Lee Kernen has officially retired, but he still fishes

Retired DNR Fisheries Director Lee Kernen continues to cover Wisconsin fishing as an avid angler and occasional newspaper columnist.

MADISON – A light southeast wind caressed the waters of Lake Monona, and jet streams passed overhead as planes approached Dane County Regional Airport.

The state’s most picturesque building, the Capitol, rose like a crown above the western horizon.

We were in the second largest city in Wisconsin, but we had the entire lakefront at our disposal.

Shortly after his first cast of the evening, Lee Kernen’s rod curved into an arc that matched the outline of the great dome over our seat of government.

“Well, we have our answer,” Kernen said, trying to resist.

Yes, the fish were there. After a minute of back and forth, Kernen lifted an 8-inch bluegill into the boat.

Within seconds, the rest of our group—DeForest’s Jerry Volk and I—were having hits, too. Two more stocky bluegills came on board.

“It’s something that you can really find in a lot of our urban fisheries these days,” Kernen said.

Our group set out at 6:00 p.m. for a several-hour fishing trip on Lake Monona, a 3,359-acre reservoir surrounded on three sides by the city of Madison.

It was a chance to enjoy a summer evening and catch up.

Kernen, 83, of De Forest, worked for the DNR for 33 years, including seven as fisheries chief. He was inducted into the Inland Fishing Hall of Fame in 2021.

He was the head of the state’s fishing programs when I started as an outdoor writer in 1994. I saw him often at meetings in the 1990s and a few times since his retirement. We had made plans to go fishing during a recent phone conversation.

Since panfish were appearing in Monona, we decided to give it a try.

We left the Olbrich Park public marina, and Kernen rowed his 19-foot boat toward the opposite shore.

Kernen said he has had the boat for 30 years and has fished every Lake Michigan port from Kenosha to Washington Island, as well as more than 100 inland waters in Wisconsin.

In retirement, he remains involved in the state’s fishing industry, wetting his rod at least once a week. He also writes occasional columns about his fishing experiences and angling problems.

“I don’t move as fast as I used to,” Kernen said. “But I still move. And I still love fishing.”

When the sonar showed 15 feet, he cut the engine and we dropped anchor. The wind and waves pushed the boat a little shallower.

We were close to the weedline, and the electronics showed a solid stripe along the bottom. But these weren’t aquatic plants – these were fish.

Blue trout were schooling along the bottom, extending to a depth of about 10 to 14 feet.

We used small ice fishing jigs tipped with a thin red synthetic bait. When the bait got close to the bottom, it got bites almost 100% of the time.

“We’re catching fish after fish in a city of 300,000 people, and there’s no one else around,” Kernen said. “Come on!”

Kernen, a Sheboygan native, grew up fishing for yellow perch in Lake Michigan off his hometown’s North Pier. He later earned a degree in zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

While in college, he took a part-time job at Nevin State Fish Hatchery, which led to a full-time job with the fisheries department after graduation in 1963. He worked first in Oshkosh and then in Horicon, where he helped supervise the removal of carp from Fox Lake, then the largest such operation in the state.

In 1968, he filled a vacancy in Green Bay, where he and his DNR colleague Jim Moore “had no nets and one boat, but they didn’t have a vehicle big enough to tow it,” Kernen said.

In the years that followed, the situation changed as the department added staff and funding. Among Kernen’s notable projects in Green Bay were overseeing the start of Lake Michigan stocking of kiss and chinook salmon, as well as stocking Green Bay with walleye.

Kernen said he faced opposition from DNR leaders when he first proposed stocking the bay with walleye.

“They said I had all the trout and salmon,” Kernen said. “But I ended up catching walleye, too, and over the years they’ve shown they can reproduce naturally. The key was to stop the pollution in the Fox River and have cleaner water in the bay overall.”

The walleye fishery in Green Bay and its tributaries, now self-sustaining through natural reproduction, is among the best in the country.

