I'd rather them stay completely out of it. Set bag limits and move on.

Ya? And what if “they” set bag limits you didn’t like? Seems like yall really like it when they Willy nilly get to spraying the grass off.

AS YOU!!!!!!

"Public engagement" can be window dressing. Look no further than the Mille Lacs mess, there's all sorts of "public engagement" and none of it matters one bit. Set bag limits, or make slot restrictions or special regs on lakes you're trying to manage and leave the rest be.

And you're so wrong about the spawn. Timing of it doesn't change year to year up there based on weather, that's laughable. If you'd like I can give you a few waypoints where you'll find fish on beds June 1st every year from now until the end of time.....regardless of the weather, moon cycle, or anything else. Fact is, they have a limited time to spawn up there, and the closed season doesn't cover most of it. It's why 90% of tournaments in the late May and the first half of June are won with bedding fish.

Anyways, this is a Texas Fishing Forum....I've been surveyed a handful of times the last couple years on Fork, and a few other smaller lakes in East Texas. And they ask if I was using FFS, and how many fish I caught on it. So TPWD must be researching it as well....but they're doing some data collection first.

I actually don't even own a FFS unit....yet...but I do have a 360, beyond the idea of banning it, regulating/enforcing would be impossible. I find it hard for the WI DNR or any other to force me to take it off my boat should I decide to go fishing in that state.

And I think they will. In Texas, wouldn't be surprised to see a reduction of the crappie bag limit to 5-10 fish in the next few years.

1. The FFS discussion involves Wisconsin, where they have a very thorough transparent process you can involve yourself in regarding natural resources related issues. You might not like the outcome, but it isn’t government overreach. Your points about feasibility and enforcement are valid, so is someone’s desire to have it banned. Clearly someone wants to ban it, so they’re going through the process to try. Will it happen, probably not, but you can’t say trying to get something you want is a bad thing if you follow the established process of changing law. I’ll take grass roots advocacy over lining pockets of politicans any day. Not you?

2. Mille Lacs is in Minnesota not Wisconsin. Mille Lacs is a completely different topic of conversation regarding the Leech Lake band of Ojibwe tribe, who have legal rights to commercially harvest walleye, that’s a completely different ball of wax. The reality of it is there are plenty of other places to walleye fish in MN, and the tribe has more rights to the water than non-tribal people. That’s that, not much room for public involvement, it’s messed up a lot of small businesses and tourism. It isn’t stopping the bass fisherman, that actually probably helps the bass fisherman, way less boats on the water…

3. I was speaking most about walleye spawning sanctuaries, there are absolutely years where those closures protect a large amount of that spawn. This year will be an early spawn, you might be able to get a spawned out female and a bunch of males out of those areas areas once they open back up. But the days of catching a female full of eggs is over. Read about the MN state record walleye, that fish had eggs rolling out of her, and was caught in a specific area on Sag you can’t fish during that time period, and when they are done spawning, they aren’t there anymore, it’s a real
Thing. It absolutely helps. It’s literally shooting fish in a barrel if it was open during the spawn. Walleye don’t spawn in beds, and they are very vulnerable during spawning. You can find these sanctuary areas throughout the Midwest and Canada.

As for bass? What does it hurt? Can’t think of anything. A bass tournament? There is plenty of time for those. I’m not suggesting a southern state have seasons, as I’ve said before the latitude has a significant impact on spawning. That is science not opinion. Have a read.

3. I don’t want your bass waypoints in MN. Sight fishing smallmouth in MN isn’t something I do. They aren’t hard to find and once you do, you can catch them over and over again if you want with whatever bait you have. Tell me what is fun in that? I also don’t fish a tournament around that timeframe. I prefer to sight fish in TX, it’s more challenging there and doesn’t have the same impact on the fish for the reasons I’ve said earlier.

4. As for TPWD approach to surveying you about FFS, I don’t know enough about who was actually doing it, it could be some college funded grad project, who knows. FFS won’t be banned in WI or TX, but WI does have a good process to make changes if the PEOPLE want it, the government is not initiating it. I’ve heard some people while in TX brag about a 18B or so budget surplus, that my friends is government overreach that I would be upset about. The state took how much money they didn’t need from taxpayers? Debt isn’t good, but either is too much of your money in government’s hands. I’m not a fan of govt taking anymore money than they absolutely need

enjoy your next MN sight fishing smallmouth adventure

I was responding to you talking specifically about bass spawning in northern states. "Smallmouth especially are very vulnerable". The seasons you say are good, don't protect them at all was my only point. Hence, they are outdated and worthless. And you're correct, male smallmouth on beds are easy to catch. I didn't say that's what I love to do....my only point was that they're on beds way past the protected season.

Not a walleye forum, and not going down the rabbit hole of tribal rights, BUT, keep in mind that while WI "protects" walleye through spawning season. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of walleye are netted and taken out of WI lakes every year DURING THE SPAWN by the tribes. So....

Telling me I can't fish during a certain time of year, or I can't use a certain type of electronics is too far. We're not talking about banning certain live baits (invasive species) that could impact an eco-system, or using dynamite or other means that can hurt the system or are unsafe. If there's a season I can't harvest fish I'm totally fine with it....but don't tell me I can't fish at all. Don't tell me I can't use electronics. THAT is an over-reach, regardless of how "transparent" the process has been.

Set harvest seasons and limits, work to enforce them as best you can, and be done with it.

Off my soap box now.

Highly agree!!!

1. In comparison to southern bass, northern states bass have a narrower window of time spawn and have successful recruitment. So they are more vulnerable in comparison to fish in the south. If you want to dig deeper, those easy males are what are most important, they are guarding beds. I wouldn’t care if they made it illegal to target bass in Minnesota until July 1. I hope they do.

2. Good luck trying to make change what rights the tribes have. Whether you like it or not. Minnesota got rid of their once and a lifetime tags for moose years ago, there are hardly any moose left. You think that stopped the tribes?

3. You’re comparing apples to oranges. Seasons don’t make sense in the south, that is why they don’t have them, don’t think it’s because they’re just doing you a big favor letting you fish year around.

If a sport fish in Texas only spawned in very specific spots on fork I’m talking less than 1% of the lake, and they only had 3 weeks do it, and almost all the fish were in those areas during that time especially the big ones, and there was no stocking, you wouldn’t be allowed to fish during that time either, it wouldn’t sustain, it’s real.

Texas’s situation is different because it is closer to the equator not because TPWD is working some sort of miracle. Bass in some Texas lakes have months to spawn. Fish for them and tote them around in livewells all you want. In fact keep them, so they thin out and grow bigger for me to target. A lot of tx lakes are overpopulated for trophies imo.

As for fishing regulations, every state has a pile of them. Little books full of them. How many rods you can fish with, hooks, etc etc. it has nothing to do with safety. I personally think it’s great that Wi residents get to be involved in removing, adding, subtracting rules from their book.