Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - New

Early trout season opens March 5

MADISON - Wisconsin's early catch and release trout season opens March 5 with good news for anglers on two fronts: there are no new rules for them to learn and there are more fish waiting to be caught.

"We came through the year really well. Last year, cold wet weather early in the regular season meant that the harvest was reduced last year so we probably have a few more fish than usual swimming around," says Larry Claggett, a coldwater fisheries specialist for the Department of Natural Resources.

"One of the other highlights is there are no changes in regulations. The season dates are the same, the waters open for fishing are the same, so it's status quo, which is somewhat unusual."

The 2005 early trout season opens at 5 a.m. March 5 and continues until May 1 at midnight. The early season is catch-and-release only, and only artificial lures with barbless hooks may be used while fishing for any species of fish on trout streams. Anglers may have barbed hooks in their possession while fishing.

Most trout streams are open to early fishing with the exception of most Lake Superior tributaries and most streams in northeast Wisconsin. Only specified waters are open in northeastern Wisconsin; those waters are listed in the 2005-2006 Trout Fishing Regulations pamphlet, which can be found online at http://www.wisconsinfishing.org and is available at DNR service centers and license vendors.

Claggett reminds anglers not to wade in the water if they think the area might be a spawning area because there could be a chance of harming eggs in gravel or fry as they emerge. Brook and brown trout spawn in October and November, and the eggs hatch in late winter and early spring. DNR studies have shown that most fry emerge from the gravel in February and March, but have found no evidence that wading has damaged the abundance of fingerlings in streams open in the early season. If biologists suspect damage they can close that stream or part of the stream to early fishing.

"We don’t think it’s a big problem, but just a reminder to folks that avoiding wading in spawning areas will provide an additional degree of protection," he says.Anglers will need to watch the weather this year and be aware of stream conditions in the area they intend to fish.

Wisconsin manages trout fisheries on 10,371 miles of classified trout streams, using a combination of stream habitat protection and improvement, fishing regulations, and stocking of hatchery -reared trout. About 40 percent of Wisconsin's classified trout stream miles are Class 1, high quality trout waters that have sufficient natural reproduction to sustain populations at or near the level the stream has the food and space to support. Forty-five percent of the trout waters are Class 2, requiring supplementation by stocking, and the remaining 15 percent are Class 3, stream stretches that wholly depend on stocking to offer a fishery.

Information about trout populations in many popular streams, as well as descriptions of the many trout habitat improvement projects DNR carried out in 2004, is available online. Visit www.fishingwisconsin.org, click on the 2005 Fishing Report, and scan the regional forecasts.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Larry Claggett (608) 267-9658 or your local fish biologist

Wild trout program a stocking success Fish succeeding in repopulating streams

MADISON - Trout anglers in 2005 will have more wild fish and more stream miles to challenge them than ever before, thanks in large part to Wisconsin's nationally-renowned, decade-old program to stock trout hatched from wild parents instead of from fish raised for generations in a hatchery.

Recent research has shown that the wild trout Wisconsin stocks survive in far greater numbers after being transferred to streams and live longer than the offspring of "domestic" fish spawned from parents that represent generations of fish raised in hatcheries, providing anglers action longer through the fishing season and in subsequent years.

Perhaps most importantly, the genetic superiority of the wild fish has spurred Department of Natural Resources fish managers to use them to restore self-sustaining trout populations to hundreds of miles of streams where water quality and flow has improved as a result of changing land use and farming practices, and where DNR trout habitat projects have improved instream habitat.

"Anglers will find there are far more streams to fish -- and far more wild fish to catch -- as a result of the wild trout program," says Dave Vetrano, a DNR fisheries supervisor and longtime fish manager of streams in Crawford, La Crosse, Monroe and Vernon counties.

In those four counties alone, the stocking of wild trout has played a major role in allowing more than 325 miles of streams to be formally classified as trout waters for the first time or upgraded to a higher classification within the state's three-tier system. At least 15 of the streams receiving upgrades to Class 1 -- the highest quality category and indicative of self-sustaining trout populations -- occurred because DNR's stocking of wild trout successfully established self-sustaining populations in those waters, among them Bishop Branch Creek, Blackbottom Creek, Copper Creek, Sugar Creek, and several small tributaries to the Mississippi River.

Statewide, it's unclear how many of the 600 miles of trout stream upgraded in 2001 to Class 1 improved their status because wild trout stocking built self-sustaining populations in those waters. But the success of the wild trout stocking program stretches from one corner of the state to the other. For example, the stocking of wild trout combined with habitat improvement projects have successfully established a brook trout fishery in the Steiner Branch in Lafayette County, and the stocking of wild brown trout in Couderay River, Devils Creek, and the Big and Little Weirgor systems in Sawyer and Rusk counties appears to be working where previously, stocking domestic strain in these streams had been a near-total failure.

"The program definitely has been a success and has grown from an experimental status to become an integral part of trout management in Wisconsin," says Matt Mitro, a DNR fisheries researcher who recently analyzed how well the wild trout program was meeting its goals."

Mitro found that stocked wild fish had survival rates two to four times greater than stocked fish spawned from domestic parents, and found stocked wild trout surviving to three years and older in some streams while there was no evidence of domestic fish surviving beyond two years.

Over many generations, domestic fish are selected for characteristics suitable to survival in a hatchery system and maximizing egg production, so their offspring are consequently now better suited to survival in hatcheries than wild streams, and we therefore see poor survival when stocking "domestic" trout, Mitro says.

