MADISON – It’s not everybody’s idea of fun, but it fits the bill perfectly for nearly half a million Wisconsin adults every winter.In a new video available on the Department of Natural Resources Web site “Ice Fishing: My Kind of Fun,” an angler fishing one of the popular Madison area lakes explains his enjoyment of the sport.
In 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available, anglers spent 11 million hours sitting on an overturned bucket or shacked up in an ice shanty, waiting for a red flag to fly.
They caught 14 million fish and kept just under half of them, according to a statewide mail survey of anglers the DNR conducted in 2006.
In winter, as in summer, panfish rule, says Brian Weigel, the Department of Natural Resources fisheries research scientist who analyzed the survey responses. “A quick check of the numbers shows panfish, panfish, panfish by far.”
Anglers caught about 11.7 million panfish during the ice fishing season and kept a higher proportion of them, nearly half, than in the open water season. The same pattern held true for walleye, northern pike and bass, Weigel says.
More information on ice fishing and fishing conditions to help the veteran angler as well as the novice can be found on DNR’s ice fishing pages.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE FISH SURVEY CONTACT: Brian Weigel - (608) 221-6326
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