In 1980, Kernen moved to Madison to oversee the department’s Great Lakes fisheries programs, and in 1989 was appointed director of fisheries.

Kernen’s experience as an angler, zoologist and fish manager has given him valuable skills that have helped him manage the state’s fisheries through challenges such as an outbreak of bacterial kidney disease in Lake Michigan’s black trout, the onset of tribal spearfishing and the decline of Lake Michigan’s yellow perch population.

Throughout his entire professional career he never severed contact with the fishing community.

Now, at age 83, he has a unique perspective on fishing in the state.

We continued to catch bluegills at a rapid rate. Fish ranged from 6 to 9 inches.

“You know that would be the second-biggest bluegill I ever caught in my younger days in Wisconsin,” Kernen said after releasing the 8-incher. “So many of our fisheries are better today than they were when I was learning to fish.”

Kernen said one of his idols in fisheries management is James Nevin, Wisconsin state fisheries superintendent from 1882 to 1915 and then fisheries commissioner from 1915 until his retirement in 1922.

As early as 1900, Kernen said, Nevin was concerned that technological changes could lead to the degradation of fisheries.

At that time, people had to travel to northern Wisconsin by train. But a new mode of transportation was coming.

“(Nevin) said, ‘The car is going to be the bane of fishing in northern Wisconsin,’” Kernen said. “It definitely made an impression because more people could get to places more easily.”

When Kernen began his career in the 1960s, he said many fisheries managers welcomed research that showed sport fishing was not harmful to fisheries.

But the work was done in highly productive waters of the southern United States. And as fisheries managers in Wisconsin and other Midwestern states relaxed regulations, many fish populations suffered.

Kernen noticed this trend when, following a two-year drought closure of some northern Wisconsin trout streams, the size structure of fish increased significantly.

“Our fish biologists found bigger trout than they thought possible,” Kernen said. “The difference was that the fishing pressure was removed and the fish had a chance to grow.”

This resulted in Kernen and his team continuing to promote fishing while introducing more restrictive regulations.

Yes, angling pressure can have a negative impact on fish populations.

This trend continues today and is reflected in lower daily baggage allowances or increased size limits.

Technological changes are also constant.

Kernen believes that forward-looking sonar, the state-of-the-art electronic way of observing fish in real time, has now pushed the boundaries.

“I think when you see how the fish react to the bait, it’s gone too far,” Kernen said. “In some cases, it’s not fair anymore.”

Another difference anglers are increasingly facing in the 21st century is the introduction of fish consumption warnings. For example, the Monona recently added a warning to some species of fish due to PFAS contamination.

Kernen said it’s worth knowing the health information, but it’s also important to remember that fish is a healthy food.

As for Wisconsin’s fisheries, Kernen said many of them are in better shape today than at any time in his lifetime.

“I would say the bass fishing is definitely better, and the trout and salmon fishing in Lake Michigan is excellent,” Kernen said. “I hope anglers come out and take advantage of the opportunities we have.”

Monona Bluegills also provided us with excellent size and catch rates.

After 90 minutes of quiet action, Kernen said, “OK, let’s see if we can learn something.”

We weighed anchor and allowed the boat to drift shallow.

The fishing was not so successful.

“That’s it, they like that deeper, herbal note,” Kernen said.

After two hours we decided to call it a night. Volk decided to keep 10 bluegills for a future meal; we released the rest of the fish.

The catch included about 60 monkfish, a handful of yellow perch and rock bass, and two 30-centimetre pike-perch.

There were a few other fishing boats on the lake, but they never came within 500 yards of us. As we entered Olbrich Park, there were a few anglers fishing from shore.

As Kernen turned off the engine, the sound of an opera coming from a nearby stage filled the air.

“I can’t say it’s happened before,” Kernen said, smiling at the unexpected. “But you never know what a fishing trip will bring, right?”

Especially when you can share your experiences with someone who has as much experience as Kernen.