Downriver Walleye Federation

Southeast Michigan’s Premier Walleye Fishing Club!

News & Notes

Another Great DWF Christmas Party In The Books!

December 15th, 2026, If you weren’t able to make it, you missed a great party. We had Santa and Roary along with face painting, gifts for all the kids, spectacular raffles and enough great food and treats to feed an army.

In addition to the many great items we raffled off, we also had the drawing for our special Membership Drive Raffle. Congratulations to Jan Miele for winning the $150.00 Cabela’s gift card.

Many thanks to Mike Pasik for all his hard work in organizing and setting up this great event.

And many thanks as well for all the volunteers who work so hard on the setup and cleanup as well as all the members who brought dishes and deserts to share. What a feast! We’d also like to thank those who donated to Santa’s Special Tackle Bag. What a great prize that ended up being.

Updates On The Recent NRC Meeting Shared By Doug Schultz

The following are updates from the Natural Resources Commission meeting that occurred this past Thursday in Lansing. The NRC voted to enact three fisheries order changes. In each of these cases, the fisheries orders that the NRC passed were different than the recommendations of Fisheries Division. All of these changes will take effect April 1, 2026.

Underwater Spearfishing – Based on the results of a structured decision-making process and our current limited internal capacity, Fisheries Division recommended that the existing opportunities for underwater spearfishing be continued with no expansion. That was a position that was widely supported by many stakeholder groups; however, the NRC changed the recommended fisheries order and will allow underwater spearfishing targeting Lake Trout, Northern Pike, and Walleye in Lake Superior (with closures around Stannard Rock and Big Reef) and new waters in lakes Michigan and Erie.
Offshore Lake Trout Limits – Fisheries Division recommended that the daily possession limit for Lake Trout be reduced from 5 fish to 2 fish at Stannard Rock and Big Reef. The NRC changed the recommendation and passed the fisheries order with a lower daily possession of one Lake Trout per day at each of these locations.
Walleye Protected Slot Limits – This topic was specific to UP lakes. After an extensive review of data and consultation with the public, Fisheries Division recommended a protected slot limit for walleye be implemented on 10 Upper Peninsula lakes. The NRC changed the recommended fisheries order and eliminated 8 of the lakes from the proposed list, so only two lakes will have a protected slot limit for walleye, those being Teal Lake and Lake Independence, both in Marquette County.

The changes that the NRC made to the Fisheries Division recommendations were not consistent; some were in the direction of species conservation, others were in the direction of opportunity for the public. There will be dialogue ongoing in the coming weeks and months about the process associated with regulation changes. We hope to better understand what drives the NRC to the decisions they make, so we can better tailor our internal process to ensure our recommendations have the best chance of being implemented. We also will be discussing the role of our citizens advisory committees (across all the basins) to ensure that their voices are better heard when regulation proposals come forward in the future. If you have any questions, please reach out.

Thank you for all the time you volunteer to help make fisheries better in Michigan

Doug Schultz

Lake Huron Basin Coordinator
Michigan Department of Natural Resources

On the legislative front, there are three bills currently working there way through the Michigan Legislature which, if passed into law, would impact fishing license costs and requirements. Senate Bills 276 and 277 would affect both hunting and fishing license structures here in Michigan. Over in the Michigan House Of Representatives, House Bill 5093 has been introduced. It deals with fishing license structures only. As was the case with the appropriations bill addressed below, the normal process at this point involves both chambers of the legislature coming together and reconciling these proposed legislative changes into one bill, passed by both houses, that would then go on to the Governor to be signed into law. But, it’s also possible that all of this will die on the legislative floor before the end of the year. In which case, nothing is likely to change for 2026. If you’d like more information about the content of these bills, you can Google or ask Siri for information on MI SB 276, MI SB 277 and/or MI HB 5093. After which, you may or may not feel compelled to reach out to your representatives to make your voice heard.

