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Cold and damp weather didn’t deter local anglers from hitting the lakes and rivers for the opening day of Wisconsin’s general inland fishing season.
Saturday was the first day that anglers could fish for muskies, northern pike, bass and walleyes on most Wisconsin waters. Don Roscovius, owner of Rosco’s Live Bait, said his store was a busy place Friday night and Saturday morning.
“We were super busy Saturday with fishermen coming in and out,” Roscovius said. “The weather didn’t seem to bother them.”
Roscovius said bluegills, which had been inactive due to a late spring, are finally starting to bite. He also said anglers were reporting good catches of largemouth bass and northern pike on area cranberry flowages.
Trout streams, however, were another story.
“Everybody seemed to be doing good on the trout ponds, but the streams are still pretty high,” Roscovius said. “The food was already in the streams. A lot of worms have been washed in, and that made it hard for people fishing with nightcrawlers.”
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources stocked inland lakes with nearly 600,000 rainbow, brown and brook trout. Another 110,000 trout will be stocked under cooperative fish rearing agreements with non-profit organizations around the state. The organizations take small trout fingerlings (less than 1-year-old) and grow them to legal size and larger for stocking. They provide the feed and labor to grow the fish and help the department stock the fish into waters approved by the local DNR biologist.
Anglers are advised to check the 2008-09 Wisconsin Trout Fishing Regulations and Guide for daily bag and size limits. The state’s inland trout season opens May 3 and runs through Sept. 30.
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