Family-Outdoors

Warming temperatures throughout Wisconsin this week should make for a great bite when the general inland fishing season gets underway on Saturday, May 7. DNR southern fisheries supervisor David Rowe holds a northern pike netted during a musky survey on Lake Monona in Dane County. Photo Credit: DNR Justine Hasz, fisheries director for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said spring survey work on lakes and rivers around Wisconsin indicates healthy fish populations and great opportunities for anglers based on the walleye, bass, northern pike, panfish, trout, muskies and even catfish netted and promptly released by fisheries crew members in recent days. Lake Wissota, a 6,300 acre impoundment of the Chippewa River, is well known for its trophy musky. However, the catfish fishery has been gaining popularity and during the spring 2016 fisheries survey, flathead catfish over 20 pounds were a frequent occurrence with flatheads over 40 pounds not uncommon - including this one ...

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The Department of Natural Resources today announced that new muskellunge and northern pike regulations will go into effect for all anglers on April 1, 2013. In Michigan, only one muskellunge (including tiger muskellunge) may be harvested per season per angler. Anglers who would like to harvest muskellunge must have a new muskellunge harvest tag, available March 1, 2013. Anglers are not required to obtain this harvest tag to fish for muskellunge; it's only for those anglers that intend to harvest a muskellunge. Muskellunge harvest tags are free and available at all license vendors. Anglers who do not possess the tag are required to release all muskellunge they catch. The new tag will be used as a means to enforce the new possession limit statewide and will allow the DNR to monitor how many tags are provided to anglers and to provide insight on the level of harvest. Registration of muskellunge harvest is not a requirement, but it will help the D...

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The Michigan Department of Natural Resources' Southern Lake Michigan Management Unit in Fisheries Division will host a public meeting in the Kalamazoo area to discuss local fishing regulations. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 19, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Portage Library, located at 300 Library Lane. Several local regulation proposals will be discussed at the meeting, including the following: Remove Corey Lake (St. Joseph County) from the Type B Trout Lakes list. Increase muskellunge minimum size limit from 42 to 46 inches on Gun Lake (Barry County) to protect this naturally reproducing population. In addition, an overview of regulation changes for the 2013 fishing season will be presented, including the following: Northern pike size and bag limits. Muskellunge one fish per season harvest limit. Dip-netting season changes. For more information, contact Jay Wesley at  wesleyj@michigan.gov  or 269-685-6851, ext 117...

The state-record Great Lakes muskellunge caught by Joseph Seeberger of Portage, Mich., on Oct. 13, 2012, has now been listed as a world record by the International Committee of the Modern Day Muskellunge World Record Program (MDMWRP). MDMWRP is a committee of muskellunge scientists, industry leaders, anglers and outdoor media personalities that formed in 2006. The program facilitates the recording and verification of muskellunge world records, covering a current void of record availability to North American muskellunge anglers for fish in the 58- to 68-pound range. This range has been chosen because it is considered the maximum ultimate range of growth for this species. Prior to Seeberger's submission, there had not been a MDMWRP world-record entry verified. Seeberger caught the fish on Lake Bellaire in Antrim County. The DNR verified the record and documented that the fish weighed 58 pounds. Although the DNR did not measure the length (state records are determined by w...