We visited Andy’s Tackle Box a few weeks ago and found them still in business contrary to some of the rumors floating around. Rich did report that a sale is pending and they hope to have it completed by year’s end.

That means there is still time to do some Christmas shopping there! The inventory isn’t what it once was, but they still have plenty of top end merchandise on the shelves. Let’s get it while it lasts.

Rich and Laura have been wonderful friends and supporters of the DWF for many, many years. The least we can do to show our thanks is get in at least one more shopping trip before they close the doors and step into retirement.

The following three articles are provided by Jim Francis, MDNR Fisheries Division

FY26 Fisheries Division Budget Summary

Fisheries Division Base Operating Budget: $36M
One-Time Appropriation: $2.8M General Fund for Fish Production. This resolves potential impacts to fish production for FY26.
One-Time Work Project Request: $1.1M Game & Fish Protection Fund transfer for Fisheries Resource Management. Work projects may include but are not limited to modernization of infrastructure, facilities, and ageing or failing equipment to better address operational needs, ensure staff safety, improve energy efficiency, and ensure preventative maintenance is more manageable; inland creel surveys; funding aquatic habitat grants; and/or cormorant management. Work projects are currently being prioritized to ensure we maximize the long-term return to Michigan’s anglers.
One-Time Appropriation: $1.4M Game & Fish Protection Fund appropriation for Capital Outlay funds to address infrastructure needs.

National Angler Survey

We have been asked to share the link to a nationwide survey conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts. This survey focuses on angler perceptions of threats to freshwater fisheries and potential solutions that would improve fishing experiences. While Michigan DNR is not a part of the survey, we are sharing the link to help increase both awareness and the number of survey respondents from our state. Please consider participating in the survey and sharing the link with your friends and colleagues. Questions or a request for the results can be directed to the researchers: Andy Danylchuk (adanylch@umass.edu) and Evan Prasky (eprasky@umass.edu).

Survey Link: http://bit.ly/40DFOcx

Regulatory Changes

The NRC has offered the following amendments to Fisheries Division’s recommended regulation changes for 2026, which we expect will be acted upon during the November 6 NRC meeting in Lansing:

Fisheries Order 219:
- Expands underwater spearfishing opportunities for Walleye, Northern Pike, and Lake Trout in Lakes Michigan, Erie, and Superior, with exceptions.
- Removes reporting requirements and regulation sunset.
- Adds a prohibition on the use of lures, attractants, and decoys while underwater spearfishing.
Fisheries Order 253: Reduces daily possession limit for Lake Trout/Splake to one (1) in areas defined as Stannard Rock and Big Reef.
Fisheries Order 206: Bass – Black Lake, Burt Lake, Crooked Lake, Pickerel Lake, Mullet Lake “… including all connecting waters, the bass catch and immediate release season is closed May 1 – the Friday before the third Saturday in June and the bass possession season is the third Saturday in June – December 31, inclusive.”

If members of the committee or others are interested in expressing their perspectives on any of these NRC proposed amendments, the NRC regulatory process is open to the public and the commission accepts comments. Comments can be provided via email at NRC@michigan.gov or by attending the NRC meeting to provide comments following the process described in the Public Appearance Guidelines.

Please reach out if I can help answer any questions!

Jim Francis
Lake Erie Basin Coordinator
Michigan DNR – Fisheries
|517-242-3593

Our 2025 DWF tournament Season officially wrapped up this past September 27th with the Mike Barkley Memorial Perch Tournament. Team EZ Limits (Sal Grima, Norm Konczal and Chris Majerle) took First place and Big Fish honors with 5.94 pounds. Second place went to Team Bouy Scouts (Steve Gardner, Tom O’Harris and Dennis Kovacs) with 5.68 pounds.

Sal Grima and Norm Konczal also wrapped up Captain Of The Year and Angler Of the Year respectively.

Congratulations to all who participated in our Tournaments this year. And, let’s give a big shout out to Dan Porter for another awesome season as our Tournament Director.