sure this is all internet rumor and it was really a terrible accident.