Culling of Walleye on the way!

There are two Walleye tournaments, one local and one National that are proposing to allow culling only during Walleye tournaments. I am not against tournaments but there is no doubt this will lead to increased mortality. Please contact your state representative and tell them this will not be good for lake Winnebago or the bay of Green Bay!

aya I don't have the prove you want. I just know that a fish that's been held in a well oxygenated life well swims away mush better than a fish that's just been brought in the boat after fighting for it's life. It's kind of like a little R&R for the fish.

Fishy, very well written. If the tournament guys can do it, why can't joe schmo angler do it too? Like fishy said, now you've got guys throwing fish back off of stringers or in the winter throwing 'em back after they half freeze on the ice. Not something I would be promoting but hey, call me crazy I have ethics. As far as the ice packs go, now you've got fish going from warm water to cool water then back to warm water. Shock much? Know what happens when my minnows go from warm water to cold water in the winter? Belly up. Again ditto, if you've got the facts to show that livewell held fish have less mortality than released fish post it and I will admit you win. The burden of proof is on you.

Jim, there is no cooling system I'm aware of they just cool the water with ice and ice packs. I understand your concern about the average angler might think that since it's legal for a very few tournaments they will do it also but they should remember that these tournament guys have the best life wells available and they have a big incentive for keeping the fish in great shape or they get heavily penalized by the tournament. Fish are a renewable resource and the lakes the tournaments are on are known for healthy populations so I consider the couple more fish that might die to be a good trade off for the huge amount of money they bring into the community. Remember these aren't little club tournaments that get the culling exception, they're the big ones.

Ditto- I have a 18 foot Lund explorer- it has two live wells- that pump surface water into the tanks. I don't fish tourneys-and don't plan on it. But I might be missing a point here-on cooled water that I don't know about not being a tourney fisherman. Do tournaments rigged boats have a system to cool the water other than adding cool packs and ice? I realize the covered live well in my boat will shade the tank a little-and fill it with fresh oxygen which will cool the water somewhat, but its still warm water coming in. In July and August I put a plug in my live well and turn off the water-filling it with ice and throw my catch in it, on top of the ice. The ice melts, but the water is cold and the fish stay firm and don't loose color. These are fish that will be harvested. Otherwise if I just fill the tank and pump oxygen in-the fish die fairly quick from the warm surface water. I have guided professionally for 37 years and have made a living at it in the Hayward area mostly on walleye/crappie and SM bass with a few Musky trips . I still don't agree with culling. If it isn't big enough throw it back, if its to big-throw it back. I realize in the commercialized product driven and money driven tourney business that's old school- but that's my rule in my boat. I wont win any tourneys and really don't care. I don't have to use that route to proof my self as an expert and would rather take a party out on the water and make $350.00 enjoying my trade for the day. But what I'm concerned with is this: if its allowed then the average fisherman will think-if the Pros do it must be ok- Its not. What if they don't have a live well- lets take that one off the stinger or out of the basket and trade it in for the one that's 2 inches longer and a little fatter. Oh its good-look it swam away on its own. That's a bad signal to send to people that are not educated in fish survival. I'm all for tourneys-don't get me wrong. Economic growth and an interest in fishing is a good thing. My thought is that its more entertainment for the spectators to watch when the strategy of the teams is observed. That's more interesting to me than culling fish. In fact culling cheapens that aspect a lot. Some teams may opt to keep the first legal limit they get, other competitors keep it interesting by gambling a little on a hunch and confidence in themselves by letting a smaller keeper go immediately and trying catch a bigger one attitude. It your a safe player (fisherman), then you take a risk by just getting the limit, but maybe not a great weight-a gambler looses or maybe wins big. That should be part of the game. That's fun to watch. But at the end of the day everyone should be concerned with the big picture-protecting the resource, like just keeping enough to eat, letting go the bigger fish and practicing catch and release with selective and legal harvest.

