To get the harvest that low, the DNR, with the support of area anglers and the Rainy Lake Sportfishing Club, proposed a slot limit that requires anglers to release all walleyes between 17 inches and 25 inches and to keep no more than one over 25 inches. The experimental limit allows anglers to keep small fish to eat, along with one large trophy. Tough sell Such a walleye regulation is no easy sell. Anglers don t mind releasing feisty bass and muskies, because these species are caught for the fight. But walleyes are traditionally pursued to produce fillets.
Many anglers see no sense in catching just for fun a fish that often fights like a soggy towel.
Yet in 1986, at the suggestion of the local DNR fisheries crew, the sportfishing club began promoting voluntary catch and release as a way to improve flagging fish stocks. At first most anglers balked. Then in 1988 the club began offering a free fishing cap to anyone who released one or more fish in the slot limit. Catch and release caught on. That first year we gave out only 450 hats, says club president Dave Peterson.