Free fishing weekend Jan. 18-19, 2014; video and posters available to help promote
MADISON - Wisconsin’s second annual winter Free Fishing Weekend is set for Jan. 18-19, 2014. No fishing license or Great Lakes salmon stamp is needed to fish any Wisconsin water. This includes all inland waters and Wisconsin's side of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River and other boundary waters. Other fishing rules apply, such as limits on the number and size of fish anglers can keep and any seasons when anglers must release certain fish species.
“Ice fishing is a great way to get outside during the winter and to fish anywhere without a boat,” says Theresa Stabo, Wisconsin’s angler education director. “Free Fishing Weekend is a great time to discover what it’s all about – fun with friends and family and, of course, the fish.”
Stabo encourages fishing groups, local chambers of commerce, youth group leaders and others to consider hosting their own Free Fishing Weekend events and to fill out an electronic form with their event details so DNR can help publicize those events that are open to the public. DNR tackle loaner sites have ice fishing gear for loan that groups and individuals can use, and the agency can supply limited quantities of age appropriate materials about ice fishing, fish populations, and fishing in general.
Posters are also available to download, print off and post to help promote Free Fishing Weekend:
All materials are available on DNR’s Free Fishing Weekend web page, along with information to help people borrow ice fishing equipment from DNR offices and parks. Go to dnr.wi.gov and search “Free Fishing Weekend.”
Wisconsin ice fishing fast facts
- An estimated 590,700 Wisconsinites 16 and older report ice fishing, up from 479,100 in 2000-1 and 496,900 in 1994-5.
- Ice fishing trails only sledding, snowmobiling and ice skating outdoors as the most popular of outdoor winter ice and snow sports.
- Anglers spent 11 million hours ice fishing in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available. That's 21 percent of the total 52 million hours spent fishing across all of the 2006-7 license year.
- Anglers reported catching 14 million fish while ice fishing, and keeping 6.6 million of them, or less than half. During the open water season, about one-third of all fish caught are kept.
- Panfish, northern pike and walleye, are the top species caught, in order, with 11.7 million, 866,000, and 750,000, respectively.
- In 2011 there were 122 ice fishing tournaments held in the state. For 2012 so far there are 56 approved permits, with likely many more to come in as folks continue to submit applications.
Sources: DNR statewide mail survey of anglers during 2006-7 license year; 2011-16 SCORP
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Theresa Stabo, 608-266-2272