fabulous fisheries projects - wisconsin department of … · · 2008-03-28wolf river – donning...

PUB-FH-506 2008

ContentsFisheries projects ................p.1, 6-7

VHS fish disease.......................p. 2

Fishing highlights by month ......p. 3

Fish stocking summary ..............p. 4

Panfish pointers .......................p. 5

Musky mania ............................p. 5

Fishing Lake Michigan ...............p. 6

Regional fishing forecasts .....p. 8-15

Fishing with kids ....................p. 16

Fishing by the numbers1.4 million licensed anglers

21 million annual fishingdays

#2 ranked fishing destination nationwide

88 million fish caught

33 million fish harvested

11 million fingerlings andyearlings stocked a year

$2.75 billion economic benefits

30,164 jobs

165 fish species

15,081 lakes

42,000 miles of year-roundstreams

10,266 miles of troutstream

Fabulous fisheries projects

Find links to fishing licenses, season dates, regulations, where to

fish and more at www.fishingwisconsin.org

Epic habitat makeoverOSCEOLA – A habitat makeover in OsceolaCreek completed in 2007 turned a previouslydistressed trout stream into an exceptionalbrook trout fishery.

Heavy rains in 2002 blew out the UpperOsceola Dam and extensively damaged thestream. The Village of Osceola and theDepartment of Natural Resources beganworking collaboratively to restore more than1,500 feet of stream in downtown Osceola inPolk County.

They removed a small rock structure, sta-bilized eroding streambanks and installedLUNKER structures to create overhead coverfor trout. They also added rock plunge poolsand enhanced spawning areas.

Three new walking trails now allowanglers to stroll down to bunker areas to sit

and fish from shore. New parking lots and ahandicapped access fishing area are additionsto this trout haven.

Several dozen Osceola High School stu-dents also helped with the stream restorationby planting more than 1,000 trees and shrubsin the area.

The completed habitat work has achievedstellar results: 500 trout per mile were foundin the restored stretch in 2007, compared to50 fish per mile before the work was done.

“Our goal is to be at 1,000 brook trout permile,” says Heath Benike, DNR fisheriesbiologist. “We weren’t expecting that for acouple of years, but we may just reach it in2008.” – Alisa Lopez, fisheries communication

specialist, Madison

Diving for answersWOLF RIVER – Donning dry suits andscuba tanks, DNR biologists dove the frigidwaters of the Wolf River in late Novemberand early December to capture flathead cat-fish by hand.

This unique technique to collect flatheadcatfish, shunning the typical electroshockingboats and fyke nets for an up-close and per-sonal approach, has provided valuable infor-mation and insight into this elusive fish.

Flathead catfish become very inactive andimmobile once water temperatures dip under40° F. Many of the juvenile fish are so lethargicfrom the cold water that they can actually behandled and moved into mesh nets underwater.

Once the fish are captured, they arebrought to the surface and measured,

weighed and tagged before a divertakes the fish back down into thewintering site and releases them.

This technique has proven to beextremely efficient, with 40 to morethan 100 flatheads captured in a sin-gle dive, typically an hour long.Biologists have learned that flatheadstend to group in large numbers dur-ing winter, can number in the hun-dreds with many fish stacked on topof one another, and in some cases,may use the same wintering site yearafter year.

Biologists are also hopeful thatthis technique can help them monitortrends in catfish abundance at moreprominent wintering sites, and helpthem gather important informationon angler harvest rates and fish ageand growth from recaptured tags. – Alan Niebur, fisheries biologist,

Shawano

Continued on page 6

DNR fisheriesbiologist AlNiebur holds a40-plus poundflathead catfish he captured whileconducting scubadiving surveys on the Wolf Riverin November.This unique and efficient technique hasprovided valuableinformation and insight intothis elusive fish.

Fishing is one of DNR Secretary MatthewFrank’s most fond childhood memories. Get tips on how to make fishing fun and memorable for kids on p. 16.

For more information…

If you have more fishingquestions, call toll-free

1-888-WDNRINFo (1-888-936-7463)or

visit dnr.wi.gov/contact for a live chat

Great fishing!¡Buena pesca!

Zoo Nuv Ntses Heej!

Bilingual services now available

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Dear Wisconsin AnglerNumbers tell the story. 1.4 million anglers, 21 million dayson the water, 88 million fish caught, and $2.75 billion ineconomic benefits.

Wisconsin is a great place to fish. It’s evident in thosemind-boggling statistics from recent angler surveys. Moreimportantly, it’s evident in the big fish stories, the photo-graphs and the memories anglers share with us every year.It’s why we work to make your fishing better.

Our spring and fall fisheries surveys suggest that 2008will reel in more of the same: Lots of fish and good timeswith family and friends in Wisconsin’s beautiful scenery.

This year will also be one of change for anglers and,potentially, some challenges. A new fish disease that killedlarge numbers of fish in the lower Great Lakes in 2005 and2006 reached Wisconsin in 2007. The disease, viral hemor-rhagic septicemia, or VHS for short, isn’t a health risk forhumans, but it can infect and kill a wide variety of ournative game fish, panfish and bait fish.

So far we haven’t seen any large fish die-offs fromVHS here, but Wisconsin has taken significant, compre-hensive steps to keep this disease from spreading beyond

the Lake Michigan and Lake Winnebago systems, whereVHS was detected in May 2007. We’re confident theseactions, along with continued help from anglers andboaters in following new statewide rules restricting themovement of live fish and water, will keep fishing greatin Wisconsin in 2008 and for generations to come.

Anglers’ cooperation in following these rules on theGreat Lakes and Lake Winnebago in 2007 was a big rea-son VHS was contained to those waters. I want to thankthose anglers for their efforts.

I ask all anglers in 2008 and beyond to show the samecaring for our fisheries and future generations. By workingtogether, we can keep Wisconsin fish and lakes healthy andreel in many, many more great memories and big fish.

Sincerely,

Mike Staggs, DirectorBureau of Fisheries Management

A new fish virus was discovered in LakeMichigan and Lake Winnebago in May2007. The virus may also be present inLake Superior and the Mississippi River.The viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus,or VHS, is not a threat to people whohandle fish or want to eat their catch.However, it can spread easily to healthyfish that eat infected fish or absorb watercarrying the virus.

VHS and YOU Keep Wisconsin’s waters healthy

You can help prevent the spread of VHS by purchasing your baitfrom a licensed Wisconsin bait dealer.

Removing aquatic plants, animals and mud from your boat, trailerand equipment is a good practice when leaving any water.

Disposing of your bait fish or properly preserving them for futureuse can help keep VHS from entering into new waterbodies.

Anglers’ favorites like musky, walleye, bluegill and trout aremost susceptible to VHS. To keep them healthy and preventthis deadly fish disease from spreading, anglers should notmove water or live fish away from a waterbody and theyshould buy their bait from licensed Wisconsin bait dealers.For information on specific regulations and the VHS virus inWisconsin, visit dnr.wi.gov/fish/vhs.

Infected fish — whether they were infected with VHS beforeleaving the bait shop or picked it up while sitting in a baitbucket refreshed with water from that lake — are the mostlikely pathway for VHS to get introduced to new waters.

Fish appear more vulnerable in the spring, when water tem-peratures are cold and their immune systems are stressedfrom the rigors of spawning.

Signs of VHS virus in fish include hemorrhaging or bloodyspots on the skin and fins and inside in the muscle and tis-sues, pale or swollen internal organs, and swollen eyes.

There are reports from other states that the main VHS impactis on young fish. Die-offs of these smaller fish are not easyto detect and may take years to become noticeable in fishpopulations and impact fishing opportunities.

Anglers should report large numbers of dead or dying fish to the DNR Tipline at 1-800-TIP-WDNR (847-9367).

Please do your part to protect Wisconsin’s great fishing!

2 Fish Wisconsin! www.fishingwisconsin.org

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More anglers target walleye than any species, and Fisheries DirectorMike Staggs found plenty of this dinner favorite during 2007 fish surveys.

32008 Wisconsin Fishing Report

MADISON – Anglers caught 88.2 million fishin the 2006-07 license year and released near-ly two thirds of them, 55.1 million, accordingto results of a statewide mail survey of anglers.

“The ultimate measure of the success ofour program is how many fish people arecatching,” says Mike Staggs, Wisconsin’s fish-eries director. “The numbers emphasize howgood fishing is in Wisconsin — a lot of peoplecatch a lot of fish.”

