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When Wisconsin went "rogue" and opted to stock more kings, stop lake trout stocking in Wisconsin waters and up the daily limit to five per day, the new regs were in effect only on a temporary basis. "Temporary" is over on Dec. 31 so on New Years day strict catch limits on lake trout as well as a season will be the "law of the lake" until/unless the Wisconsin peeps change the law once again. Here's the release. Only time will tell.

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will reimplement a lake trout bag limit and season for Lake Michigan beginning Jan. 1, 2021. The new bag limit and season will mirror previous lake trout regulations. The open season will now run from Mar. 1 to Oct. 31 with a new daily bag limit of two lake trout.

In 2017, the DNR implemented temporary Lake Michigan lake trout regulations in response to stakeholder input requesting additional harvest opportunities. These temporary regulations included a year-round season with a daily bag limit of five lake trout.

These regulations were made permanent in 2018 by the Natural Resources Board and expire on Jan. 1, 2021. This sunset clause allowed the DNR to appropriately assess the regulations and ensure they did not negatively impact Lake Michigan lake trout restoration efforts.

Based on the positive Lake Michigan lake trout data and continued stakeholder support for revised lake trout regulations, the DNR will be pursuing permanent regulations for lake trout, including a continuous year-round open season and a daily bag limit of five lake trout.

The pursuit of revised Lake Michigan lake trout regulations will occur in early 2021, and if approved, would be implemented by the summer of 2021.

However, until permanent regulations are developed, an open season from Mar. 1 to Oct. 31 and a daily bag limit of two lake trout will be implemented on Jan. 1, 2021.

More information on the upcoming reg changes is available here. [insert link to press release]

Thanks for posting this Mike,,
It appears that Wisconsin still is moving forward to make the 5 Laker rule permanent. They seem to have their ducks in a line on this one. When will Illinois and Indiana follow this?

We need larger king numbers to work with. No shortage of Lakers here.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recent press release has raised considerable concern about the upcoming season regarding the daily limit of lake trout. Under the emergency rule for the last 3 years we have been at a 5 lake trout limit and until a permanent rule is made it will go back to 2( short term) This is part of the rule making process. First there has to be a temporary rule (emergency rule) this is set in motion to prove that there is no detrimental effect to the resource. Once that period is complete the data is collected and then a permanent rule can be put into place. We have completed the temporary rule period during which creel data was collected and a determination has been made that there is nothing negative to the Lake Trout population in having the daily bag limit set at 5 per angler per day . Under a normal year, not the current Covid situation that we are dealing with, the permanent rule would have been before the Natural Resource Board to vote on making it a permanent rule. Because of the pandemic the Wisconsin government is behind on many issues. Throughout this entire process the WLBA has been involved to help insure that this becomes a permanent rule. Please take the time and read the entire press release.

The DNR assessed the regulations from 2017 through 2019. Although 2020 data has yet to be tabulated, the data indicates that sport angler lake trout harvest did not increase significantly. There is no indication that new regulations would negatively impact Lake Michigan lake trout populations.

A research group that is part of the Quantitative Research Center at Michigan State University is currently working on updating lake trout models. The DNR will develop appropriate, permanent regulations moving forward using the research group’s nearly completed project on a lake trout statistical catch-at-age (SCAA) model for Lake Michigan waters outside of the Consent Decree area, including Wisconsin waters and the Southern Basin.

Based on the positive Lake Michigan lake trout data and continued stakeholder support for revised lake trout regulations, the DNR will be pursuing permanent regulations for lake trout, including a continuous year-round open season and a daily bag limit of five lake trout.

The pursuit of revised Lake Michigan lake trout regulations will occur in early 2021, and if approved, would be implemented by the summer of 2021.