A growing number of Wisconsin lakes have no minimum size requirement for largemouth bass. The regulation encourages anglers to keep smaller bass and helps reduce the overpopulation of these fish.
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ST. CROIX FALLS – Ever since I learned to use a fishing pole to catch bluegill at a Racine-neighborhood pond as a toddler, I have never gone more than a month without fishing.
That’s one of the advantages of living in Wisconsin. There are opportunities to fish every day in every part of the state.
And over the years, I’ve developed a number of seasonal favorites. In late July or early August, I go on a largemouth bass fishing trip with my friend Mike Yurk of Hudson on a lake in northwest Wisconsin.
“What a sight for the eyes,” Yurk said on July 30 as I drove to the home he shares with his wife, Becky, also known as the “Bass Queen.” “I think I know a place where we can catch some fish.”
Yurk grew up in central Wisconsin, cut his teeth fishing on the Wolf River and Lake Winnebago, then joined the U.S. Army and traveled the world, serving in Europe and the southern United States, including Alabama and other states famous for bass fishing. He fished everywhere he went.
When Yurk retired after a 22-year military career, he and Becky settled in Hudson, where he discovered something about his home state.
The largemouth bass catch was better in northwest Wisconsin than any other place he had ever lived.
“It was one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises of my life,” Yurk said.
Yurk and I became friends after he settled in Wisconsin, and we met through our shared interests in fishing and writing. Yurk is a prolific author and has published 15 books, including four volumes of his column, “Notes from the Dockside.”
But I enjoy our summer trips not only because there are plenty of largemouth bass on many of the lakes in the region and it’s a chance to see an old friend. That would be enough, of course.
This page of the fishing calendar also offers an opportunity to highlight relatively new regulations that are helping to improve Wisconsin fisheries. And an opportunity to “selectively harvest” an under-utilized, sustainable source of wild protein.
For me, this fishing trip is a hit.
Yurk and I planned to go out and fish most of the day and keep a few largemouth bass for dinner later.
Our destination was Deer Lake, an 807-acre drainage lake near St. Croix Falls in western Polk County.
The lake has a large population of largemouth bass that is very slow growing. In 2018, special deer regulations were enacted to encourage hunting of bass under 14 inches long, the statewide minimum size.
Deer regulations do not specify a minimum size for largemouth bass, but all bass between 14 and 18 inches in length must be released. One largemouth bass over 18 inches may be kept as part of the daily bag quota of five.
However, I didn’t plan on keeping a big fish. My goal was three fish between 33 and almost 35 centimeters.
If you’ve never had bass, you should know that it’s in the same family as sunfish, such as smallmouth bass, and when prepared properly, it tastes just as good as the coveted sunfish.
We launched mid-morning and motored to the east end of the lake. After taking shelter under some oak trees on the shore during a cloudburst, we used a bow-mounted electric toll motor to make progress in about 7 feet of water. The position allowed us to cast toward docks and other shoreline structures, as well as a weed line in deeper water.
Our bait of choice was a 5-inch rubber worm in the “wacky style”, i.e. with a hook hooked in the middle.
When fished weightless, the worm is heavy enough to cast far and has a nice, slow sinking rate that is enticing and often proves irresistible to fish.
On our first casts we both caught a largemouth bass.
Both were in the 10-inch range and were released immediately.
But it was just a prelude to our day of fishing. It seemed the passing storm, lingering cloud cover and damp conditions had put the fish in a feeding mood.
At least every other cast resulted in a bite. Most resulted in a catch. The bass were between 6 and 15 inches long, most less than 11 inches.
Within the first 45 minutes I had three goalies in the 13-inch range. I quickly put them on the ice.
This action illustrates why the Deer Lake and a growing number of other Wisconsin waters have special regulations for largemouth bass fishing, and it’s also the reason I’ve started eating bass again.
I hadn’t kept a bass in Wisconsin for 30 years until I took a trip in 2013, also to a lake in northwest Wisconsin that had special regulations.
Largemouth bass have thrived in many of the region’s lakes – in some cases, too well for their own good.
Gradually, regulations were enacted on a group of lakes in the region to encourage anglers to retain green bass and hopefully help improve the size structure and other components of the fishery.
In 2012, for example, the minimum size limit for bass was lifted in most lakes in Burnett and Washburn counties.
After the 2013 trip and the resulting quality meal of trout fillets, I have made it a goal to fish at least one of the regulation lakes in northwest Wisconsin every year.
Deer Lake has a heavily developed shoreline, a maximum depth of 46 feet and an average depth of 26 feet.
A 2015 DNR fisheries assessment found that deer populations of largemouth bass were high, but they had a small size structure and low growth rates.
It had more bass per mile than 96% of Wisconsin lakes, but the number of bass 15 inches or larger placed it in the 17th percentile.
In 2015, the DNR estimated that it took a largemouth bass 9 years to reach 14 inches in length, 50% longer than the average in northern Wisconsin waters.
If the national minimum size of 14 inches for bass were maintained, very few largemouth bass would reach catchable size during their lifetime.
Therefore, the new regulation was introduced in 2018.
Such regulations can take years to take effect, if at all. One obvious part of the equation is anglers. If they don’t keep some (or many) of the largemouth bass under 14 inches, nothing will change.
Whether this will work for deer is not yet known. A fisheries survey will be conducted in the lake next year, said Kyle Broadway, senior fisheries biologist with the DNR, and more will be known soon after.
However, Broadway said the same regulations apply to another body of water in Polk County, Wapogasset Lake. A 2019 DNR electrofishing survey on Wapogasset found the average length of largemouth bass to be 12.7 inches, up from 9.1 inches in 2013.
Since the new regulations went into effect at the Wapogasset Golf Course, the largemouth bass population has declined slightly, but there have been significant improvements in size structure and growth, according to the DNR.
This is a good sign for other lakes in the region.
Yurk and I took a break at midday. The temperature was 28 degrees, a light southwest wind tickled the water and a light cloud cover helped to filter the sun.
As we drifted toward the middle of the lake, we ate liverwurst sandwiches for lunch and chatted.
It was clear that another local fish hunter was still at work.
About 100 meters to the west, an osprey circled close to the bank three times and then dived. When it came back into view after 15 seconds, it was carrying its lunch. The bird flew close enough to take a few photos; the fish seemed too long and slender.
Have the osprey helped reduce largemouth bass density in Deer Lake?
“She has a right of first refusal, don’t you think?” said Yurk.
After a 20-minute break, we started fishing on the same southeastern shore of the lake. A boat with water skiers was doing laps and three or four other boats with anglers were sailing other parts of the lake. Overall, the recreational pressure was very low.
We caught fish quickly again. In addition to the largemouth bass, we were also able to catch and release several sunfish and smallmouth bass.
There was no need to change the bait or tactics. Yurk mostly cast towards the bank and I mostly cast to a deeper weed edge.
After lunch the size structure was a little larger, with more fish over 14 inches.
We called it a day around 2:30 p.m. We had caught and released over 60 largemouth bass and each kept a handful.
In Wisconsin and other Midwestern states, walleye populations are not good, but trends indicate that largemouth bass populations are increasing and will likely thrive in the future.
That makes them prime candidates for “selective harvest.” If you can, try to establish an annual tradition by catching and keeping a largemouth bass or two from a Wisconsin lake that has regulations similar to those in Deer Lake.
I believe that you will enjoy the quality of the food as much as you enjoy fishing.
