Photo by Ron Sinfelt

There's good news and bad news in Wisconsin's inland trout fishing picture for this season. Fortunately, the good news outweighs the bad. Let's consider some of the good news first.

Wisconsin has over 10,000 miles of streams that trout call home, and most of these remain in good shape. Our state's trout fishing regulations were completely revamped a year ago, reducing the number of stream categories from five to four, simplifying category-five regulations and adjusting regulations on certain streams. These new regulations have been in place for a year now, and it appears they are working well.

Habitat work continues to improve water quality and holding cover, adding miles of trout water each year. Since 1980, over 800 miles of trout water have been added, according to the latest edition of a Department of Natural Resources publication, Wisconsin Trout Streams.

Copies of the trout regulations are available at license outlets. The regulations guide, trout stream maps and Wisconsin Trout Streams can be downloaded from www.fishingwisconsin.org.

Now for the bad news.

Heavy rains last spring caused many streams to overflow their banks and made fishing next to impossible for weeks at a time. Except in a few cases where runoff caused excessive siltation, there was no serious damage done.

There were, however, several massive manure spills that caused major fish kills on high-quality trout streams that will take years to recover. Trout were killed in one mile of Smith Hollow Creek and 12 miles of Willow Creek in Richland County, and 10 miles of Otter Creek, a Lafayette County tributary to the Pecatonica River.

The worst news, however, was that DNR budget cuts pulled the plug on hatchery production of trout for stocking in inland streams. In a cost-saving measure, some brook, brown and rainbow trout raised at the Nevin, Osceola, St. Croix Falls and Bayfield hatcheries were stocked as small fingerlings in June 2003 instead of as large fingerlings in fall 2003 or in spring 2004 as yearlings, as originally planned.

Wisconsin's fish stocking database is now online. Log onto www.fishingwisconsin.org, look under "Wisconsin fish" and click on "fish stocking" to read a stocking report for a given body of water and fish species. The database will indicate which Class 2 and Class 3 trout waters are stocked.

Fortunately, those cuts affected only about 10 percent of state trout streams, where stocking is necessary to provide good fishing. In the vast majority of state streams, natural reproduction is adequate to maintain a fishable population of trout.

Wisconsin has three distinct trout seasons. The regular season opens at 5 a.m. on the first Saturday in May and closes on Sept. 30. There is an early season on selected streams that opens on the first Saturday in March and closes on the last Sunday before the first Saturday in May. In the early season, only artificial lures with single, barbless hooks may be used, and all fish must be released. There is also an extended season on a few streams from Oct. 1 through Nov. 15, during which only artificial lures may be used and all trout must be released. All three seasons apply to certain stretches of some streams, so check the regulations and look for signs at access points.

Let's look at some of our state's better trout streams that can provide good fishing year in and year out, regardless of stocking levels.