With most hunting and fishing licenses expiring on Wednesday, those wanting to use Wisconsin’s fishing waters are buying their licenses for the 2021-2022 fishing season. While the new fishing licenses have been on sale since March 1st, most fishing seasons start up the first weekend of May. With rules always being evaluated, there are some changes. Door County DNR Conservation Warden, Chris Kratcha says the regulation book’s “What’s New” section will show what fishers need to know, but there are a couple changes that will affect fishing in Door County. 

This year’s Lake Trout season on Lake Michigan, which runs from March 1st until October 31st, has been changed to a bag limit of two. The season most recently ran year round and had a bag limit of five to include other trout and salmon.

One point of emphasis for the DNR this year is ending the use of roundgoby, an invasive species, for bait. These small fish can reproduce multiple times in a year and do no favors to the game fish population in the Great Lakes. 

While data on this year’s fishing license sales is limited, Kratcha expects that license sales will continue to trend upward.