While Vetrano and his crews conducted early, small-scale efforts to hatch wild trout in an old springhouse, DNR officially began its wild trout program in 1995. The move was spurred by hopes of producing a fish that would survive longer into the fishing season, following the sobering discovery that stocked domestic fish weren't surviving in good numbers despite drought closing many streams to fishing in the late 1980s.

"It took some out of the box thinkers in the hatchery system to take this on, because raising wild fish required some methods that went against the traditional ways things were done," says Larry Claggett, DNR's cold water specialist.

Nevin State Fish Hatchery Supervisor John Komassa and technician Don Dodge are among the hatchery personnel who have taken on the challenge of using new methods to raise wild trout on a large scale. After the wild brook trout are collected from Ash Creek and wild brown trout from Timber Coulee, the fish are brought back to Nevin, spawned and then returned to their home waters.

Because fish managers’ requests, or “quotas” for wild brown trout is more than the stream could provide, a captive, wild broodstock is maintained at Nevin. These are first generation fish that are from the wild brown trout taken from Timber Coulee. Each year only enough fish from the stream are taken to continue the broodstock.

The eggs are hatched at Nevin, and Komassa and Dodge subsequently limit human contact with the fish to keep them wary. They use automatic feeders so the fish do not become reliant on hand feeding or learn how to activate demand feeders. They also use shade covers over the tanks to simulate the cover the fish might find in a stream, and keep the density of fish in the tanks at half that for domestic trout.

Nevin was and continues to be the workhorse for raising and stocking wild fingerling trout, but is now sending more eggs to other hatcheries to hatch and raise. Critical partners in the program are the sports clubs that receive a growing number of small fingerling wild brook trout from Nevin to raise an additional year and stock out in the following spring. In 2004, five state hatcheries and 22 cooperative facilities filled requests for 242,881 wild brook trout and 839,858 wild brown trout for stocking.

Fish managers have identified a goal of having 50 percent of the trout stocked in Wisconsin waters from wild parents; wild trout now comprise about 40 percent. Those fish will continue to be stocked into Class 2 streams that are promising candidates for restoring self-sustaining populations, Claggett says.

"We're essentially producing a wild fishing experience that anglers say is priceless, but also succeeding in building fisheries that don't just last a month, but in many cases, will be there for their children and their grandchildren."

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Larry Claggett (608) 267-9658; John Komassa (608) 275-3246; Matt Mitro (608) 221-6366; Dave Vetrano (608) 785-9009

Inland game fish season closes March 6

New closing date effective this year provides additional fishing opportunities

MADISON – Beginning this year, anglers will have some additional time to fish for game fish before the game fish season closes at the end of the day Sunday, March 6.

Starting in 2005 and subsequent years, the inland game fishing season closes at the end of the day of the first Sunday in March. The panfish seasons remains open year-round as does the game fish season on select waters, as listed in the Guide to Wisconsin Hook and Line Fishing Regulations.

The change in season closure date was approved during the 2003 annual Department of Natural Resources Spring Rule Hearings and subsequently by the Natural Resources Board, along with a slate of other fishing regulation changes.

According to Patrick Schmalz, DNR regulations and warmwater fisheries specialist, the new closure date will give anglers additional days of fishing for game fish most years. Schmalz says the change was spurred by angler and business interests. The later closure date had been proposed as a Conservation Congress resolution and question at the Conservation Congress portion of the spring hearings, and then forwarded as a regulation proposal by the DNR in 2003.

"Anglers from across the state expressed their desire to end the game fish season on a Sunday and starting this year, they will gain additional days of fishing on most waters," said Schmalz.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Patrick Schmalz (608) 266-8170

Planning for state waterfowl program strategic plan to kick off at conference

MADISON -- An Alliance of Wisconsin wildlife organizations is hosting the Third Annual Wisconsin Waterfowl Hunter’s Conference with the theme of how waterfowl hunting could be improved in Wisconsin.

The conference entitled Preserving and Enhancing Our Waterfowl Hunting Heritage will be held March 4 - 5, at the Country Springs Conference and Convention Center (Previously – Holiday Inn) in Stevens Point.

Tom Hauge, director of the Department of Natural Resources Bureau of Wildlife Management, and Kent Van Horn, DNR migratory bird ecologist, will attend the conference to kick off a public involvement process in the development of a waterfowl program strategic plan.

“Waterfowl hunting has a rich heritage here in Wisconsin with many passionate hunters that are committed to maintaining and improving waterfowl hunting in Wisconsin,” Hauge said. “Over the next year and a half we are hoping to involve our waterfowl hunters in painting the picture of future waterfowl management in Wisconsin. Using the Waterfowl Hunter’s conference to begin this process is a great opportunity.”

The conference is open to anyone interested in waterfowl hunting; allows waterfowlers from around the state the opportunity to meet fellow hunters, management professionals and wardens; and to share questions, concerns, experiences and information that affect our waterfowl hunting heritage and future hunting opportunities.

On Saturday morning March 5, Kent Van Horn along with a team of DNR staff will facilitate a workshop for hunters to provide input to the department on what they would like to see in their waterfowl hunting experience.

FOR MORE INFORMATION on attending the 2005 Wisconsin Waterfowl Hunter’s Conference please contact Don Gamble - (715) 595-6045