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Lake Winnebago System’s Walleye Management Plan Up For Review

Wisconsin DNR Review Marks The First Time Updates May Be Made In 27 Years

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walleye, fish, fishing
Daniel Miller/AP Photo

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources hasn’t updated their walleye management plan for the Lake Winnebago System since 1991.

In those 27 years, walleye in the system have become an attraction for anglers from around the country, and arguably the world, DNR fisheries biologist Adam Nickel says.

Nickel and the Winnebago Fisheries Advisory Committee — made up of fishers and fishing clubs along the system — are working to update the walleye management plan.

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“The plan was drafted in 1991 and we really haven’t updated it in the past couple of decades,” Nickel said.

The system is made up of Lakes Winnebago, Poygan, Winneconne, Buttes des Morts and the Wolf River and has long had a self-sustaining population, Nickel said. But some spawning grounds have been overtaken by plant growth.

“If you let a marsh grow without much maintenance over the years they can become brush,” he said.

To sustain a healthy population, walleye depend on a good balance of grass and water to lay their eggs. If not maintained, marshes “can lose some of that flow and connection to the river, so the highest priority is maintaining grass habitat for walleyes to spawn and then maintaining good flow and connection to the river,” said Nickel.

One of the main issues in the new draft plan is “exploitation” of walleye: in other words, “bag limits.” Currently, licensed anglers can catch up to five walleye per day. The proposed changes would lower that to three per day.

Don Herman, a board member of the Otter Street Fishing Club in Oshkosh, said he has heard good responses to the new plan, including the lower limits.

“Nobody likes change but I think to save the system and there’s just so many people that are fishing now … I think that’s what has to be done,” Herman said.

The DNR will host three public meetings on the draft plan:

  • Monday, March 19, from 6:30-8:30 pm at JP Coughlin Center, 625 E County Rd, Oshkosh
  • Wednesday, March 21, from 6:30-8:30 pm at the Engler Center, 530 W. Main St. Chilton.
  • Wednesday, March 28, from 6:30-8:30 pm at the Mosquito Hill Nature Center, N3880 Rogers Rd., New London.

The DNR will review public comment before deciding on the new management plan, and will takes written comments until May 1, 2018.

There is no firm deadline on a decision.