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• Trout limits relaxed on upper Kinnickinnic River

EAU CLAIRE - With the opening of the 2008 inland fishing season Saturday, special "Category 5" fishing regulations will be eliminated on the upper Kinnickinnic River, including Parker Creek, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

The category 5 slot limit for trout - protecting fish 10 to 14 inches long - will remain in place on the Lower Kinnickinnic River, downstream of the dam at Glen Park in River Falls. The daily bag limit below the dam remains at five trout with just one trout in the bag longer than 14 inches.

The popular, 15-mile-long Upper Kinnickinnic River and Parker Creek, which is five miles long, will revert to Category 2 regulation - a 7-inch minimum size limit and a daily bag limit of five fish.

The special regulations are being eliminated on the Upper Kinnickinnic because they didn't work, said Marty Engel, a senior fisheries biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources. Installed in 2003, they were an attempt to improve size distribution and increase the number of large trout.

To date, investigations show no improvement in size structure or overall quality, Engel said. The slot size limit did not show promise as a management tool on high-density trout streams such as the Upper Kinnickinnic River and Parker Creek.

The Upper Kinnickinnic River and its primary tributary, Parker Creek, are Class I brook and brown trout streams, primarily located within the Kinnickinnic River Fishery Area. They are popular with anglers throughout the Midwest.