Wisconsin can now set special walleye bag and size limits faster

Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board adopted a final rule Wednesday that lets the Department of Natural Resources put special walleye bag and size limits on a lake without waiting out ordinary rulemaking. The department has said that process can take more than two years, which is too slow when natural reproduction drops suddenly.

Kari Lee-Zimmerman, the DNR’s fisheries regulations and policy specialist, said the package is a one-fish-a-day bag, an 18-inch minimum, and no keep from 22 to 28 inches — the fish most likely to spawn. The department could move to those limits where most surveys over the past five years found fewer than 15 juvenile walleye per mile. The same limits have already been used on the Minocqua Chain and four other lakes in Oneida and Vilas counties.

Mark Luehring, inland fisheries section leader at the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, told the board the faster process lets the state and the tribes act together. Walleye — ogaa in Ojibwe — are culturally significant to northern Wisconsin tribes and one of the first foods used in ceremonies. GLIFWC works with 11 tribes in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Luehring said tribes can already reduce harvest when these conditions show up, and the state would now be able to do the same on a short clock.

Walleye numbers have been falling across the state, especially since 2000. Warming is part of the long picture, but a study last year found that fishing can outweigh warming on many Wisconsin lakes, which is the argument for cutting harvest. Walleye remain a favorite sport fish, and sport fishing generates more than $2 billion a year in the state. Separately, the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa tried earlier this year to limit walleye and musky fishing on almost 20 reservation lakes to tribal members, citing critically low populations. The state sued, a federal judge barred that restriction, and the tribe has appealed to the Seventh Circuit.

Photo: Wisconsin DNR, via WPR.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: WPR — Special bag and size limits approved to aid struggling walleye populations in Wisconsin (Danielle Kaeding, Sept. 24, 2026).