WATERBURY, VT – A new fishing regulation designed to improve walleye fishing in Vermont will take effect in January of 2009. 

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board passed the statewide regulation based on recommendations from the public and state fisheries biologists with the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.  The new fishing rules will apply to all waters of Vermont except Lake Carmi and Chittenden Reservoir. 

Walleye and sauger will have an 18” minimum length and a 3-fish creel limit.  The open season will be from the first Saturday in May to March 15. 

The previous regulations for walleye on Lake Champlain included an 18” minimum length and a 5-fish creel limit, with an open season from the first Saturday in May to March 15.  There was no minimum length or bag limit on Lake Champlain for sauger, the smaller and rarer cousin of the walleye.  In most other waters of Vermont, the minimum length for walleye was 15” with a 5-fish creel limit and no closed season. 

Fish & Wildlife Department biologists gathered input at public meetings and through discussions with members of the Lake Champlain Walleye Association before proposing the rule change.  The Fish and Wildlife Board also held three public hearings during the rulemaking process.  The biologists and most members of the public who spoke believe the new regulation will improve walleye angling in Vermont.  Applying the same regulation statewide simplifies Vermont’s walleye fishing rules, helping anglers to understand and obey the law and helping wardens to enforce it.  Applying the 18” minimum length limit statewide will increase the chances that female walleye will have at least one opportunity to spawn before being removed by anglers.  The reduced creel limit may help spread harvest more evenly among anglers.  The statewide closed season will help protect walleye during the spawning period.  The new regulation also protects sauger, which seem to be increasingly rare in Lake Champlain.

Fishing rules on Lake Carmi and Chittenden Reservoir will not change in 2009.  Lake Carmi’s special slot limit for walleye was implemented because of the uniquely high productivity and high rate of walleye harvest in this lake, but fisheries biologists say this slot limit is not appropriate for most of Vermont’s waters.  Chittenden Reservoir has special walleye regulations in order to produce large walleye that can help control the over-abundant yellow perch population in that Reservoir and provide anglers with an opportunity to harvest a trophy walleye.  New Hampshire is responsible for the walleye regulations on the Connecticut River.