- Jack Thomson shows off a bass he caught. The 12-year-old from Fall Creek proposed changes to a fishing regulation at the Conservation Congress hearing on April 11 in Eau Claire.

It was an unusually warm day in late March, and Jack Thomson thought it would be a good time to try out a new bass fishing rod he had received for Christmas on the Fall Creek pond.

Thomson, a 12-year-old who lives in Fall Creek, knew the general fishing opener for game fish was not until early May. But he planned to release any bass he caught immediately so he didn’t think there would be a problem.

Then Jack’s dad, Ken Thomson, seeing what young Jack was up to, explained that it was not legal in Wisconsin to fish for bass between the game fish closing date in early March and the general fishing opener in May — this year on May 7 — even if you immediately released all fish.

Ken Thomson is quite familiar with the state’s fish and game laws. He is the state Department of Natural Resources conservation warden for eastern Eau Claire County. He noted that early catch-and-release fishing is allowed in the state for trout.

“That’s a stupid law,” Jack observed.

In the father-son discussion that followed, Thomson pointed out that there is a mechanism in Wisconsin for any citizen to try and change the conservation laws. Anybody can submit a resolution from the floor at the annual fish and game hearings. To be elected to serve as a county delegate to the Conservation Congress, a person must be at least 18, but there is no age limit for proposing resolutions.

The DNR website, dnr.wi.gov, contains information about how to go about writing a proposed resolution. Jack wrote his on his home computer. 

“My dad said you had to follow a certain template,” Jack said. “We looked it up.” 

Jack discussed his proposal to allow catch-and-release bass fishing with artificial bait between the close of game fish season and the general fishing opener with his fishing friends and found strong support among the 12-year-old demographic.

A couple of days before the April 11 spring hearings, Jack sent his resolution to Dennis Vanden Bloomen, chairman of the Eau Claire County delegates to the Conservation Congress. Local resolutions must be submitted before the hearings begin. 

Vanden Bloomen said he tweaked a few parts of the proposal but he didn’t need to do much. 

“He pretty much wrote it himself,” Vanden Bloomen said of the resolution.

Questions, answers

Jack’s bass resolution was the only one introduced from the floor during this year’s Conservation Congress meeting in Eau Claire County. 

When it came time for his resolution to be discussed, Jack walked to the front of the room in front of those assembled there to answer questions about it. 

He didn’t show any trepidation despite being the youngest person in the room by several decades. But Jack said he felt otherwise.

“Yes, I was nervous,” he acknowledged after the event.

The meeting had been polite, but people attending had not been shy about offering differing opinions regarding Jack’s proposal.

“I knew there would be some questions,” he said.

There were.

Although catch-and-release fishing has been embraced by many anglers as a way of protecting game fish populations in a time of high fishing pressure and improving equipment, it is viewed by some anglers and others as stressing fish for no good reason.

The first person to comment on the resolution said the DNR considers shining deer to be harassing the animals, and catching and releasing bass amounted to the same thing.

Vanden Bloomen helped clarify some questions and said shining and catch-and-release fishing were not exactly parallel comparisons.

Proposal backed

Jerry Merryfield, an Eau Claire County delegate and a member of the Congress’ Warm Water Fish Committee, noted that bass, particularly largemouth bass, are doing well in Wisconsin. 

In some northern lakes the populations have grown to the point where the bass now have stunted growth. Catching and releasing that species of fish in the spring is not going to affect their populations, he said.

Others noted that catch-and-release fishing in spring would not interfere with bass spawning because bass spawn well after the May opener. 

 Current rules prevent anglers from keeping bass in the northern zone — roughly the northern one-fourth of the state — until mid-June this year in order to protect bass on the spawning beds. Catch-and-release bass fishing is allowed in the northern zone from the general opener until June 7.

After more discussion, Jack’s bass resolution was approved by a 34-9 vote. The crowd had dwindled somewhat by the time the vote was taken.

The next step for Jack’s proposal is for it to be considered by the Warm Water Fish Committee. If it is referred on by that group, it likely will be an advisory question statewide at next spring’s Conservation Congress hearings, probably with some additional fine-tuning. 

If the measure is supported statewide, it may come back the following spring as a rule proposal to be voted on. And if the measure garners statewide support, it would have a strong chance of being approved by the Natural Resources Board and becoming a state law.

Spring fishing

Ken Thomson said his son is not the only angler to assume that if they are releasing bass when they catch them out of season, it’s OK to target them them before the May opener. 

If anglers are fishing for crappies with a small jig and occasionally catching and releasing a bass, there is no problem. But if they are using larger baits and clearly targeting bass, they are not complying with the rules.

“You always use discretion. Each situation is a little different,” Ken Thomson said. “But if somebody is fishing and they are throwing a big crankbait, it’s pretty obvious they are not fishing for crappies or perch.”

Until the May 7 opener, Jack is restricting his fishing to panfish. But he strongly believes not being able to catch-and-release bass in the spring is a lost recreational opportunity for anglers.

“These past couple years I’ve been really getting into bass fishing,” he said. “When you’re crappie fishing or something and you catch a bass, it just makes you wish you could be bass fishing.”

Like many serious bass anglers, Jack releases all the bass he catches, regardless of the time of year, so that would not be an adjustment, he said.

“I can’t recall keeping a bass all last summer,” he said.

Knight is a correspondent from the town of Seymour. He can be reached at jmktrout@gmail.com.