Wisconsin *5* Months Of Closed Season

[spinner1]

Wisconsin is the only state in my neighborhood that has such an insanely long closed season.

March 03, 2012 can not come soon enough

[kbproctor]

What is this "closed season" you speak of? Never heard of such a thing!

[mcsteff]

Len
Michigan is your neighbor to the north and east - we have 7 month inland streams closed season - Sept 30 to last Saturday in April - I envy your 2 months!
Mark

[EdD]

Tennessee lacks the annual sorrow of the "closed season". (We aren't real big on winter, in general.)
Of course, there are no fish in Tennessee...


Ed

[Uncle Jesse]

Tennessee lacks the annual sorrow of the "closed season". (We aren't real big on winter, in general.)
Of course, there are no fish in Tennessee... Ed

Winter is greatly overrated as far as I can tell. I have visited Minnesota and NY state in January, both trips heightened my appreciation of GA and all other points south.

I understand there are so few fish in TN they raised out of state license really high to discourage visitors from other states from trying to catch the non-existent fish. The state of GA closes most of the trout stream from November until April because they heard there were no trout in TN and they figured folks from Nashville east sould sneak down here to catch our fish.

[Silver Creek]

Spinner,


You may be unaware for the biologic reason for a closed season. Wisconsin has a closed season to protect the eggs and fry in the redds. This is well documented in this Wisconsin DNR report which was produced to determine how to extend the early season.


"Angler Wading Effects on Trout Eggs and Fry

The timing of spawning and fry emergence of trout is relevant to the issue of angler wading effects on trout populations. Brook and brown trout in Wisconsin spawn in the fall, usually peaking in November. Brown trout spawn from mid-October to mid-December; although hatchery reared fish have been observed spawning as early as September and can continue through mid-January (Avery and Niermeyer 1999). Brook trout spawn from mid-October (Hunt 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964) to mid-December, but can begin as early as September (Carline 1973), and last until early January in spring ponds (Brasch 1949, Carline 1973). Thus, brook and brown trout have ceased spawning activity by the time the early season begins. By contrast, rainbow trout spawn in the spring; March through the end of April with a peak in early April (Klaurens 1997).


Trout eggs may be susceptible to mortality from wading anglers. During spawning, trout excavate redds for egg deposition in protective pockets. Depth to the top of the egg pocket (relative to the original level of the streambed) averaged 5 cm for brook trout and 8 cm for brown trout, and was proposed as criteria proposed for the maximum allowable depth of scour before egg loss (DeVries 1997). However, the data on depth to egg pockets has high variability; for example, depth to the top of pockets containing brown trout eggs ranged from 6 to 20 mm. Trout eggs are most susceptible to mortality at the stage just before they emerge as fry. Wading mortality is highest between the eyed egg stage and hatching (Roberts 1988, Roberts and White 1992). Timing of fry emergence varies among streams and among years in Montana (Kelly 1993) and in Wisconsin (Table 1). Eyed eggs were found in brown trout redds in late December to early February in Trout Creek, Wisconsin (Avery 1980), and in brook trout redds in Spring Creek, Oneida County as late as March 29 (Brasch 1949). This suggests eggs develop more slowly in northern Wisconsin streams, and are more susceptible to mortality by wading anglers later in the spring.Brook and brown trout fry are susceptible to mortality from angler wading during the early trout season because they emerge from January through early-May in Wisconsin. Rainbow trout fry are not susceptible to angler wading during the early season because they emerge from May through June, peaking in mid June. Emergence of brown trout fry from the nest ranged from mid-March through early May in Emmons Creek (Avery and Niermeyer 1999), and peaked in Trout creek during February and March (Avery 1980). Brook trout fry emerged from mid-January through mid-March (Hausle 1973), and from early-February through early-May in Lawrence Creek (Miller 1970). Carline (1971, 1973) also found sac fry in brook trout redds in February and March in Langlade County spring ponds.Table 1. Presence of trout eggs and fry, and emergence of trout from spawning redds.



There are few scientific studies of the direct relationship between angler wading and mortality of trout eggs and fry, based on a recent literature search and contacts of prominent trout experts in mid-western and western U.S. In a laboratory study using treatment and controls, mortality from a single wading event ranged from 2.8% to 37.4% on brown trout and from 7.1% to 52.9% on rainbow trout eggs; depending on the stage of egg development when wading occurred (Roberts and White 1992) (Table 2). Twice daily wading from egg fertilization to fry emergence resulted in 89% mortality for brown trout and 96% mortality for rainbow trout; the highest wading mortality of brown and rainbow trout was during the period between hatching and emergence. Roberts and White (1992) suggested ?wading be restricted to protect resident trout only in situations where the population is limited by lack of spawning habitat and where intensive angler wading in spawning areas occurs during the stage of development between egg and pre-emergent fry?.Table 2. Mortality of trout eggs and fry from angler wading on redds1.