The surveys were sent out every two weeksto 2,500 anglers randomly selected from theautomated database of current license holders,according to Brian Weigel, the DNR fisheriesresearcher who analyzed the results. Anglerswere asked if they fished during the two-weekperiod, what fish they primarily fished for, andother general information like whether theybelong to a sportsman’s club or other conser-vation group.

Anglers were also asked to fill in a gridwith the date, county and lake or stream theyfished, and for each species, the number offish they caught and kept.

The survey also delivered these findings:

■ The top 10 waters accounted for only 26percent of angler trips, meaning nearlythree-quarters were made to other waters,hinting at the diversity of fishing in a statewith 15,081 lakes and 42,000 perenniallyflowing miles of river.

■ Bass and musky were the fish releasedmost often, with only 5.4 percent and5.59 percent of those species harvested,respectively.

■ Ice anglers spent 15.2 million hours fish-ing, caught 14 million fish and kept nearlyhalf of them, or 6.5 million.

Anglers mail survey: 88 million fish caught, 33 million kept in 2006-07

JANUARYAnglers can enjoy a fantastic brown troutfishery in the open waters of LakeMichigan’s tributaries and harbors. Whenthe weather gets cold, concentrations ofwarm water, either in the river mouth orone of several warm water discharges,attract bait fish such as gizzard shad andround gobies — and the hungry brownsthat feed on them all winter long.

FEBRUARYFebruary brings North America’s largestwinter spear fishery, with an average annu-al harvest of 1,400 lake sturgeon from theLake Winnebago system and an annualeconomic impact of more than $3 milliondollars to the region. The population, esti-mated at 12,000 adult females and 25,000adult males, is the world’s largest andreflects DNR’s successful century-old stur-geon management program and citizens’commitment to sustaining this prehistoricspecies.

MARCHAs Lake Michigan tributaries open up, fish-ing for steelhead and brown trout picks up.The catch-and-release trout season opensthe first Saturday in March and anglers canenjoy great weather and action this time ofyear. Walleye and sauger catches often pickup in those river systems open year-roundto game fish. Find them listed online at:dnr.wi.gov/fish/yearnd.htm.

APRILThe end of the ice season in northernWisconsin is very near. The majority offishing action is usually on river systems,especially Great Lakes tributaries wheresteelhead runs are near peak, and thoserivers that remain open for walleye fishing.Rains often trigger fresh runs of steelheadon Lake Michigan tributaries in April.Walleye angling is often excellent on vari-ous rivers with open seasons, including theMenominee, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Fox,Wolf, Rock and Crawfish rivers.

MAYThe regular inland season for game fishopens statewide on May 3. Walleye fishingacross the state is usually good as walleyesbegin to feed heavily after spawning. Thestart of the regular trout fishing season is agreat time to get out on your favoritestream or explore new ones. These earlymonths are a terrific time to fish. Most ofthe stocked trout lakes and spring pondsshould provide some excellent fishing foropening weekend anglers.

Crappie, bluegill and perch becomemore active in shallow, warm bays of lakes.Northern pike are more active after theirspring spawning. Bass fishing in the north-ern zone is catch and release only until June15. The northern musky zone does not openuntil May 26. White bass runs on severalrivers provide great fishing opportunityearly in the season and can happen any timefrom late April to early June, depending onwater conditions.

JUNEBass and panfish opportunities are plenti-ful across the state, as they move into shal-low water to build nests and spawn. Large-mouth and smallmouth bass are usuallywell into their spawning period in northernWisconsin in June, with the northerncatch-and-release season ending June 15.Northern pike action picks up with thewarming water temperatures. The harvestseason for bass in the northern zone opensthe third Saturday in June.

JULYBass and panfish opportunities are plenti-ful across the state in lakes. This is also agood time for smallmouth bass fishing instreams and rivers, trolling in the GreatLakes for trout and salmon, and perchfishing on Green Bay and the WinnebagoSystem. Walleye fishing tends to slowdown in the warmer months of July andAugust after higher catch rates in Mayand June. Walleye catch rates pick upagain in September and October.

AUGUSTFishing can be very good for bass and pan-fish in August. Bass fishing is often best atearly morning and evening. This is usuallya slow time for walleye. Chinooks, browns,and rainbows are available to pier fishersalong Lake Michigan cities. Musky fishingis popular in northern lakes. Lake Winne-bago may be the best bet for walleye fish-ing in August. Lake Michigan fisheries fortrout and salmon have been tremendous inJuly and August for the last couple years.

SEPTEMBERSeptember brings the hook-and-line seasonfor lake sturgeon. All anglers who plan toharvest a sturgeon must buy a harvest tagbefore they fish. Lake sturgeon are foundin the Wisconsin River, Lake Superior,Mississippi River and Lake Michigandrainages. September is also a good timefor walleye fishing. Bass fishing is stillgood before slowing down with the cool-ing of lakes and streams. Inland trout fish-ing season ends September 30, so make alast visit or two to your favorite streams.

OCTOBEROctober brings cooler weather but greatopportunities for walleye and musky fish-ing across the state. September to Octoberis often when walleye put on much oftheir growth for the current year. Fallmovements of walleye up rivers can pro-vide good fishing opportunities.

NOVEMBERMusky fishing is often challenging butrewarding in November, whether on in-land lakes or the Fox River. Recent yearshave seen very large musky caught at thetail end of the musky fishing season,which closes the last day of November.

DECEMBERIce fishing starts to pick up in mid-December in northern Wisconsin. Early icecan bring good fishing for walleye andpanfish, but anglers need to be very carefulabout ice conditions.

A YEAR OF FABULOUS FISHING

Wisconsin statewide mail survey 2006-07 Top targeted fish, by fish group # of fish caught # of fish harvestedAll panfish 57,728,758 25,732,346Walleye 7,068,112 2,155,626All bass 10,073,286 550,335All trout 1,615,190 497,783Musky 223,101 12,493Northern pike 3,158,927 621,700Catfish 777,094 535,658Other 7,580,707 2,983,290TOTAL FISH 88,225,175 33,089,231

Gerry Dohm displays the largemouth bass hehooked while fishing in Clear Lake, LangladeCounty. Large and smallmouth bass are the thirdmost targeted species by anglers, according to a2006-07 survey.

Wisconsin’s top 10 fishedwaters Wisconsin statewidemail survey 2006-07

1. Lake Michigan

2. Lake Winnebago

3. Mississippi River

4. Wisconsin River

5. Green Bay

6. Wolf River

7. Fox River

8. Rock River

9. Chippewa Flowage

10. Lake Waubesa

For current fishing regulations visit dnr.wi.gov/fish/regulations

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Seeing the “big picture” for Wisconsinstream fisheries

Anglers continued their record-setting waysin 2007 with Ettrick, population 1,879, grab-bing more than its fair share:

Nicole Brunner of Ettrick established aninitial record using a bow and arrow to catch athree-pound, 5.9-ounce, and 19.5-inch gizzardshad in the Mississippi River, TrempealeauCounty, on April 22.

Jason Cichy of Necedah hauled in a 10-pound, 7.2-ounce, 25.25-inch quillback carp-sucker from the Wisconsin River in JuneauCounty on March 17, bettering the existingrecord by just over 10 ounces.

Andrew Volkmann of Wellesley, Mass.,reeled in a two-pound, 2.9-ounce, 19.5-inchKokanee salmon in Menominee County’sUpper Bass Lake on Aug.14, beating the pre-vious record by nine ounces.

Nickolas Smitala of Ringle also hooked atwo-pound, 8.2-ounce, 19.5-inch-long Koka-nee salmon in Upper Bass Lake, MenomineeCounty on Sept. 1, which bettered the exist-ing record established two weeks earlier bymore than five ounces.

Brandon Gann of Sparta used a bow andarrow to capture a 62-pound, 9.6-ounce, 49-inch bigmouth buffalo on April 23 from the

Wisconsin River in Juneau County that beatthe previous record by nearly 10 ounces.

Hunter Folkedahl of Ettrick caught a 10-pound, 15.7-ounce, 31.5-inch bowfin with abow and arrow from the Mississippi River inBuffalo County on Aug. 24 to beat the previ-ous record by over 3.5 pounds.

To see details on other state record fish,go to www.fishingwisconsin.org, and lookunder “Wisconsin fish” for “record fish.”

If you think you or someone else hascaught a fish that may be a state record,here’s what you need to do:

■ Don’t clean or, if at all possible, freezethe fish.

