4. Related Statutes or Rules:
The department is concurrently proposing a rule (FH-12-14) addressing minor changes to administrative code relating to the regulation of fishing. The rule is being pursued to ensure the rule language that governs fishing in inland, outlying, and boundary waters is accurate and properly reflects the desired management of Wisconsin waters. The objectives are to remove sections of code that are outdated or have been replaced by other statute or code changes, correct errors that occurred during the drafting of rules, and add or repeal language to clarify intent of original rules. FH-12-14 code changes within s. NR 20.20 are reflected in this rule language.
The department has also concurrently proposed a rule (FH-34-13, CR14-029) to allow trolling statewide. It was effective July 1, 2015. This rule reflects those code changes within s. NR 20.20. The rule was approved by the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Compliance in February 2015. Legislative review ended on May 13, 2015.
The department is also concurrently working on a permanent rule (FH-18-14) in which changes are made to walleye daily bag limits and size limits in waters within the Ceded Territory. Changes to NR 20.20 within that rule include and/or supersede any walleye regulation changes in FH-14-14. Both rules are expected to be in effect approximately April 1, 2016. The department will work with the Legislative Reference Bureau to ensure the rules are incorporated correctly into the Administrative Code.
5. Plain Language Analysis:
With this rule, the department will make changes to fish size limits, bag limits, seasons, and other regulations related to fishing in inland, outlying, and boundary waters. Fishing regulations are in place to help meet management goals and objectives for waters and their fish species, such as providing a trophy walleye fishery or a bass fishery that maximizes predation on smaller fishes. The regulation proposals included in this rule are based on surveys and analyses conducted by fish biologists and input from local stakeholders and the Wisconsin Conservation Congress.
SECTIONS 1 and 2 create a definition of Asian carp and require that all Asian carp transported within or through Wisconsin must have been eviscerated (disemboweled/gutted) or the gills plate completely severed so that the fish cannot be revived under any circumstances. This is another tool to help the department work with other states and federal agencies to prevent Asian carp from becoming established in the Upper Mississippi River and in the Great Lakes.
SECTIONS 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 13, along with individual county bag and size limit regulations in SECTION 8, put in place new regulations to manage trout on inland waters statewide, including:
  For all inland lakes and ponds, including put-and-take lakes and ponds stocked with trout, implement a statewide open season from the first Saturday in May to the first Sunday in March, which matches the general game fish open season, and a daily bag and size limit that matches the county base regulation (either 5 trout of any length may be kept per day or 3 trout may be kept per day if they are at least 8 inches). A small number of lakes will have special regulations that differ from their county base regulation.
  Expand seasonal trout fishing opportunities on inland streams and connected springs and spring ponds by:
    beginning the early catch and release season (on streams where it currently exists) on the first Saturday in January and ending on the Friday preceding the first Saturday in May
    extending the end of the trout open season by two weeks from September 30 to October 15
  Change the total daily bag limit for trout from inland waters to 5 in total but only 2 may be lake trout, and clarify that the possession limit for trout from inland waters is 10.
  Change inland trout size limits and bag limits in every county of the state, which reduces the number of special regulation types, allows additional harvest opportunities, improves the range of sizes of trout, protects species from harvest in some waters, and expands opportunities to catch trophy-sized trout in other waters.
SECTION 8 repeals and recreates s. NR 20.20, which is the list of most of the fishing regulations throughout the State. Amendments to the table include the trout bag and size limit changes in every county that are mentioned above, as well as the following summary:
  Apply one of the following panfish regulation options to approximately 100 lakes (counts differ if lakes in a chain are counted separately) in order to evaluate angler acceptance and the extent to which each regulation improves panfish average size. All of these regulations will sunset on March 1, 2026.
