Preliminary 2024 tribal harvest data available

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently released tribal fish harvest data for the 2024 spearing season. In the spring of each year, the tribes exercise their treaty-given rights to harvest fish by spearing in lakes in the Ceded Territories. The tribal harvest season begins shortly after ice-out. The six Ojibwe tribes of Wisconsin may legally harvest walleyes through the use of several high-efficiency methods, but spearing is the most frequently used, according to the DNR.

Every spring, each tribe declares the lakes on which it will allow tribal harvest and the number of walleyes and muskies they intend to let Tribal members take from each lake. Shortly after ice-out, nightly spearing permits are issued to individual tribal spearers. According to the DNR website, each permit allows a specific number of walleye to be harvested, which includes one fish between 20 and 24 inches and one additional fish of any size. Each fish harvested each night is documented by a tribal creel clerk or a DNR warden who is present at each boat landing. Once the declared harvest is reached on a lake, no more permits are issued for that lake.

Tribal declarations are based on what is called the “safe harvest” for each lake. Safe harvest is based on the total allowable catch (TAC) for a lake. 

TAC is the number of fish that can be taken from a lake by both tribal and state-licensed angler harvest without endangering the population of fish in the lake. Safe harvest is calculated as a percentage of TAC. 

The safe harvest is set in such a way that there is less than a one in 40 chance that more than 35 percent of the adult walleye population in a lake will be harvested in total.

In lakes where a recent adult walleye population estimate exists, that estimate is used to set that safe harvest number. However, due to the sheer number of lakes in the Ceded Territory, it is not possible to conduct a population estimate on every lake in a two-year period. For those lakes where a population estimate has not been done in the past two years, a statistical model is used to calculate safe harvest. According to the DNR, the use of this model results in a more conservative safe harvest number.

This year, tribal harvest occurred on just under 190 waterbodies in 20 counties in the Ceded Territory. Tribal fishermen harvested 38,825 walleyes and 262 muskies in total. Creel surveys also showed 52 northern pike, 128 bass, 185 panfish, 13 suckers and 17 sturgeon were taken during the tribal harvest season.

In Oneida County, tribal harvest accounted for 7,439 walleyes, 62 musky, seven northern, five bass, 15 panfish, two suckers. Thirty-five lakes in the county experienced tribal harvest in 2024. By far the largest number of walleyes was taken from the Willow Flowage, at 1,853.

In Vilas County, 67 lakes received tribal harvest. County-wide, 12,029 walleyes and 119 musky were harvested. Also harvested through Tribal efforts were eight pike, seven bass, 47 crappies and six suckers. Trout Lake and the Twin Lakes Chain received the highest tribal harvest pressure with 1,251 and 1,230 fish taken from those two lakes, respectively.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].