■ Keep the fish cool, preferably on ice.

■ Get the fish weighed as soon as possibleon a certified scale (usually found in gro-cery and hardware stores, etc.) and wit-nessed by an observer.

Contact the nearest DNR Service Centerto get the fish species positively identifiedand to find out whether the fish is actually astate record. If possible, take a photo ofyourself with the fish.

More state fish records set in 2007

First fish into Wild Rose Hatchery

The total number of fish stocked in 2006-07 was lower than previous years due tothe extra precautions DNR took with itshatchery program after a new fish dis-ease, viral hemorrhagic septicemia, wasdiscovered in Wisconsin in May.

Our goal was to protect the fishalready in lakes and streams by ensuringthat no fish with VHS would be stockedfrom state hatcheries. Hatchery-raisedfish, their parent fish, and the water sup-plies were all tested for the virus beforethe fish were allowed to be stocked out.

The good news is all test results werenegative for VHS. But the delays result-ing from testing, and prohibitions againstcollecting wild forage minnows for feed-ing to fish in our hatchery ponds, result-ed in fewer fish being raised this year.Changes to operation procedures shouldallow a return to more normal productionin future years.

Raising the next generation of fishFish stocked from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007

COMMON NAME FRY SMALL LARGE YEARLING ADULT ALL AGES FINGERLING FINGERLING TOTAL

Brook trout 21,246 134,998 119,725 823 276,792

Brown trout 69,955 54,751 764,499 910,703 5,569 1,805,477

Chinook salmon 1,052,875 1,052,875

Coho salmon 173,918 324,970 498,888

Lake sturgeon 3,706 17,801 1,111 22,618

Lake trout 33,074 112,589 145,663

Musky 65,989 74 66,063

Northern pike 2,134,594 350 36,533 2,171,477

Rainbow trout 29,684 49,221 792,760 1,707 873,372

Splake 87,096 89,942 177,038

Walleye 10,961,799 28,697 128,473 11,118,969

Total fish stocked 13,166,348 1,191,309 1,491,602 2,351,874 8,099 18,209,232

The revamped Wild Rose State Hatchery welcomed its first fish into new coldwater fish rearing facilitiesin early 2008, marking a historic moment for the century-old fish hatchery and workhorse of Wisconsin’sstocking program. Tom Van Effen, fisheries propagation technician, uses a dip net to transfer coho fingerlings from the Westfield Hatchery into their $15.9 million home. This first phase of constructioninvolved building all new coldwater facilities and a new visitor’s center. Work is expected to begin thissummer on the second phase of the renovation, building new coolwater facilities to raise walleye, lakesturgeon, spotted musky and northern pike. Find a video, factsheets and other information about the Wild Rose Hatchery project at dnr.wi.gov/fish/wildrose.

Wisconsin is blessed with more than 88,000 miles of streams and rivers, rangingfrom tiny spring creeks to the mighty Mississippi River. But in any one year it’shard to survey the fish in more than 500 of these miles, leaving more than 99 per-cent of the state without up-to-date information for fisheries management.

A new and powerful computerized forecasting tool, recently developed byDNR fish researchers in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey shouldhelp. This tool, called the stream model, determines where different fish shouldbe found based on a variety of stream and watershed characteristics and alsomakes it possible to project what types and numbers of fish will occur in everysingle mile of Wisconsin’s streams.

For example, the model estimates that 11,100 stream miles are currently suit-able for brook trout. The model identifies new streams that could support trout fish-eries if managed appropriately, but also indicates streams where efforts to establishtrout, through stocking or habitat improvement, are probably not worthwhile. Thisallows fisheries managers and conservation groups to focus their efforts on thosestreams with the best potential to support good brook trout fisheries.

A particularly exciting application of the model will be to project future trends.The model is a kind of “crystal ball” that can help managers see 10 to 25 years intothe future and predict how changes in land use (e.g., urban sprawl) or climatechange (e.g., warmer summers) will influence Wisconsin stream fisheries. – John Lyons, fisheries scientist, Madison

The stream model allows fisheries biologists to see which streams have the potential tosupport successful fisheries such as brook trout and also streams where efforts may notbe worthwhile.

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SAFE-EATING GUIDELINES – for most of Wisconsin’s inland waters

Women of childbearing years, nursing mothers and all childrenunder 15 should limit their consumption to:1 MEAL PER WEEK Bluegills, crappies, yellow perch,

sunfish, bullheads and inland trout

AND

1 MEAL PER MONTH Walleye, pike, bass, catfish and all other species

DO NOT EAT Musky

Women beyond their childbearing years and men may eat:UNRESTRICTED Bluegills, crappies, yellow perch, sunfish, bullheads and

inland trout

1 MEAL PER WEEK Walleye, pike, bass, catfish and all other species

AND

1 MEAL PER MONTH Musky

Visit dnr.wi.gov/fish/consumption/ for more information on fish consumption advisories.

I peered over the side of the boat and there themonster sat, staring at my sucker from twofeet away. “Take it,” I mouthed. On command,it flared its gills in attempt to scare the suckerand then inched toward the bait. When thesucker struggled to swim away, the muskypursued and I saw the bobber suddenly changedirection — a good indication it had hold ofthe sucker. My uncle and I slowly moved overto the bobber to make sure the musky wasmoving away. “Set the hook!” he shrieked.Minutes later he helped me boat a 45-incher.

I’ve been fishing since I was two yearsold and musky fishing since I was 11. Myuncle, John Aschenbrenner, introduced me tofishing and I’ve learned most of what I knowfrom him.

He owns and operates a resort on WabikonLake in northern Wisconsin so it’s quite con-venient for me to make travel and fishingplans. For about 13 years now, I’ve kept a logdetailing each of the 35 muskies I’ve caughtacross Wisconsin.

I love musky fishing. I think it’s the thrill ofusing the tools you have to outsmart a fishthat’s tough to catch. It’s also the anticipation,coupled with the feeling of not knowing if youwill catch one on a given day.

When I first started musky fishing, I had noidea what bait to use but used whatever myuncle put on the end of my line.

I still consult him to this day, but I’ve alsopicked up a few patterns and definitely have afew favorite lures. These tips can help anglersnew to the sport find early success, as I did,and get hooked on musky fishing.

■ Choose lures such as bucktails, spinner-baits, or crankbaits that won’t tire youout while casting them all day. Bucktailsand spinnerbaits are effective early in theseason.

■ Space your casts out. The clearer the water,the more space you want. This also yields afaster retrieve of your lure. For dark andmurky water, really work the water anddon’t worry about casting in similar spotsmore than once.

■ Pay close attention to structure that’s sub-merged or on the surface. Slow down asyou approach these areas and cast from dif-ferent angles.

■ Keep your lure in the water! So manyanglers fail to do this because either they’re

busy talking with their fishing partner,changing lures IN prime spots instead ofBEFORE reaching them, taking a short“break” from casting, or taking out a back-lash. People who minimize these activitiescatch more fish.

■ Change baits and fishing times as fallapproaches. Crankbaits and jerkbaits workbetter in the late summer/early fall. Fishtend to move a little slower those times ofyear. Top water baits work best at nightand there’s no better thrill than catchingone when you can barely see your lure!

■ Try fishing with suckers. As water temper-atures cool in the late fall, fishing withsuckers can be very successful. Suckersstay in the “strike zone” longer than artifi-

Musky Top 10TROPHY POTENTIAL• Green Bay – Marinette, Oconto,

Brown and Door counties• Lake Monona – Dane County• Chippewa Flowage – Sawyer County• Okauchee Lake – Waukesha County• Petenwell and Castle Rock lakes

– Adams County

MUSKY ACTION• Little Green Lake – Green Lake

County• Lake Wingra – Dane County• Eagle River Chain of Lakes

– Vilas County• Pewaukee Lake – Waukesha County• Biron Flowage – Wood County

Few anglers would dispute that panfish pro-vide the bulk of fishing opportunities andeffort in Wisconsin. After all, panfish providegreat action and are fairly easy to catch, evi-denced by the 58 million panfish that anglerscaught in the 2006 license year.

Best of all, panfish taste great! Here are some of my time-tested fishing

tips for increasing your catch, developedover five decades of pulling in panfish and25 years as a fisheries biologist in Plymouth.

