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• DNR reminds anglers of new walleye limits on Cedar Lake
• St. Croix County wants state to pay up on jail costs for housing state prisoners

BALDWIN - With the opening of the inland fishing season Saturday anglers are reminded the walleye size and bag limit is changing on Cedar Lake, which lies in both Polk and St. Croix counties.

The new rule creates a 14-18 inch protected slot limit for walleye and decreases the daily bag limit from five fish to three.

Only one of the three fish in the bag can exceed 18 inches in length.

In other words, Cedar Lake walleye 14 to 18 inches long must be released immediately, said senior fisheries biologist Marty Engel of the state Department of Natural Resources.

Cedar Lake is a shallow, 1,107-acre drainage lake. Small walleye are numerous but adult fish larger than 15 inches, the standard size limit, are less common.

Though growth rates are average or better and reproduction strong, anglers complained of few legal fish and overly abundant small walleye.

The change in regulations is designed to improve the quality of the walleye harvest.

The slot limit will increase catch rates while protecting brood stock and increasing the number of trophy-sized walleye.

A bag limit of three is important, Engel said, to avoid catastrophic over-fishing events.

After working with DNR staff for years on the issue, local anglers approved the proposed change overwhelmingly at the 2006 spring fish and wildlife rules hearings and it was subsequently approved by the Natural Resources Board.

While slot size limits have become popular in Canada and Minnesota, less is known of their effectiveness in Wisconsin.

Preliminary results in Vilas County and elsewhere in Wisconsin, however, have been encouraging.

By Judy Wiff, Regional Editor

The St. Croix County Board is asking the state to pay its share for housing prisoners.

People in custody of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections for allegedly violating the requirements of parole or probation are regularly held in county jails awaiting court action.

Wisconsin law requires the DOC to pay counties $40 per person per day, if it has enough money to pay that. If not, payments to the counties are prorated.

Jail administrators say it costs St. Croix County $59 a day to house and feed each prisoner, so the county would be losing money even if the DOC paid the $40.

But it's not. In 2007 the state reimbursed the county at the rate of $32 per day.

In 2007 the county provided roughly 2,500 days of housing for DOC inmates.

According to county figures, under the statutory reimbursement rate, the county should have gotten over $20,000 more than it got last year, and it received $67,500 less than what it actually cost to house DOC prisoners.

According to the resolution adopted at the April 15 County Board meeting, "The state has continually and knowingly underfunded the (DOC), forcing the taxpayers of St. Croix County to subsidize the state for housing its prisoners "

Copies of the resolution adopted by the board will be forwarded to the National Association of Counties, the Wisconsin Counties Association, state legislators representing St. Croix County and all Wisconsin county clerks.