Definitely gonna be a few fish that die, I'm willing to admit that, but the amount will be so miniscule it won't even matter or effect any fishery. Still don't think it's going to do anything more really then just annoy some people that over think it.

I don't care if this is allowed, but you honestly can't say there won't be more fish dead because of culling. It may be miniscule compared to the every day fisherman's take, but it will increase. Regardless of how they are treated in a live well, that just means people are catching more fish. More chances to hook one badly. Like I said, it matters not to me. But lets be real, it has to increase it slightly. The more you catch, the more chances to kill one.

aayfeesh, just common sense. Water that is cooled and heavilly oxygenated is a better place to be after a long fight in warm water than right back into the warm surface water. It's a common practice to keep a fish in the live well far a while before releasing it if it's warm and the fish put up a tough fight. It might not be legal but it's better for the resources than throwing a warn out fish back into the warm water. Culling is only allowed in a couple tournaments each year - it's not going to hurt the resources.

The Battle on Bago is exponentially worse then a culling tournament on Winnebago that would be 100% release. How many of the top 1000 walleye were released during the battle? My guess is ZERO. I don't care about culling. Especially if fish are released. If you participated in the Battle and complain about culling you really are a hypocrite. Released fish and money in the economy. Win win! Look at Pewaukee lake, 3 bass tournaments a Saturday and the bass fishing is only getting better.

Unfortunately, Sassy1 seems to be right on this one. The exemption is being requested in a way that goes around the fisheries managers and the manager himself refuses to state a position and was told he better not comment. Gone are the days of people like Ron Bruch telling us what is good for the systems and working for it while the DNR has seen a mass exodus of people like him(Ron) recently. The exepmtion from the regulation is being requested only for the two tournaments and not everyone else. The state representative who is also making the push was told it will bring in huge extra money from the tournaments. These are warm water tournaments and mortality will be high! Plain and simple, our resources and being used to generate revenue and that seems to be the top goal. Look at the "Walleye Initiave" where a pile of money is spent just to make a couple resort owners happy and does nothing long term.

wont be anymore deaths of fish with culling.

Ditto your spouting off a lot of "facts". Can you back them up? Live-wells are better than lake water, and higher survival rates for fish held in live-wells? Would like to see some data to support your claims.

Why have rules period,it's about making money, the everyday fishermen should be the only ones to follow rules.

Fishy, No they won't always come. BASS would only come if they allowed culling and with special permits they were allowed to cull which brought in millions of dollars to LaCross and Green Bay, without culling they would have went to Red Wing MN and who knows where instead of GB. It wasn't the DNR but the Congress that made this law to promote tourism, the DNR did it's best to sabotage the GB BASS tournament and it worked - they didn't come back the next year costing GB millions of dollars. What's worse, putting it back into the warm surface water after it fights for it's live on the end of a line or after it's been in a live well that pumps oxygen into them like mad and is filled with cooler water? And no they don't always acclimate them, often times they just take them out in a boat and dump them in the water, other times they actually have a trough that they put them in the slides them right into the lake. In other words the fish coming out of those live wells are in better shape then the ones that you release right after you catch them. If you don't like the culling would you prefer that they not be allowed to cull and instead just kill all the fish they catch?

If I remember right-Culling is already illegal??? I don't practice it, putting a fish back into the warm surface water to trade it for another one is bad business. When the fisherman release them during the Tournament after the weigh in-I don't think they just toss them back in the lake-don't they put them in a holding tank to acclimate and revive. How could the DNR make special rules just because its a tournament-I hope they don't. The tourney will come to town no matter what-its a world class lake with lots of water close to a metro. This is one of the reasons Tourneys get a bad rap.

THe increased number of walleyes that die because of culling in these tournaments will be so miniscule as to not matter, there will be less dying than 1/2 of what is killed on each launch around the lake that day. The life wells in these boats are better for the fish (O2 wise) than the lake is. These tournaments also bring a lot of money to the area. Ask LaCrosse if they mind having BASS tournaments in their area with culling?