The number one rule is KEEP THINGSSIMPLE. Use:

■ Ultralight tackle■ Light test line (two to four pounds)■ Small hooks for sunfish and perch (#10

and smaller), larger hooks for crappies■ Small bait (grubs, small leeches, small

minnows, red worms, small plastics) ■ The lightest weight required to get the

bait down and the smallest bobbers tokeep the bait positioned

The next key is to find active fish. Panfishare more actively feeding at sunrise and sun-set. However, they are sometimes cooperative

during the entire day, especially if the water iscloudy.

Quality-size panfish use very specific areasof a lake. Concentrate your efforts on outsideweed edges, openings in weed beds, fish cribsand tree falls. Larger bluegills and crappieswill often suspend over water 15- to 20-feetdeep in summer, where water temperatures arecool and where their food (plankton) is abun-dant. Remember that they may be found inonly five percent of the lake area, so you willhave to move around a bit to find active fish.Slip bobber rigs are great for keeping the baitat the correct depth. Perch are often right onthe bottom of the lake, feeding on snails andother organisms on rocks or in the mud.

The best technique to locate active panfishis to drift slowly across likely areas often,keeping track of where the best action isfound. Use a small variety of techniques (plas-tics versus live bait) at different depths to findthe fish. Use lake maps to mark where fishcribs are located or where fish were found tobe active. Change locations often until the fishare found. Slight movement of the bait willoften stimulate a strike.

Below are some waters where fisheriesbiologists have documented good quality pan-fish populations. Most of these waters are largeand may withstand more fishing pressure.However, that small lake in your county maybe a good bet as well.

Panfish pointers

Rachel rocked the boatwhen she used a quick-set sucker rig to reel inthis 44.5-pound muskyon Sand Lake, BurnettCounty.

cial lures and increase your chances ofcatching one of Wisconsin’s state fish.

■ Use a quick set rig instead of a single hookrig. Studies, including one in Wisconsin,have shown delayed mortality of 80 per-cent or greater when musky are allowed toswallow single hook bait before the anglersets the hook.

– Rachel Piacenza, aquatic resources education assistant, Madison

She’s 24 and she’s caught 35

Regardless of where you fish for panfish,enjoy the experience and the good eating thatresults. Remember also to limit your take ofpanfish. Quality-size panfish are a limited re-source. Leave some for tomorrow. – John Nelson, fisheries biologist, Plymouth

Panfish are thenumber one targeted catch,according to astatewide 2006-07survey, for goodreason — thereare plenty ofplaces to fish and plenty of panfish to catch.

NORTHERN REGION:Chippewa Flowage, Sawyer County

Bluegills and crappiesChetek Chain of Lakes, Barron County

Bluegills, crappies and perchTurtle Flambeau Flowage, Iron County

CrappiesLac Vieux Desert, Vilas County

Bluegills and crappiesUpper and Lower Clam lakes, Burnett

County – Bluegills

NORTHEAST REGION:Green Bay

PerchShawano Lake, Shawano County

BluegillsLake Winnebago pool lakes

Yellow perchCauldron Falls Flowage, Marinette

County – BluegillsGreen Lake, Green Lake County

Bluegills

WEST CENTRAL REGION:Mississippi River pools

Bluegills and crappiesMason Lake, Adams County

Bluegills (small), crappies and perch

WEST CENTRAL REGION: (continued)Lake Menomin, Dunn County

BluegillsTainter Lake, Dunn County

PerchStevens Point Flowage, Portage County

Crappies

SOUTHERN REGION:Lake Monona, Dane County

BluegillsFox Lake, Dodge County

Bluegills, crappies and perchBeaver Dam Lake, Dodge County

Crappies and perchLake Koshkonong, Jefferson County

White bassRock Lake, Jefferson County

Bluegills

SOUTHEAST REGION:Lake Delavan, Walworth County

Bluegills Pewaukee Lake, Waukesha County

Crappies and bluegillsLake Michigan

Perch Big Cedar Lake, Washington County

Bluegills and perch

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Fabulous fisheries projects continued

Keeping tabs on WisconsinRiver lake sturgeon POYNETTE – New emergency size limitregulations and a shorter hook-and-line sea-son for lake sturgeon on the Wisconsin Riverworked as intended to avoid the overharvestof these prehistoric fish.

The emergency changes set a 60-inch mini-mum size limit instead of 50 inches, and afour-week season instead of six weeks. Thechanges also reduced the 2007 harvest belowthe Prairie du Sac Dam to nine fish from theprevious harvest level of nearly 80, and onLake Wisconsin from 25 fish to four.

Increased harvest below the Prairie duSac Dam started to occur in the mid-1990sand extreme overharvest (30 percent) wasdocumented in 2005. While harvesting 35

Year-round shore fishing on Lake MichiganSUMMER – After suffering reproductive fail-ure for most of the 1990s, the yellow perchpopulation seems to be making a comeback.Biologists are “cautiously optimistic” that thispopular fish is on the road to recovery. Perchcan be caught on a wide variety of baits includ-ing jigging spoons, crayfish, minnows, smalljigs and hellgrammites.

June is when chinook salmon fishing startsto improve. As the water begins to warm up,shore anglers are at the mercy of the wind.Westerly winds push the warm water out andforce the cooler water preferred by salmoncloser to shore. This “upwelling” effect iswhat shore anglers will be looking for all sum-mer long. The best fishing is usually early orlate in the day. Large silver spoons or alewivesare the most commonly used baits. Glow inthe dark lures can be especially productive inlow light conditions.

Sturdy tackle is required to land Chinook,which can weigh 10 to 20-plus pounds. Inrecent years, the Chinook harvest has beenbetter than it’s ever been since the DNR start-ed stocking this fish in the late 1960s.

Additionally, coho sal-mon and brown and rainbowtrout can be taken through-out the summer when condi-tions are right.

FALL – Chinook will startto stage around harbors andriver mouths in September inanticipation of their fallspawning runs. Even thoughtheir feeding starts to de-cline, they are very catch-able. They will aggressivelystrike bright colored lures ora chunk of fish eggs fishedunder a bobber. Once in therivers they provide greatsport for anglers, especiallyon a fly rod. The Chinookrun will peak in early Oct-ober as they reach the end oftheir life cycle. October is agreat time for “fish watch-ing” in the rivers as jumpingsalmon put on quite a show.

Coho salmon will migrate upstream a cou-ple of weeks after the chinook. Coho don’trun as large and can be more difficult to catchin the streams than Chinook. By November,most salmon will have spawned and died.

Beginning in mid-September, brown troutcan be found in big numbers in the rivermouths and harbor areas, where they willremain until the following spring. Browns willremain active and accessible to anglersthroughout this season. Although they moveupstream to spawn in the fall, they don’tmigrate as far as salmon or steelhead.

WINTER – With the salmon gone, anglersstart to get serious about chasing steelhead.Winter runs of steelhead usually start inNovember. River run steelhead, fresh up fromthe lake, will provide great fishing until ice up.Just as in spring, spawn is the top producingbait. If the weather stays mild, any kind of rainor snow melt event will trigger another batchof fish to move upstream. There are almostalways some open water fishing opportunitiesavailable in the lower stretches of the rivers orharbor areas where browns are the main target.

Great Lakes fishing in Wisconsin235,000 anglers

3,705,000 fishing days

Lake Michigan #1 most frequentlyvisited water in Wisconsin

1,399,160 fish harvested (2006)

$251.9 million in retail sales

$418.8 million ripple effect

5,011 jobs

$28 million in state and local tax revenues

Cunningham, a DNR fisheries policy ecolo-gist. “You don’t have to stock those lakes, theysustain themselves.”

When darkness falls, research teams usinghandheld spotlights search the entire shore-line of each lake for spawning muskies. Eachtime a musky is seen, the location will bemarked and its position will be recordedusing digital mapping software. Researcherslater return to the site to verify that spawningoccurred by searching for eggs on the bottom.

The data is then built into a model thatcan predict critical spawning habitats onother lakes, providing valuable knowledgefor addressing issues such as shoreline devel-opment, aquatic plant management, landacquisition and zoning ordinances. – Alisa Lopez, fisheries communication

specialist, Madison

Additional informationfor better overall management of the fishery will be providedby a movement studythat began in fall 2007.In October, 16 adultsturgeon below thePrairie du Sac Damwere surgicallyimplanted with radiotransmitters. Trackingthese fish will provideinformation on spawn-ing locations, residencetime in the heavily harvested area belowthe dam, and overalluse by the sturgeon of the Wisconsin andMississippi rivers.