    25/10 - a total of 25 panfish may be kept per day but no more than 10 of any one species
    Spawning season 15/5 – a total of 25 panfish may be kept per day except during May and June when a total of 15 panfish may be kept per day, but no more than 5 of any one species
    15/5 - a total of 15 panfish may be kept per day, but no more than 5 of any one species year round
  Allow 25 panfish of any size to be kept per day except only 5 or fewer sunfish (bluegill and pumpkinseed) may be over 7 inches on Big Sand Lake, Gunlock Lake, and Shishebogama Lake in Vilas and Oneida Counties and the Cloverleaf Chain of Lakes (Round, Grass, and Pine lakes) in Shawano County
  Make regulations consistent between the connected Jackson and Namekagon lakes and clarify in Administrative Code and the regulations book that Garden Lake is part of Namekagon Lake in Bayfield County
  Amend regulations for all species on Long, Herde, and Dark lakes in Chippewa County so that they will be applied to the lake chain as a whole (Long Lake Chain), and now allow largemouth bass of any length to be kept and maintain an 18-inch minimum length limit for smallmouth bass with a combined bag limit of 5 fish, but only 1 may be smallmouth bass on Long Lake Chain
  Allow only 3 walleye to be kept and they must be at least 18 inches, and allow 5 largemouth and smallmouth bass of any length to be kept in the following waters: Upper and Lower Eau Claire lakes in Bayfield and Douglas counties; Sand Lake in Chippewa County; Squash Lake in Oneida County; Balsam Lake in Polk County; Pulaski Lake in Rusk County, and Durphee and Osprey lakes in Sawyer County
  Allow both largemouth and smallmouth bass of any length to be kept and maintain a combined daily bag limit of 5 on the following waters:
    Beaver Lake in Ashland County
    McDermott Lake in Iron County
    Julia Lake (near Rhinelander) in Oneida County
    Riley Lake and Twin Lake in Price County
    Blueberry Lake, Smith Lake, and Spider Lake Chain (Big Spider Lake, Little Spider Lake, Clear Lake, Fawn Lake, and North Lake) in Sawyer County
    Kathryn Lake, North Twin Lake, South Twin Lake, and Spruce Lake in Taylor County
    Osseo Club Pond in Trempealeau County
    Crooked Lake, Pence Lake, Rogers Lake, Saul Spring, and Townline Lake (T33N R10E S6) in Langlade County and Ament Lake, Henson Lake, Larson Lake, Moraine Lake, and Tahoe Lake in Lincoln County
  Allow 5 largemouth and smallmouth bass of any size to be kept per day except all bass from 14 to 18 inches must be released and only 1 fish may be greater than 18 inches on the following waters:
    Round Lake in Chippewa County
    Spread Eagle Chain of Lakes, Keyes Lake, and Halsey Lake, Florence County
    Turtle-Flambeau Flowage and Trude Lake in Iron County
    Gunlock Lake and Shishebogama Lake in Oneida and Vilas Counties
  Allow largemouth bass of any length to be kept, retain the 14-inch minimum length limit for smallmouth bass, and maintain a combined daily bag limit of 5 on Chippewa Flowage and Quiet Lakes Chain (Lost Land Lake, Teal Lake, and Teal River Flowage) in Sawyer County
  Allow largemouth bass of any length to be kept, establish an 18-inch minimum length limit for smallmouth bass, and maintain a combined daily bag limit of 5 bass, of which only 1 could be a smallmouth bass on Lac Courte Oreilles Chain (Lac Courte Oreilles, Little Lac Courte Oreilles, and Billy Boy Flowage) and Round Lake Chain (Round Lake and Little Round Lake at T41N-R8W-S36) in Sawyer County
  Allow 5 walleye of any size to be kept, except only one walleye 14 inches or longer may be harvested per day in the following waters:
    Spillerberg Lake in Ashland County
    Pike Chain of Lakes (Amik, Pike, Round, and Turner lakes) in Price and Vilas counties
    Elk River from Musser Flowage Dam downstream to its confluence with South Fork Flambeau River - including the Phillips Chain of Lakes (Duroy, Elk, Long, and Wilson lakes), Grassy Lake, Solberg Lake (including its tributaries upstream to the 1st dam and all of Squaw Creek), and Lac Sault Dore (a.k.a. Soo Lake) in Price County
    Moose Lake and West Fork Chippewa River upstream to FR 174 in Sawyer County
  Allow only 3 walleye to be kept per day and they must be at least 18 inches on the following waters:
    Sea Lion Lake and the Spread Eagle Chain of Lakes in Florence County
    Archibald, Bass, Boot, Maiden, and Wheeler Lakes in Oconto County
    Shawano Lake (including Washington Lake, Shawano Lake Outlet Channel, Wolf River Pond, and Wolf River upstream to Balsam Row Dam) in Shawano County
    Deerskin Lake in Vilas County
