with Al Brown

This past Saturday, I traveled to Stevens Point to attend the Wisconsin Conservation Congress’ Warm Water Study Committee meeting to which I’m a voting delegate. I sat patiently through six hours studying and voting on 29 resolutions written and forwarded from various counties passed at county wide spring hearings held throughout Wisconsin this past April.

Approximately half of all resolutions submitted per- tained to lowering panfish bag limits to 10 in aggregate or 10 of any one particular species contained in 25 in aggregate on various statewide lakes.

Each year panfish regula tions seem to take up a greater share of committee discussion than other species of fish. More and more of the general population appears concerned about over bagging of the states pan- fish population.

DNR ovcials in attendance at the meeting discussed the current status of ongoing pan- fish research. The panfish team is currently evaluating a 25 aggregate bag limit with no more than 10 of any species as part of their evaluation of experimental regulations. The goal of that experiment is to identify which of three experimental regulations being tested provides substantial size structure improvement for bluegill and black crappie populations.

In their initial evaluation the 25/10 bag limit did not provide substantial size structure improvement. The experiment is not yet complete, so results could change, but given the initial result and the fact that this is still part of an ongoing experiment the DNR panfish team does not support a 25/10 proposal at this time. Howev- er, the yearly 15 panfish and aggregate – 5 of each species experiment is the only experiment at this time showing in- creased panfish growth rates.

In response to two proposed resolutions regarding a statewide 10 bag panfish rule, the DNR issued the following statement to the Warm Water Study Committee. “Given the popularity of individual 10 bag limits on panfish, in 2021 the panfish team discussed the idea of proposing the 10 bag limit as a statewide default regulation and moving the 25 bag limit to an alternate, tool box regulation. We decided not to proceed on that proposal for a few reasons. First, although the concerns about technology and over harvest listed in these questions are valid and we are seeing an increase in ice fish – ing pressure for panfish, there are still many lakes statewide with stunted panfish-which is the opposite of being over harvested. Moreover, stunted pan- fish tend to be on small lakes where the DNR does not often have the resources or time to adequately survey. Given that the DNR requires lake-specific data to support shifting a regulation from a statewide default to an alternate regulation, they worry if they shifted to a 10 bag statewide regulation, citizens and biologists who want to go back to a 25 bag limit on specific lakes wouldn't have or be able to collect the data to support the alternate regulation.”

A proposed resolution concerning Mead Lake was submitted by Clark County which I shared in a recent Tracks and Trails article. The resolution was regarding a regulation of 25 panfish in aggregate of which no more than 10 of any one species can be harvested .

According to the Department of Natural Resources, such a rule is still experimental at this time and is currently being evaluated by the DNR pan- fish team in the Experimental Panfish Study. Therefore, this regulation would not be able to potentially be considered for use until the results of a regulation study have been analyzed.

According to the DNR fish biologists representing Clark County, a comprehensive fish eries survey was performed by DNR fisheries stau on Mead Lake in 2021. The assessment of the panfish population sug gests that restricting harvest to a bag limit lower than the 25 daily panfish bag limit would not increase yellow perch or black crappie growth rates of size structure, but most likely decrease both due to the high abundance and densities of panfish. The study compared the abundance of yellow perch, black crappie and bluegill in Mead Lake to their respective abundances by percentile to all lakes within the complexwarm- dark lake class. Results show that yellow perch are above the 90th percentile for abundance and black crappie are above the 95th percentile in Mead Lake which documents a high abundance of both species. Bluegill abundance was documented to be between the 40th and 50th percentiles, which documents a near average abundance across the complex-warm-dark lake class. The growth rate of black crappie in Mead Lake is below both the statewide and complexwarm- dark lake class averages, suggesting that the high abundance of black crappies may be hindering growth due to density dependence. The growth rate of yellow perch up to age 6 varies from below to above average in comparison to the statewide and complex-warmdark lake class averages. However, yellow perch growth rates after age 6 is below average likely due to their high abundance and density dependence.

Bluegill growth in Mead Lake is near or above average until reaching the age of 8.

After discussion, the Clark County resolution regarding Mead Lake was forwarded to be voted upon and discussed at the statewide 2023 Conservation Congress Hearings to be held in April.

Another resolution submitted by Chippewa County and forwarded to the Warm Water Committee suggested a 10 panfish/crappie bag limit decrease on Lake Wissota and the Lower Chippewa River.

The committee did forward the resolution to be voted upon at the statewide 2023 Spring Conservation Congress Hearings held in April. According to Joe Gerbyshak, DNR fish bi ologist representing Chippewa County, recent fishery survey information, bluegill and black crappie populations have been stable or increasing in Lake Wissota over the past decade and are at healthy levels. The Eau Claire fisheries team will continue to monitor panfish populations on Lake Wissota and make regulation changes in the future if necessary.

The committee would like to remind everyone that after the results of the DNR’s Ex- perimental Panfish Regulations Study which sunsets in 2026, (10 year study) the DNR will make recommendations as to panfish bag limits on a number of statewide lakes.