Call the Lake Michigan hotline at (414) 382-7920 for up-to-date fishing reports and conditions. You don’t need a boat to fish the great Lake Michigan — shore fishing

opportunities abound for anglers of all ages. Just ask this little guy.

Shore fishing was the winningticket for MarcWisniewski, who hooked this 12-pound, 31-inch browntrout near Jones Island inMilwaukee.

The cold weather doesn’t seem to bother thefish at all. – Matt Coffaro, fisheries biologist,

Milwaukee

You don’t need a boat to enjoy great fishing onthe big pond and its tributaries. Grab a fishingrod and follow this seasonal calendar to someof the state’s best and most diverse fishing.

SPRING – March and April are prime timesto catch steelhead in the tributary streams.Migratory steelhead are at the peak of theirspawning run during this time. DNR stocksmultiple strains of steelhead as well as amore domestic rainbow trout. Each varietyspawns at a different time, providing extend-ed fishing opportunities. The terms “rain-bow” and “steelhead” are used interchange-ably by Lake Michigan anglers. Steelheadare rainbow trout that run upstream to spawn.A wide variety of baits and flies will work,but spawn or anything that looks like spawnis best.

Shore anglers will start to catch cohosalmon in May. These bright silver fish aver-age about three pounds, fight like crazy andmake excellent eating. Small silver spoonsare a top choice for coho.

percent of the adult population is considereda safe level for short-lived and fast-growinggame fish species such as walleye and large-mouth bass, harvesting that many lake stur-geon would crash a population of these muchslower-growing, late maturing fish.

Female lake sturgeon don’t start to repro-duce until they are over 50 inches and 20years old, and then they spawn only onceevery three to five years. A harvest rate of fivepercent is considered safe for a sustainablelake sturgeon fishery.

Mandatory harvest registration started in1983, providing important information formanaging the fishery, and regulations havebecome more restrictive as increased harvesthas occurred. – Michael Rennicke, sturgeon biologist,

Poynette

Protecting Wisconsin’s state fishWOODRUFF – By protecting habitat formusky spawning, fisheries biologists hope toaugment successful musky managementstrategies that have already helped make thelegendary “fish of 10,000 casts” more like thefish of 3,000 casts in Wisconsin.

The Musky Clubs Alliance of Wisconsin,University of Michigan researchers and Wiscon-sin Department of Natural Resources fish biolo-gists launched a two-year habitat study in 2007on 20 lakes in northern Wisconsin to help iden-tify and predict where the famed fighters spawn.

“We want to be able to protect the existingmusky spawning habitat that is out therebecause naturally reproducing populations arethose that are the most valuable,” says Paul

From left to right:Jerry Loop (MuskyClubs Alliance vol-unteer), Bob Haase(Musky ClubsAlliance volunteerand director) and Joe Nohner(University ofMichigan graduatestudent) use spot-lights to scan theshoreline of the lake for spawningmuskies as part of a two-year studyto identify and predict wheremuskies spawn.

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Fabulous fisheries projects continued

Food pantry receives 9.5tons of salmon and troutSTURGEON BAY – DNR fish crews deliv-ered nearly 10 tons of trout and salmon to aGreen Bay food pantry to help feed the hun-gry, significantly increasing donations fromprevious years.

The increased donation was possiblebecause the continuing drop in environmen-tal contaminant levels in the fish means thatlarger fish can be safely eaten, so that DNRwas able to increase the number of fish avail-able to Paul’s Pantry.

The 19,000 pounds of trout and salmon(mostly Chinook and coho) DNR deliveredin fall 2007 came from two DNR facilitieswhere fish crews collect eggs from the fishafter the salmon make their one and onlyspawning run. Strawberry Creek Weir pro-vided 14,600 pounds and 4,400 pounds camefrom Besadny Anadromous Fisheries facility.Additionally, a total of 2,800 pounds of troutand salmon were given to the Green BayWildlife Sanctuary and REGI, a raptor reha-bilitation facility near Antigo. – Paul Peeters, fisheries supervisor,

Sturgeon Bay

Muskies on the moveBUTTERNUT – The odds of catching trophymuskies on Butternut Lake may be betterthanks to a transfer of 116 adult muskiesfrom the lake to start a new musky fishery inLake Neshonoc on the La Crosse River.

The transfer reduces an overabundance ofadult muskies and decreases the competitionamong them so that the remaining fish cangrow to larger sizes.

Four years ago, the number of adult muskyin the lake was at 1,000 and climbing, wellabove the desired goal of 0.2 to 0.3 fish peracre. The transfer strategy is considered a stepin the right direction. Fewer fish per acreshould reduce competition for prey, improvemusky condition and growth rate, and ulti-mately improve the population’s size structure.

Beginning in 2009 and once every fiveyears afterward, fisheries biologists will con-duct fyke netting and electrofishing surveysto determine how successful their transferstrategy has been in moving Butternut Laketoward the desired number of fish. – Jeff Scheirer, fisheries biologist,

Park Falls

Anglers have easier lakefront accessMILWAUKEE – Anglers now have morefree parking and better access to prime LakeMichigan lakeshore.

An agreement among Pieces of EightRestaurant, the Milwaukee Port Authority andthe Department of Natural Resources givesthe public eight spaces where they can parkfor 90 minutes free. The restaurant also agreedto allow anglers to park for free every dayfrom 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., seven days a week. – Sharon Gayan, basin supervisor,

Milwaukee

Shore anglers gain piers/stationsAnglers now have two more shore fishingstructures from which to catch their favoritefish. The new facilities, completed in 2007,bring to 110 the grand total of shore fishingstructures built across Wisconsin over thepast 20 years using Sport Fish RestorationFunds. The new and accessible shore fishingfacilities were built in cooperation with localunits of government and other partners.

Dane County – A fishing pier on SalmoPond in the Black Earth Creek FisheryArea.

Washburn County – A fishing pier onShell Lake in Shell Lake’s Memorial Park.

In addition, eight more projects areexpected to be completed in spring 2008.

Dane County – Fishing pier on LakeKegonsa in Lake Kegonsa State Park.

Florence County – Fishing pier on FisherLake in the Village of Florence.

Grant County – Fishing pier on the Miss-issippi River in Wyalusing State Park.

Kenosha County – Two shore fishingstations on the Bong Urban Pond in theRichard Bong Recreational Area.

Lafayette County – Shore fishing stationon the East Branch of the Pecatonica Riverin the Village of Argyle.

Ozaukee County – Fishing pier onPuckett’s Pond in Harrington Beach StatePark; fishing pier on Quarry Lake in Har-rington Beach State Park.

Walworth County – Fishing pier and twoshore fishing stations on Whitewater Lakein the Kettle Moraine State Forest South-ern Unit.

Find information about more than 100developed shore fishing sites online at dnr.wi.gov/org/land/facilities/boataccess. – Cheryl Goodman, fisheries budget ana-

lyst, Madison

Lake sturgeon raisedstreamside a success MILWAUKEE – A second attempt at raisinglake sturgeon in a streamside facility was agrand slam in 2007.

The Department of Natural Resources withthe support of the Riveredge Nature Center inNewburg first tried raising sturgeon streamsidein 2006, but only 27 sturgeon were stocked dueto lost larvae and excess silt in incubating trays.

A change to incubating jars instead of traysgave way to the successful stocking of 158fingerling lake sturgeon into the MilwaukeeRiver in an effort to restore its lake sturgeonpopulation.

The streamside rearing facility allows theDNR to raise lake sturgeon on a native watersource throughout their entire early life. Thiswill maximize their ability to “imprint” to thiswater source and greatly improve the oddsthat, at maturity, the sturgeon will return to theMilwaukee River to spawn, which is the ulti-mate goal. – Brad Eggold, fisheries supervisor,

Milwaukee

Lake trout making a comeback on Lake SuperiorBAYFIELD – Wild lake trout populations con-tinue to stage a strong recovery on LakeSuperior, thanks to successful efforts to controlsea lampreys and protective fishing regulations.

Nets set at 46 locations between SaxonHarbor and Superior in spring 2007 revealedthe continued resurgence of lake trout since thesurveys started over 40 years ago.

“The lake trout population is not complete-ly recovered, but we’ve made great strides,”says Mike Seider, fisheries biologist stationedin Bayfield.

