Chironomid wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2018 at 1:40pm:


This was put on the vote by a group of bait fisherman in the driftless because they feel it is necessary to harvest trout all year long.

There is no scientific fact to this question. All the studies that the group sighted were from the early seventies when trout management was to dump fish in the streams from the hatchery.

The public that are on the new Trout Management plan group have stressed to the DNR several items. that include decisions based on sound scientific facts, Protect, restore and enhance sustainable cold-water aquatic habitats and trout populations.

That being said there is a lot of talk among the members that the DNR should manage the resources by regions in the state where it is needed

The Trout Regs are written to a 6th grade level.  that seems hard for people to understand, so I think the new regs should be written in a Dick and Jane format.

See Dick run

JGF wrote on Feb 23^rd, 2018 at 11:52am:


My comment sarcasm about having to spend a bit of time reading some regs was w.r.t. the Iron County Lamp Dude, & his complaining about how "complicated" the old regs were.

Jizzy Pearl wrote on Feb 23^rd, 2018 at 8:44am:


True, and true.

Chironomid wrote on Feb 23^rd, 2018 at 1:06pm:



A couple of larger rivers are open until the middle of November, IIRC.

There was south shore brookie trib that was catch and release for a while. There are also a few that are so inaccessible that harvest must be close to nill. You would also think that if competition was the driving brook trout outmigration (i.e. the "critical mass" hypothesis), we'd see more outmigrants on the brule, where there must be strong competition w/ coho and brown trout (both of which have been shown to compete with brook trout). The whole coaster thing seems to be a bit of a black box.

16Adams wrote on Feb 23^rd, 2018 at 5:15pm:


It's definitely far from clear.  It just seems to me that the way to test the theory is to try catch and release.  I haven't been on the upper brule in a few years, but the quieter waters were never crowded with brookies.  I've had some good brookie fishing there, but not like I've had on some other streams. And, of the ones that are there, a pretty small percentage are a foot long.

Also, I believe there has been some out migration.  I think occasional coasters have been seen on the weir camera. 

Some of the smaller rivers in Wisconsin have pretty damaged habitat. 

Special regs on one or two streams, and a bit of habitat work just isn't much to show for 30 years, esp. when compared with Ontario and the other states.

Also, it just seems like the easiest way to test the restricted regulation/crowding theory would be to implement catch and release, or something close to it.