[Silver Creek]

I also have a copy of correspondence between Larry Clagett, the head of trout fisheries and Ed Avery, the leading trout authority in Wisconsin at the time of this letter:


"Dear Larry,

Mike Staggs has asked me to respond to Lee Kernen's request (memo dated
1-6-95) for information on damage to trout redds that might be caused by
wading anglers during an early trout season. I will address the following
two questions:


(1) What dates are redds vulnerable to damage, and
(2) What mortality is actually caused by wading and how that might
affect trout reproduction.


COMMENTS RELATIVE TO QUESTION #1


Miller (1970) based the emergence period of brook trout fry in Lawrence Creek on intensive fry collection along the stream edge. *The emergence began the first week in February and continues through the first week of May with the peak emergence occuring in March*. Hausle (1973) found live eggs and sac-fry in brook trout redds excavated between December 28 and March 16 in Lawrence Creek. Carlin (1971, 1973) and Brash (1949) found both eyed eggs and sac fry in numerous brook trout redds excavated in February and March in redds excavated in February and March in Langlade County spring ponds. Brash (1949) found mostly eyed-eggs with only a few sac fry in brook trout redds excavated in Spring Creek in Oneida County in March 10 and 29. *This suggests slower egg development in northern Wisconsin Streams due to the longer winter and colder water temperatures*.


Relative to the brown trout emergence period, eyed-egg fry and sac fry were found in brown trout redds excavated in late December, mid and late January, and early February in Trout Creek (Avery 1980). Small fry were observed swimming along the stream as early as January 28. I would think that *peak emergence would have occured in late February or March*. Anderson (1983) found that the emergence period for two southeastern Minnesota streams occurred from mid-March through mid-April. Hansen (1975) cites the hatching period of brown trout in a lower Michigan trout streams as extending from February 2 to March 22. He did not define whether "hatching" and "emergence" were synonymous.


**CONCLUSION: Based on my observations and the information presented above, I believe trout eggs and sac fry would be susceptible to damage by angler-wading from October through mid-April.**


COMMENTS RELATIVE TO QUESTION #2

Brief conclusions pertinent to WI trout streams from Roberts (198

Lab studies documented mortality from a single wading event ranged from 2,8% to 37.4% on brown trout and from 7.1% to 52.9% on rainbow trout, depending on the stage of development when the wading event occurred.

Twice daily wading from egg fertilization to fry emergence resulted in 89% mortality for brown trout and 98% mortality for rainbow trout. Although wading from fertilization to emergence always resulted in the highest mortality, wading related mortality is lowest in the pre eye-up period of development and *most detrimental from eye-up to emergence*. The highest wading-related mortality of both brown trout and rainbow trout was between hatching and emergence.


**CONCLUSION: The potential for wading-related mortality to brown trout and brook trout in Wisconsin would exist from the time of egg deposition to the last emergence of fry from the redds, i.e., from October to at least mid-April**.


**FINALLY, .....I do not believe that even this restrictive fishery (he is refering here to the early catch and release season) would be in the best interest of the trout resource, unless it was further confined to primarily stocked waters supporting little if any natural reproduction**. The DNR adopted a 5-category system of trout angling regulation in 1990 to more fully utilize the resource from over harvest. The verdict is still out on particulary this latter objective. **Creating an additional scenario, such as an early trout season, can only increase trout mortality via hooking and trompling of redds by anglers**.


Sincerely,

Ed L. Avery
Trout Research Biologist

cc:Lee Kernen FM
Mike Staggs RS
John Lyons RS
Bob Hunt"


See the following paper below that addresses angler damage to future trout population by wading after spawning and before fry escapement from the reeds.


Effects of Angler Wading on Survival of Trout Eggs and Pre-emergent Fry


"Twice-daily wading throughout development killed up to 96% of eggs and pre-emergent fry. A single wading just before hatching killed up to 43%"


ftp://ftp.pcouncil.org/pub/Salmon%20...amett_2009.pdf


"During the 14?21-d grazing period, 15?83% of the simulated redds were affected by trampling. When the control period was standardized to the same time period as the treatment, cattle were found to be responsible for affecting 12?78% of simulated redds and breaking 6?49% of the clay targets."

[spinner1]

Regs look like they are changing in 2013 unless gov walker is recalled. Nothing in 2012 regs to change Mitro told me.
Myself I would like one thing for sure changed. season should be extended for all anglers through the month of October.
I could do without the month of March...have it start April 01....It still makes it 5 months closed...

[Silver Creek]

The Wolf River is open into October becasue very few trout spawn in the Wolf. They go up the tribs.

I think fishing could be selectively extended to those parts of rivers that have very little fall spawning. In my part of Wisconsin, the early season is limited to those sections of the Plover and Prarie rivers than are below the areas that are used for spawning. I see no harm in that.

[bobbyg]

I wouldn't live there, unless it was my homeplace and family and friends reside there?

p.s. Silver Creek, thanks for giving me my usual headache when reading one of your verbose posts!