Predation from sea lamprey—nonnative,eel-like fish that attack trout with their suckingmouths—and over-fishing nearly obliteratedLake Superior’s trout population during the1950s. Since lake trout are a native “keystone”species and top-of-the-food-chain predator,their absence can and did knock the wholelake’s ecosystem off-kilter, Seider says.

Since then, the DNR, the U.S. Fish &Wildlife Service and the Bad River and RedCliff Bands of Lake Superior Chippewa haveworked to develop and carry out cooperativefisheries management. Sea lamprey control,fish refuges, restricted use areas and conserva-tive sport and commercial fishing regulationshave all played important roles in the recoveryof the lake trout population.

As a result, the total number of lake troutallowed to be harvested from Lake Superiorhas grown over time, including under an agree-ment signed April 19, 2007, by the DNR andthe Bad River and Red Cliff Bands. FutureDNR surveys will continue to monitor the sta-tus of lake trout to ensure current harvest stillallows for further population increase.– Lisa Gaumnitz, public affairs manager,

Madison

Island restoration boasts better fishingBUFFALO CITY – Anglers can look forwardto larger fish and more of them along theWisconsin side of the Mississippi River as therevamped habitat thrives thanks to the Spring

DNR fisheries staff prepares to move muskies totheir new home in Lake Neshonoc.

Lake Islands habitat rehabilitation andenhancement project completed in 2006.

Construction of this $3.4 million projectnear Buffalo City began in November 2004and was completed in July 2006 with a coop-erative effort among the U.S. Army Corps ofEngineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service(USFWS), and the Wisconsin and MinnesotaDepartments of Natural Resources.

The 500-acre backwater area now boastsfour new islands, which created 20 acres ofland, 16 acres of mudflats and more than 13acres of new fish overwintering habitat.

The new islands, built with hydraulicallydredged material from the vicinity, have begunto help restore habitat and diversity in the lake.Their construction allows Spring Lake to bemaintained as a protected, shallow backwaterfor fish and wildlife, and slows degradation ofthe area.

Yearly fyke netting surveys already showmore and bigger fish. Since 2005, bluegillnumbers have risen from 18 to 40 fish per netlift and from 3.8 to six inches long and yellowperch from two to 15 fish per net lift and from7.3 to nine inches long. – Alisa Lopez, fisheries communication

specialist, Madison

Fort McCoy fishing permitsplanned for ALIS in 2008This year, the Wisconsin DNR Bureau ofCustomer Service and Licensing will offerFort McCoy’s fishing permits on theAutomated License Issuance System (ALIS).

“This could be in effect by the inland fish-ing season opener on May 3,” says JohnNoble, Fort McCoy’s fisheries biologist.“Anglers can purchase a Fort McCoy permit atany store selling hunting and fishing licenses.”

Until the transition is completed, fishingpermits will still be available at Fort McCoy.Questions can be directed to (608) 388-3337.Anglers should be aware that Fort McCoy hasspecific regulations (available at www.mccoy.army.mil under Recreation Opportunities) inaddition to State of Wisconsin regulations. – Mary Dresser, natural resources

coordinator, Fort McCoy

Fisheries biologists Michael Seider and Randy Besonen proudly display 30-plus pound lake trout fromLake Superior. The native lake trout population continues to grow thanks to sea lamprey control andprotective fishing regulations.

Fingerling sturgeon are released into theMilwaukee River.

Boaters can look forward to easier access onto Butternut Lake in Ashland County after a prefabricatedconcrete slab was added to the boat ramp at the Hoffmann Rocks public access site. The Northern RegionFish Operations Crew designed and installed the ramp extension in May 2007 to prevent the wheels oflong boat trailers from dropping off the ramp edge. The Butternut-Schnurs Lake Association provided$1,000 to buy and deliver the slab.

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2008 Regional Forecasts Find fish and habitat survey reports for many lakes and rivers featured in this forecastat www.fishingwisconsin.org. For current fishing regulations, visit ddnnrr..wwii..ggoovv//ffiisshh//rreegguullaattiioonnss. For more detailed forecasts visit dnr.wi.gov/fish/reports/fishingreport/

Lake Superior Chequamegon Bay – Lake Superior pro-vides a wide variety of fishing experiencesand Chequamegon Bay is no exception. Con-servative fishing regulations, natural repro-duction and limited stocking maintain a dis-tinctive fishery with opportunities for bigfish. Spring surveys in 2007 showed anincrease in pike between 26 and 30 incheswith several fish netted larger than 38 inches.Although walleye numbers are relatively low,the average fish caught in past surveys was 22inches. A trophy smallmouth bass fishery isbuilding in the bay with fish exceeding 19inches commonly caught. Naturalized popu-lations of coho salmon and stocked Chinooksalmon, splake and brown trout providediversity to the fishery. The DNR continues tostock splake and brown trout in deeper wateralong the shoreline to increase their survival.Fishing opportunities in Chequamegon Bayexist all year but key times for many speciesare spring and fall. Unlike much of LakeSuperior, the bay is accessible with smallerboats as long as anglers check the weatherforecast before heading out.

St. Louis River – Another great fishingopportunity can be found in the St. LouisRiver, along the Wisconsin-Minnesota bor-der. As the water quality in the once heavilypolluted river has improved, healthy popula-tions of walleye, northern pike, smallmouthbass and panfish have returned. Annual sur-veys reveal sporadic natural reproduction ofwalleye but conservative regulations havepreserved a healthy population. The 2007spring survey indicated that 44 percent of thespawning fish exceeded 20 inches. Themusky population continues to improve, withrecent surveys revealing juvenile catch ratessimilar to that found in many healthy north-ern Wisconsin lakes. Furthermore, spawningsurveys in 2007 showed the average size ofmusky was 38.7 inches with several fish top-ping 45 inches.

Although some years are better than oth-ers, the Apostle Islands are the destinationfor lake trout fishing. The average lake troutcaught throughout the year is about 22 inch-es, with several fish exceeding 32 incheseach year. Lake trout have made an incredi-ble resurgence due to restrictions on fishingand sea lamprey control. Populations todayconsist almost exclusively of wild fish.

For more specific information about theLake Superior fishery visit dnr.wi.gov/fish/lakesup/. – Mike Seider, fisheries biologist, Bayfield

Douglas CountyAmnicon Lake – A musky population esti-mate completed in spring 2007 found muskyranging from 17.1 to 42 inches and averaging32.4 inches in length. Anglers will continueto enjoy a high catch rate on musky. Theadult musky population was abundant with1.8 fish per acre. Northern pike, which his-torically had not been found in the system,were found again in 2007. The adult walleyepopulation was 2.9 adults per acre, consid-ered average for naturally reproducing wall-eye populations in Wisconsin. The average

length of walleye captured was 14.2 inches,with sizes ranging from 9.8 to 27.5 inchesand 15 percent of walleye were 15 inches orlonger. Samples were taken from walleyeduring the 2007 survey to better understandwalleye genetics throughout their nativerange. – Scott Toshner, fisheries biologist, Brule

Bayfield CountyLake Owen – A comprehensive fishery surveythat started in spring 2007 suggests this is agood lake for anglers who prize big walleyeover frequent strikes. Ninety-four percent ofsurveyed walleye were 15 inches or longer,with an average length of 20.1 inches with amaximum of 28.2 inches. Adult walleye abun-dance was low at 1.1 walleye per acre.

Middle and Lower Eau Claire lakes –Middle and Lower Eau Claire lakes began sur-veys in 2007, revealing a unique opportunity tofind big walleyes and fast and furious walleyeaction a short drive away. Middle Eau Clairecontinues to have an abundant walleye popula-tion with 6.6 adult walleye per acre. Averagelength of walleye surveyed increased to 15.1inches from 14.2 inches in 2004, and the sizeranged from 7.2 to 27.7 inches. Lower EauClaire Lake had lower walleye abundance, 2.5walleye per acre, but a slightly bigger sizestructure. They averaged 16.8 inches andranged from 7.2 inches to 27.7 inches. – Scott Toshner, fisheries biologist, Brule

Ashland and Iron countiesGile Flowage – The Gile Flowage small-mouth population should provide anglerswith improved catch rates, with recent sur-veys showing an increase in abundance. Pastsurveys sampled smallies at a rate of 43 fishper hour while recent survey data showedcatch rates have increased to more than 60fish per hour.

Walleye numbers and size structure lookvery good for this coming season. This fish-ery has improved under the “one over 14-inch” regulation. Recent surveys have shownimprovements in the walleye size structurewith more than 50 percent of the adult popu-lation larger than 15 inches compared to themid-1990s where only 33 percent of the pop-ulation exceeded 15 inches.

