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Wisconsin · Walleye, sauger and hybrids

Can you keep a walleye, sauger and hybrids in Wisconsin?

Yes, with limits

Lake Winnebago (and the wider Winnebago Chain: Lake Butte des Morts, Lake Poygan, Lake Winneconne, Partridge Crop Lake, Partridge Lake, Cincoe Lake)

Open year-round
Size
No size limit stated
total length
Daily bag
3
per person per day, walleye/sauger/hybrids combined, only 1 of which may be a sauger or hybrid; this bag is shared system-wide across the entire Winnebago Chain, not just Lake Winnebago itself

No minimum size at all on this system, unusual for a walleye fishery this well known - the WDNR's own lake-regulation lookup confirms it explicitly rather than the general handbook's statewide default. Catching a limit here and then fishing another Winnebago Chain lake the same day does not grant a second bag - the DNR's total-daily-bag rule caps the combined take at 5 walleye/sauger/hybrids across all waters fished that day.

WDNR source page

Geneva Lake

Open today
Size
18 inches and up
total length
Daily bag
3
per person per day, walleye/sauger/hybrids combined

Closes each year Closed March 8 through May 1 to protect spring-spawning walleye; season reopens May 2. Unlike this lake's bass rule, there is no catch-and-release carve-out during this closure.

An 18-inch minimum here, well above Lake Winnebago's no-minimum rule 65 miles north - two very differently managed walleye fisheries within the same state and the same Fangregel-Silo.

WDNR source page

What we left out on purpose

Other species in Wisconsin

Where to try today