Wisconsin Conservation Hearings: Voters OK April Opener for Trout

   Wisconsin could move its traditional trout-season opener from early May to early April next year, based on a landslide 63-37 percentage vote during mid-April’s annual conservation hearings.

   The inland-waters trout opener was one of many fishing-related changes the outdoor community supported during the statewide hearings, a joint effort by the Department of Natural Resources and the citizen-based Wisconsin Conservation Congress. Besides moving trout season’s opening day from the first Saturday in May to the first Saturday in April, voters also backed a 5-fish bag limit as the basic statewide trout regulation by a 60-40 margin. 

   They also OK’d 34 local and regional fishing-regulation changes for bag and size limits on trout, bass, walleyes, panfish and northern pike in scores of Wisconsin waters. To read those details and locations, visit this link: https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/about/wcc/springhearing.

   Participants in this spring’s hearings considered 74 proposals. The first 46 were recommended rules, meaning they could become law in 2026 if the WCC advances them to the NRB. If the NRB approves the rules, they advance to the state Senate for a final review and vote.

   The other 28 proposals on this year’s ballot sought advice only. If the WCC advances them, the DNR can place them on the April 2026 ballot as potential rules for 2027.

Participants who voted in Wisconsin’s fishing, hunting and conservation hearings want trout season to begin in early April instead of early May. — Patrick Durkin photo

   The WCC has 360 delegates, five from each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. The Congress is  legislatively sanctioned to advise the seven-member Natural Resources Board, which sets DNR policy.

   The DNR reported 1,802 attendants at the April 14 in-person hearings, which were held in each of Wisconsin’s 72 county seats. Another 7,474 citizens voted online April 14-16. Wisconsin residents made up 98% of this year’s 9,276 voters.

   This was the second straight year with in-person hearings after a four-year absence caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Though in-person attendance made up only 20% of April’s participants, it was 80% higher than a year ago when 1,001 people attended.

   Even so, this year’s combined attendance was the lowest turnout for the spring hearings since the DNR and WCC debuted online voting in 2019, and it marks the first time participation fell below 10,000 since that change. Combined attendance in April 2019 was 10,712, but participation jumped to a record 64,943 in April 2020, three weeks into the pandemic, when in-person voting wasn’t allowed for the first time in the hearings’ nearly century-long history.

   Also boosting 2020’s participation were several unpopular deer-season proposals by Greg Kazmierski and Fred Prehn, two former NRB members. After deer hunters rejected those ideas in 2020, attendance plunged 80% in 2021 to 12,641. In the seven years since online voting’s debut, the hearings have averaged 22,301 participants annually.

   In other closely watched proposals at April’s hearings, participants voted 58-42 to expand motor-trolling with three lines per angler on all inland waters in 67 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. Assuming the NRB approves the change, motor trolling with three lines will be allowed next year for the first time in Sawyer, Sheboygan and Waupaca counties. The five counties with one-line restrictions for motor trollers are Florence, Forest, Iron, Oneida counties and Vilas.

   In other pending changes from April’s hearings, the votes were …

   -- 65-35 to create a catch-and-release season for lake sturgeon on several river systems, opening the first Saturday in June and ending the first Sunday in March.

   -- 94-6 to prohibit fishing for shovelnose sturgeon during the species’ spawning season on the Lower Wisconsin River.

   -- 74-24 to let hunters leave nonedible parts of deer, bears and elk in the field rather than drag everything out of the woods. Hunters in Western states have always quartered or boned out their kills, packing out only the meat, antlers and hide.

   -- 62-38 to let disabled hunters hunt deer statewide in October during the two-day youth firearms season.

   In a likely a historical first for the spring hearings, voters approved all 74 proposals on this year’s questionnaire. Of those 74 items, 70 advanced during reviews May 8-10 at the WCC’s convention in Oshkosh. The WCC’s 360 delegates rejected these four proposals:

   -- Of 6,830 ballots cast, voters backed a proposal 66-34 to let trappers use cellular cameras to check and monitor traps. Likewise, 67 counties supported the idea, four opposed it and one tied. However, WCC convention delegates rejected the idea because the Wisconsin Trappers Association opposed it.

   -- Of 6,290 ballots cast, voters backed a WCC advisory proposal 58-42 to phase out lead in ammunition and fishing tackle, citing concerns that mammals, eagles, waterfowl, crows, ravens and even chickadees can die when ingesting lead shot and fragments from lead-core bullets. The county vote also supported the idea, 36-31-1, but WWC delegates rejected the proposal, citing reports that lead poisoning threatens only individual scavengers, not entire wildlife populations.

   -- Of 5,565 ballots cast, voters backed a WCC advisory proposal 64-36 to have the DNR create a nonlethal predator prevention program for farmers. The county vote favored the idea, 59-9-4, but WCC delegates rejected it, believing the program would be futile and costly.

   -- Of 5,806 ballots cast, voters backed a WCC advisory proposal 69-31 to create a sandhill crane stamp to pay farmers for crop damage. The county vote favored the idea, 69-2-1, but WCC delegates opposed creating another crop-abatement system.

   WCC delegates OK’d 14 other advisory questions, which means the proposal could return for a second vote in April 2026. Those proposals include:

   -- Increase the price of deer hunting license. 59-41 majority, 6,021 votes.

   -- Let DNR wardens enforce local ordinances on lakes. 79-21 majority, 5,957 votes.

   -- Protect lakes, streams, fish and wildlife from pollution caused by manure and commercial fertilizers. 79-21 majority, 5,926 votes.

   -- Require hunters to put ownership/identification labels on bear baits on public land. 77-23 majority, 5,803 votes.

   -- Create a general habitat conservation stamp. 64-36 majority, 5,716 votes.

   -- Extend the fall turkey season in zones 6 and 7. 76-24 majority, 5,634 votes.

   -- Create a K9 unit program for DNR conservation wardens. 74-26 majority, 5,627 votes.

   -- Develop requirements for hunting and fishing guides. 77-23 majority, 5,409 votes.

   -- Let hunters shoot white deer in Marathon, Portage, Wood, Jefferson and Winnebago counties. The measures passed by 60-40 or 61-39 majorities in all five counties.

   -- Require pipeline owners/operators to submit federally mandated spill notifications to the DNR’s remediation and redevelopment program. 90-10 majority, 5,331 votes.

   In other news from the WCC’s statewide convention, Rob Bohmann of Racine was re-elected as chairman; Paul Reith of Madison was re-elected vice-chair; Reed Kabelowsky of Manitowoc was elected secretary; and Kevin Schanning of Bayfield County and Mike Britton of Barron County were elected as at-large executive committee members.