Panfish, especially bluegill, have beenproviding anglers with some exceptionalfishing the past two years with eight- to 10-inch fish commonly caught. I suspect thegood bluegill fishing will continue into 2008.Crappie action should be on the upswingwith several good year-classes coming up ina flowage that still owns the state record forblack crappie.

Turtle-Flambeau Flowage – The Turtle-Flambeau Flowage has consistently providedtop-notch fishing and the 2008 season shouldbe no exception.

Spring walleye action should be similar orslightly better than in the past and anglersshould find fish in the traditional spots withflowage water levels at or near normal. Recentnetting data shows a slight increase in the pro-portion of fish larger than 15 inches whencompared to past data. The number of 18-plusinch fish remains stable at about six percent ofthe adult population.

Smallmouth bass will continue to providegood action throughout the season with moreand larger fish reported caught (and mostlyreleased), during the past couple of years.Panfish fishing is expected to continue toprovide good opportunities when walleyefishing slows in mid-summer. The majorityof fish that anglers encounter will be at“keeper” or “quality” size. – Jeff Roth, fisheries biologist, Mercer

Vilas CountyLittle St. Germain Lake – Nets set in thelake in spring 2007 as part of a joint projectbetween DNR and lake residents to evaluatethe status of the musky population captured71 muskies. The largest fish was 47.3 inchesand weighed 30 pounds. Only four percent ofthe fish we captured were of legal size, butwe expect to see this number increase infuture surveys. This ongoing project willinclude additional netting and tagging of fishthis spring.

Little Rock Lake – This 45-acre lake sevenmiles north of Woodruff became famous in the1980s as part of a project to study acid rainand its effects on small lakes. Now that thisresearch has been completed, the lake is againopen to angling as of Jan. 1, 2008. There areno special fishing regulations associated withthe opening of this fishery but anglers mustfollow the standard statewide regulations andseasons. The lake has an abundant largemouthbass population, with bass up to 16 inchescaptured in recent surveys but most between12 and 14 inches. Panfish numbers are lowwith yellow perch, black crappie, and rock-bass the only species present. The DNR willconduct a creel survey of Little Rock Lakethroughout the 2008 season. Anglers are askedto please cooperate with the creel clerk sta-tioned on the lake.

Tamarack Creek – Thanks to the coopera-tive effort of the Town of Conover, VilasCounty, Trout Unlimited and the DNR,anglers will have the opportunity to pursuebrook trout along the entire course ofTamarack Creek in the near future. In 2005an extensive fish and habitat survey of thecreek identified a road culvert and the

Northern Wisconsin In reel termsYear-class – Fish hatched in a par-ticular year.

Young-of-the-year (YOY) – Gener-ally, fish that hatch in the spring andsummer and survive through fall,when DNR typically does “young-of-the-year” surveys to assess theirsurvival.

Recruitment – Fish surviving toreach catchable age and enter theadult population.

Size structure – Generally, the pro-portion of fish occurring at differ-ent sizes. When biologists say theyare taking a management action totry to improve size structure,they’re often talking about trying toincrease the number of bigger fishand ensure enough younger fishsurvive to replace the adult fish thatare caught or die naturally.

remains of an old logging dam that were lim-iting brook trout habitat. The dam sill wasremoved and the culvert replaced in 2007,which has improved trout habitat throughoutthis stream system. – Steve Gilbert, fisheries biologist,

Woodruff

Taylor and Price counties Solberg Lake – Black crappies were almostas important as bluegills and walleyes tolocal stakeholders who helped us define the“desired future condition” of this fishery.Our mid-fall fyke net samples targeting blackcrappies revealed an abundance of fish, butnot the size anglers prefer. Only 12.4 percentof black crappies greater than five inchesexceeded 10 inches or more, instead of the 20to 40 percent desired. Fall fyke netting alsoindicated that crappies in the nearby PhillipsChain of Lakes were less abundant than inSolberg Lake, but the size structure of thetwo populations was similar.

Rib Lake – Last summer, volunteers from theRib Lake Fish and Game Association and theSpirit Lakes Improvement Association raiseda total of 2,006 large walleye fingerlings inthree Taylor County ponds under cooperativefish rearing agreements with the DNR. TheRib Lake Association stocked 1,503 finger-lings into Rib Lake in mid-October to supple-ment natural walleye reproduction. The SpiritLakes Association, first-year cooperators,stocked 503 fingerlings into North SpiritLake in early November to create and main-tain a “bonus” walleye fishery where large-mouth bass is the predominant sportfish. Thecooperators look forward to increasing theyield from their ponds next year. – Jeff Scheirer, fisheries biologist, Park Falls

Barron and Polk countiesRice Lake – DNR crews collected 78 muskyduring a 2007 spring musky survey and found,impressively, that 36 exceeded 40 inches and11 exceeded 45 inches. The two largest fishmeasured just over 49 inches and weighedalmost 40 pounds.

Yellow River – Staff began a two-year study todocument trout abundance and recruitmenttrends in the Yellow River Fisheries Area. Inaddition, several hundred adult trout weretagged with external floy tags to documentangler harvest and fish movement throughoutthe study reach. Anglers are encouraged toreport any tagged fish caught or released with-in the Yellow River Watershed.

It took Matt Austin 25 minutes to reel in this 23-pound, 2-ounce northern pike measuring 46 inchesfrom Lake Nebagamon. The net wasn’t large enough to land the fish, so Matt’s cousin reached overthe boat, grabbed the fish by the gills and hauled the monster in.

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Northern Wisconsin continued

Wapogasset Lake – Largemouth bass arethe most dominant game fish followed bynorthern pike, walleye and musky. The adultlargemouth bass population was estimated at10,338 fish or 8.7 fish per acre, a normal den-sity for Polk County lakes. The adult walleyepopulation has remained stable and was esti-mated at 1,575 fish or 1.3 fish per acre.Northern pike were common and quality sizefish up to 40 inches are present, but most arein the 24- to 30-inch range. Only a smallnumber of musky were collected but severalwere at or near the 40-inch minimum lengthlimit. Panfish are abundant and the sizestructure is good with most bluegill seven toeight inches and black crappie nine to 10inches. Carp are common and good bowfish-ing opportunities are present.

Magnor Lake – Largemouth bass are themost common game fish in Magnor Lake,followed by northern pike and walleye. Theadult largemouth bass population was esti-mated at 1,232 fish or 5.3 fish per acre. Thewalleye population was estimated at only169 adult fish or 0.7 fish per acre. Naturalreproduction of walleye has not occurred forsome time in Magnor Lake and walleyestocking success has been poor. Panfish sizeand abundance appears to be in the normalrange for Polk County lakes with mostbluegill seven to eight inches and crappienine to 10 inches.

King Lake – The DNR, in partnership withthe Town of Black Brook and the King LakeAssociation, installed a lake aeration systemduring fall 2007 to prevent future fish winter-kills. King Lake has had a long history ofsuch problems, with the last fish kill reportedin 2001. The lake currently has fishable large-mouth bass, northern pike and panfish.

Osceola Creek – About 1,000 feet of streamhabitat restoration work was completed onOsceola Creek in western Polk County (seepage 1). Brook trout densities have alreadyincreased 10 times over the past year in theproject area. In addition, a donation from theWillard Sieh Memorial Fund allowed cre-ation and installation of fishing stations andwalking paths to provide additional fishingopportunities for disabled anglers. – Heath Benike, fisheries biologist, Barron

Burnett and Washburn countiesLong Lake – Known for quality-size walleyedue to fast growth, nearly one-third of thespawning population exceeds 20 inches.There’s always a chance to pick up a wallhanger here but action on table-size fishshould be the best. A combination of stockingand natural reproduction in 2005 created thelargest year-class in fall surveys since 1980.These fish will reach the 15-inch size limitduring the 2008 season. When the walleyearen’t biting, the bluegill action is pretty con-sistent. Bluegills average seven inches, with13 per acre harvested in each of the last twocreel surveys. An unusually large number ofblack crappies were observed during the 2007fall walleye fingerling survey. We should seeexcellent crappie numbers in 2008, but size-wise, 2009 may be the peak for this cycle.

