You can catch a walleye worth $100 by fishing in Green Bay and its tributary rivers.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has teamed up with Walleyes for Tomorrow to conduct a study by tagging thousands of walleyes to help manage the health of this increasingly popular fishery.
The agency will tag 200 of the walleyes with red FLOY tags that say “REWARD $100” with a valid date on it. Walleyes for Tomorrow pays for the rewards.
For those, anglers can claim their cash in a couple of ways.
If you harvested the fish, present the tag itself to the DNR or email them a picture of the stage that includes a 3-digit tag number.
If you released the fish, leave the tag in place but first take a close-up photograph of the tag, including that tag number, as well as a second photo of the angler holding the walleye with the attached tag visible. Then follow safe fish-releasing practices.
The DNR will also take up to 5,000 additional walleyes with green or yellow floy tags to learn more about Green Bay’s walleyes, including their population and harvest levels, growth rates, and movement throughout the bay’s ecosystem.
Walleyes will be tagged in the five most important spawning areas: the Fox, Oconto, Peshtigo, and Menominee rivers and Sturgeon Bay. Several of these are among Wisconsin’s best walleye fisheries.
For all of these floy tags, whether they are worth money or not, the DNR asks anglers to report the tag number and its color as well as the fish’s length, location and date you caught it, and whether you kept it.
Send that information to DNRFHGBFISH@wisconsin.gov or call 920-662-5411. You can mail the floy tag from a harvested fish to:
ATTN Fish Biologist
2984 Shawano Avenue
Green Bay, WI 54313
You don’t need to worry about photo verification or mail in the actual tag for green or yellow tags, just provide the requested information.
In return for helping the study, DNR will provide anglers with information about the fish, including the date, location, size, sex, and estimated age when it was tagged.
Anglers do not need to provide picture verification or mail in the physical tag when reporting walleyes with green or yellow tags.
Here is the original DNR news release.