    Nagawicka Lake, Pine Lake and Pewaukee Lake in Waukesha County
    Big Cedar Lake and Gilbert Lake in Washington County
  Allow only 1 walleye to be kept per day and it must be at least 28 inches on Lac LaBelle in Waukesha County
  Allow only 10 panfish to be kept per day on Hodge Lake in Chippewa County
  Require that kept muskellunge be at least 40 inches on the Spider Lake Chain (includes Big Spider, Little Spider, Clear, Fawn, and North lakes), the Tiger Cat Chain (includes McClaine, Upper Twin, Lower Twin, Tiger Cat Flowage, Burns, and Placid), Mud/Callahan lakes, and North Fork Chief River from the Tiger Cat Dam downstream to Mud Lake in Sawyer County
  Allow only 1 northern pike to be kept per day and it must be at least 40 inches on Lake Ellwood in Florence County
  Allow only 2 northern pike to be kept per day and they must be at least 26 inches on Caroline Pond in Shawano County
  Allow only 1 northern pike to be kept per day and it must be at least 32 inches on the following lakes in Waukesha and Walworth counties:
    Lac LaBelle
    Pewaukee Lake
    Eagle Spring Lake, Lulu Lake (Walworth County) and connecting portions of the Mukwonago River
  Remove the regulation sunset and continue to allow only 2 northern pike to be kept per day and they must be at least 26 inches on Marion Millpond in Waupaca County
  Allow 5 northern pike of any size to be kept per day on Alpine Lake in Waushara County and Sharon Lake in Marquette County
  Add Wiedenbach Park Pond in Washington County to the urban fishing program
  Remove special regulations and use the general statewide or countywide length and bag limits for certain species on 25 waters in 8 counties
SECTIONS 9, 10, 11, and 12 apply new regulations on Wisconsin-Minnesota boundary waters that will make the regulations consistent between the Wisconsin and Minnesota waters of the Mississippi, St. Croix and St. Louis rivers, reducing angler confusion and improving ease of enforcement:
  Establish a uniform open season (from the Saturday nearest Memorial Day to November 30) and require that kept muskellunge be at least 50 inches on the Mississippi, St. Croix and St. Louis rivers and the Nemadji River, Douglas County
  Allow catch and release angling for lake sturgeon in the Mississippi River upstream of Red Wing Dam and the St. Croix River from Prescott to the Dam at the Gordon Flowage from June 16 through March 1; and allow catch and release angling for lake sturgeon on the St. Louis River, Nemadji River in Douglas County, and Mississippi River downstream from Red Wing Dam from June 16 through April 14
  Open a catch and release only season for shovelnose sturgeon from June 16 to March 1 on waters of the Mississippi, St. Croix, and St. Louis rivers upstream of Red Wing Dam, with a closed season March 2 to June 15
SECTIONS 14 and 15 update references to ch. NR 26 within ch. NR 25.
SECTION 16 repeals and recreates ch. NR 26, the list of fish refuges throughout the State. This proposal removes or modifies 51 of the 140 existing fish refuges, resulting in 110 inland fish refuges. No changes were made to refuges in Lake Superior. This list is the result of discussions between fish biologists and wardens. No new refuges are added.
6. Summary of, and Comparison with, Existing or Proposed Federal Statutes and Regulations:
Authority to promulgate fishing regulations is granted to states. None of the proposed changes violate or conflict with federal regulations.
7. Comparison with Similar Rules in Adjacent States:
Fisheries management rules are generally similar in the states surrounding Wisconsin. Each bordering state regulates fishing by the use of seasons, bag limits, and size limits. Specific seasons and bag and size limits may differ for species among the surrounding states, but the general principles are similar. Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois all have statewide seasons and bag and size limits for fish species, along with special or experimental regulations on individual waters.
8. Summary of Factual Data and Analytical Methodologies Used and How Any Related Findings Support the Regulatory Approach Chosen:
The general policy behind fishing regulations is to protect and enhance fish populations while providing diverse fishing opportunities throughout the State. That policy will be continued and enhanced by these rule changes.
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Links to Admin. Code and Statutes in this Register are to current versions, which may not be the version that was referred to in the original published document.