Column: Unprofessional DNR trout management in southwest Wisconsin

By Roger A. Kerr

Back in the late 1950s, newly hired Wisconsin Conservation Department trout researcher Robert Hunt became involved in one of the best brook trout studies ever conducted. The purpose of the study was to determine what the best rules were for brook trout and anglers to allow maximum fishing activity but prevent overharvest. The study lasted six years and was conducted on Lawrence Creek in central Wisconsin.

The first two years of the study had the basic statewide trout rules which were a 10-bag limit and a six-inch size limit. They worked very well (no harm was done to the brook trout population). The second two years had no rules at all. It worked well, too (there was no overharvest of the brook trout population). The last two years had modestly restrictive rules of a five-bag limit and nine-inch size limit. They were a “disaster.” Harvest greatly declined and fishing activity declined 75 percent. The reason for the declines was due to the fact that very few brook trout in Lawrence Creek grew to nine-inches.

Fast forward to 1990, and the DNR creates 32 pages of trout rules and lowers bag limits. Around 1,000 special (restrictive) rules were created to “supposedly” improve trout fishing.

This new program had the same impact on trout anglers as the five-bag limit and nine-inch size limit had on Lawrence Creek anglers. Tens of thousands of bait fishing anglers quit trout fishing because they were “turned off” by this new program. And over the years, about 80 percent of these special rules created in 1990 were terminated because they did not improve trout populations where they were used. So, overall, this new program was a total disaster.

Here in southwest Wisconsin, the lack of harvest anglers has had a negative impact on the area trout resources. Dozens of streams here have 3,000 to 4,000 wild brown trout per mile and hardly any trout over 15 inches. Yet the DNR has refused to increase the three- and five-bag limits that these streams have and do not allow harvest here during the early season (when most trout anglers like to fish here). And counties like Richland still have a lot of special rules that either totally or greatly restrict harvest. Continuing to have these rules is nonsense because the few anglers who do fish trout in southwest Wisconsin rarely kill and eat trout.

The DNR has a few 10-bag limit streams here in southwest Wisconsin. The purpose of the 10 bag is to reduce very abundant wild brown trout populations the these streams have.

In 2016, the DNR conducted a creel census on 10-bag limits on Bohemian Valley Creek in the La Crosse area to see if the 10 bag was enticing anglers to fish this stream and reduce the brown trout population. Anglers who fished the stream released about 90 percent of the trout they caught. So, the 10 bag did not do what the DNR wanted it to.

Bohemian Valley Creek continues to have a 10-bag limit. This is ridiculous. And anyone who fishes this stream in the January-through-April period can’t legally harvest trout from it. This is ridiculous, too.

Many Wisconsin trout anglers know that Iowa has a very successful no-closed season trout fishing program. They only have 120 trout streams located in northeast Iowa, and these streams are a “mini-version” of the streams in southwest Wisconsin. Dozens have good, natural reproduction and do not have to be stocked anymore.

The Iowa trout program should be the model for trout management here in southwest Wisconsin, except the bag limit should be increased to 15 here.

Kerr is a retired fish manager.