The 2023 fishing season brings different regulations
The Inland Fishing Season opens this Saturday on inland lakes and rivers for game fish. Like all things hunting and fishing, there are a few quid pro quo. The Northern Musky Zone doesn’t open until Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, May 24th. The Northern Zone for small mouth bass doesn’t open until Saturday, June 17th – Father’s Day weekend.
The musky zone divider is state Highway 10. The bass zone boundaries are a good bit more complicated – those interested can find a map of bass zones, on page 10 of the new fishing regulations for inland fishing. The eighty page regulation booklet can be found at license retailers and downloaded from the DNR website. Inland trout fishing has its own booklet.
Why are the regs so long and why does fishing get to be so complicated; a source of jokes, and frustration for fishers?
I’ve had this discussion many times with good friends whose lifetime passion and careers are managing fisheries and aquatic bodies. Like all deals, a single answer doesn’t exist.
To start with, the fishing regs cover everything. From minnows to sturgeon, hook and lines to netting, fishing with crayfish and fishing for crayfish, different management zones due to differences in climate across the state; and that just scratches the surface.
Each body of water is so complex that a large college textbook just scratches the surface on one part, of what is a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle. Ever wonder why one lake might have musky or small mouth bass and another three miles away doesn’t? Some lakes have musky and walleye that reproduce and others don’t. Some lakes have stunted panfish and some don’t. Some are shallow, some are deep, some are combinations. Some are spring fed and some are stream fed and some are a combination. Some have highly developed shorelines and not enough don’t. Of the over 15,000 lakes in Wisconsin, most are natural and some are manmade flowages. One size doesn’t fit all in water bodies and for species management.
Then there’s us. Everyone that owns 100 feet of frontage on any lake has their own ideas on how the fishing and boating should be handled. If you don’t believe me, just ask them. And everyone that fishes on a lake holds their own ideas too. And it depends what you fish for and what kind of boating you like. That ends up with all kinds of bag limits, size limits, slot sizes, etc.
Wisconsin shares boundary waters with three states and Canada. Each of those have their own rules for all of the above reasons and more. Regulations get created to provide continuity at these boundaries. The Fishing Regulations exist to provide healthy fishing opportunities in the future. They are how we manage angler impacts on fish populations and manage for better fish sizes in a body of water. They can manage a water body to satisfy anglers seeking fish for the table verses lakes where anglers want fish for the wall. And the regulations are an attempt to level the playing field as much as possible. They exist because, we as anglers want them too. It’s our way of protecting ourselves from the other guy who can fish more than we can, keeps too many fish, keeps too small of fish, or fishes when they are spawning and vulnerable. Or maybe it’s because we really need some dry reading to put us to sleep at night.
Eighty pages because of the thrill that setting the hooks into and fighting a big musky provides. The joy of pulling a 24 inch walleye out of the water or the satisfaction of catching a nice mess of panfish. But most of all its how the filets taste after they’re coated in flour and floated for a few minutes in hot oil.
As complicated as the regs make it all seem sometimes, it comes down to simply casting a line and catching fish. A bad day fishing still beats a good day at work. I’m told fishing still rates high as a reason for people to play hooky from work. I might even know a few that do from time to time.
So don’t lose your patience at the boat launch this Saturday. Stay safe on the water. Sit back and enjoy the fishing after a long winter. Good luck to everyone that wets a line. May this be the season you catch your big one. Tight Lines!
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