New walleye rule in place for Turtle Flambeau

By RICHARD JENKINS

[email protected]

MERCER, Wis. — When walleye season opens in May, anglers on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage in southern Iron County will have to watch what fish they keep as a new regulation will be in place limiting the size limits of walleye that can be kept while fishing the flowage.

Zach Lawson, a fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said the flowage’s daily bag limit will remain the same but size limits will be imposed.

“The bag limit is how many fish you can keep, and the size limit is what sized individuals you can harvest,” Lawson said. “To be clear, it’s still going to be a three-fish daily bag limit. But instead of having no minimum size limit, it’s now going to be a 12-inch minimum and only one can be over 15 inches.”

Lawson said the 12-inch minimum is designed to provide additional protection for juveniles, generally giving males one year of maturity before they can be harvested; and the 15-inch limit protects the larger females, which should help grow the overall population.

Although the change goes into effect as of the May 2 season opener, Lawson said the new rule has been years in the making — as it was first proposed in 2018 and based on data gathered over the past decade.

The DNR developed a fisheries management plan for the flowage in 2005, which included goals relating to population density and the size of fish.

The plan called for a maintaining a density of between four and eight adult walleye per acre, with another goal of having between 30% and 50% of the walleye being over 15 inches.

With the flowage’s size, Lawson said it is too difficult to do a comprehensive population estimate every year. The DNR conducted estimates in 2009 and in 2016, according to Lawson, and the rule was proposed in response to changes observed in the data.

The flowage had 2.8 adult walleye per acre in 2016, according to Lawson, which was a decline from the 2009 density of 4.1 adults per acre.

“So right off the bat when we saw the adult densities being down at 2.8, that was the first cause for concern,” Lawson said. “Then the second cause for concern was the size structure was also diminishing.”

He said 23% of the adult walleye population was over 15 inches in 2016 — which was also below the goals stated in the plan.

“We saw the population in 2016 falling short of those measurable management objectives — one being the density and two being the size structure,” Lawson said.

Lawson made clear that even with the numbers below the stated objectives, the Turtle Flambeau is still a good fishery — it just isn’t reaching its potential.

“The flowage can produce better … we just need to step in and reduce harvests a little bit,” Lawson said, adding the DNR’s predictive models estimate the new regulation will lead to a 15-20% reduction in harvest.

Although the specific date isn’t set, Lawson said the next population survey of the flowage should take place in the next five years. However, that survey will be too soon to determine whether the regulation change worked, Lawson said, as the DNR wants an entire generation of fish to cycle through under the current regulation before determining its impact. He said this meant it might be eight or nine years before the regulation’s impact can truly be assessed.

Lawson said the DNR held various public meetings and gathered the input of anglers before making the change, telling the Daily Globe in May 2019 that the proposed rule passed with flying colors both at the local and state levels.

Ultimately, he said it’s about providing anglers with better opportunities to catch the type of fish they are seeking.

“People care about how many walleyes are out there and they also care about how big they are — what kind of opportunity the fishery is providing folks,” Lawson said in 2019.