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Emergency lake trout rule proposed
Paul A. Smith , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 6:45 p.m. CST November 26, 2016
Lake trout
(Photo: Photo courtesy of the USFWS Midwest)
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Lake trout would be open to sport harvest year-round in most of Lake Michigan, and for nine months on a previously closed mid-lake refuge, under a proposal released last week by the Department of Natural Resources.

In addition, the daily bag limit of lake trout would be increased to an unspecified number. It is currently two fish.

The changes are part of an emergency rule to be presented Dec. 14 to the Natural Resources Board.

They come in the wake of meetings held last summer to discuss trout and salmon stocking reductions and in an era of record low forage levels in Lake Michigan.

“The welfare of recreational angling businesses and recreational anglers is threatened by a decline in the alewife forage base,” the agency said in its scoping statement.

While natural resource managers in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois decided to reduce stocking of chinook salmon, the primary predator of alewives, the Wisconsin DNR was persuaded by a lobbying effort by charter captains and other businesses to keep chinook plants level but cut lake trout and brown trout.

Lake trout also consume alewives, but to a lesser extent than chinook.