Minong Flowage – This is a numbers lakewith a 2005 adult population estimate ofseven walleye per acre, up from 5.5 in 1989.Adult walleye average 16.1 inches but onlyfive percent of the population is greater than20 inches. Largemouth bass and northernpike populations are secondary fisheries butwith decent size structure for northwesternWisconsin. Largemouth reach a maximumsize of 19 inches and about five percent ofthe northern pike were between 30 and 39inches. Bluegills and black crappies are notas abundant as on many Northwoods lakesbut run to trophy size when you find them.

Wood Lake – Bluegills are the year-roundfavorite with anglers, and for good reason.Spring electrofishing in 2007 found that ofthe three-plus inch bluegill stock, 30 percentare greater than six inches with about half ofthose greater than seven inches. Anglersreport that eight- to nine-inch bluegills are

fairly common but only one percent werelarger than eight inches in the survey. Wemight have seen larger fish had the surveybeen done closer to spawning time. Large-mouth bass are the most abundant game fishwith a spring shocker catch rate of 48 permile. Size structure is dominated by mid-sized bass. Only four percent were greaterthan 16 inches and none exceeded 18 inches.The lack of big bass is due to poor growthrather than excessive angler harvest. WoodLake and about 30 other northwestern Wis-consin lakes that no longer meet minimumgrowth criteria are being reviewed for a sizelimit exemption beginning this year. – Larry Damman, fisheries biologist,

Spooner

Forest and Florence countiesHowell Lake – Netting and electrofishingsurveys completed in 2007 revealed a nearaverage adult walleye population, severalstrong year-classes of northern pike and lowdensities of panfish and bass. The adult wall-eye population estimate for the 177-acre lakewas 408 fish or 2.3 per acre. Over half thewalleye captured were over the legal 15-inchsize limit, with several fish in the 30-inchrange. The northern pike population estimatewas 16 fish per acre, or just over 2,800 fish.The vast majority of the northern pike cap-tured were 14 to 22 inches. Anglers will enjoya near wilderness experience when fishingHowell Lake. The entire shoreline is com-pletely wooded except for one cabin. Theonly boat access is a carry-in type on ForestService property about one-half mile down-stream from the lake on the Pine River.Anglers are reminded to limit their activitiesto on-the-water only to avoid trespassing onthe privately owned shoreline.

fish up to 19 inches were captured. Thesmallmouth bass population is about halfthat of the largemouth bass, but the qualitywas better. Of the 120 smallmouth bassmeasured, there were respectable numbersover the minimum 14-inch size limit withsome trophy fish in the 20-inch range. Thepanfish population is dominated bybluegills with some rock bass and very lowdensities of the other species. Walleye andbrown trout fingerlings have therefore beenstocked in Keyes Lake in recent years toreduce smelt and in turn increase the wall-eye population. The future looks good foranglers interested in pursuing walleye,brown trout and bass.– Dave Brum, fisheries technician, Woodruff

Langlade and Lincoln counties

McGee Lake – McGee Lake, which wasrenovated in 2006 to eliminate an unwantedlargemouth bass population, was restockedwith brook trout following chemical treat-ment of the lake. In April, six adults (14 to17 inches) that had been removed from thelake before renovation were restocked. InJuly, 470 juveniles and adults (two to 10.4inches) were transferred into the lake fromMcGee Creek downstream. The lake wassurveyed in fall 2007 and we are very happyto report that no bass were captured or seen.The trout that were stocked are growing fastand the project is progressing as planned.We will transfer some more brook trout intothe lake in 2008 and will continue to moni-tor the trout population as it rebuilds. Thelake will reopen to fishing once it is safe todo so without harming the repopulationprocess, possibly in 2009 but maybe notuntil 2010.

East Branch of the Eau Claire River – Lastyear, brook trout numbers on our long-termsurvey station were up 13 percent over thelong-term average from 1986-2007. Our pop-ulation estimates showed that per mile, therewere more than 3,500 brook trout four inchesand larger. That’s down about 450 fish permile from the 2006 estimate, but size struc-ture remains very good.

Tug Lake – The walleye population in TugLake is doing well and was estimated at 5.3adults per acre. Natural reproduction isresponsible for this resurgent populationbecause the lake has not been stocked since2001. The bulk of fish are 12 to 18 inches.We saw very good walleye reproduction inour fall electrofishing survey. We captured138 young-of-the-year (51 per mile) rangingin size from 4.5 to 7.4 inches. Tug also haslow density, high quality populations ofbluegills, largemouth bass, smallmouth bassand musky. Northern pike are more common.

Bass and Long lakes – The adult walleyepopulation in these lakes has fallen to 0.6 fishper acre from an estimate of 1.1 per acre in2000. There is no natural reproduction ofwalleye in these lakes and they depend com-pletely on stocking. Although numbers arelow, if you are lucky enough to catch one, thesize quality is good with most fish in the 17-to 24-inch range. These lakes have goodlargemouth bass populations. We estimatedthe population of eight-inch and larger bass atalmost 15 per acre with good numbers up to16 inches. Northern pike are present in lownumbers but with nice size quality. Panfish(bluegills, crappies, perch, rock bass and bull-heads) are mostly small and stunted.

Otter Lake – Otter Lake, despite being only34 acres and receiving heavy fishing pressuredue to a public campground on its shores, hasa nice largemouth bass, bluegill, northernpike and crappie fishery. The bass population(eight inches and greater) is estimated at 3.4per acre with good size quality up to about 16inches. The northern pike population is highin numbers, but they are small. It could usesome thinning out as most fish are 12 to 18inches. The bluegills and crappies are a littleon the small side but there are some nicerones out there.

Seven Island and Somo lakes – In 2007,musky recapture netting surveys completedon these lakes found very good musky popu-lations. Seven Island is estimated to have 78fish, or 0.59 musky per acre greater than 30inches, and Somo 144 fish or 0.30 per acrethis size and larger. The population in SevenIsland Lake is completely supported throughnatural reproduction and fish in our netsranged from 21 to 42 inches. Somo Lakeappears to depend on stocking. It is currentlystocked every other year with 472 fingerlings(one per acre). Somo muskies in our surveysranged from 11 to 47 inches.

Lake Alexander and Merrill Flowage – In2007, musky marking netting surveys werecompleted on Lake Alexander and the MerrillFlowage. Both appear to have musky popula-tions that are low density but are larger fish.We only captured 14 musky in Lake Alex-ander and six in the Merrill Flowage. Theyranged in size from 33 to 49 inches in LakeAlexander and from 32 to 43 inches in theMerrill Flowage.

Prairie River – Last summer, trout numbersin our Prairie River long-term survey stationdeclined by seven percent from 2006, but arestill one percent above the long-term aver-age. This is somewhat surprising, consider-ing the very dry and warm summer we hadlast year. Size structure of trout in the PrairieRiver remains good, with five percent of thefour-inch and larger brook trout exceeding10 inches and five percent of the four-inchand larger brown trout exceeding 14 inches– Dave Seibel, fisheries biologist, Antigo

Oneida CountyThree Lakes Chain – We teamed up with thedam owner and Wisconsin Valley Improve-ment Company (WVIC), to survey six lakesnear the center of the chain (Big Stone to

Fisheries crews installed LUNKER structures and rock plunge pools as part of the habitat makeoveron Osceola Creek.

Elvoy Creek – One of the final phases of theElvoy Creek Meadows and Dam Sill Restor-ation Plan between the Forest Service, a pri-vate individual and the DNR was completed in2007. The goal was to restore the brook andbrown trout habitat of this segment of stream.In the process, 36 pools, one island, 10 runs,and 31 riffles were either created or enhanced.About 400 boulders and 55 16-foot wholecover logs were distributed within the restoredstream channel for trout cover. The ForestService will complete the plan in 2009 bydredging the plunge pool.

Keyes Lake – Comprehensive netting andelectrofishing surveys completed in 2007revealed a below-average adult walleyepopulation, a good bass population domi-nated by largemouth, some brown trout anda very low density of northern pike. Theadult walleye population estimate for the202-acre lake was 358 fish or 1.8 per acre.Most of the walleye captured exceeded thelegal 15-inch size limit, with a good num-ber of fish in the 20-inch range. Of the 265largemouth bass measured, most wereunder the 14-inch minimum size limit but

Rose, Summit and Upper Post lakes – In2007, our fall electrofishing schedule took usto these three lakes where we are evaluatingnatural walleye reproduction to see if stockingis justified. In Summit and Upper Post, wehave yet to see any sign of significant naturalreproduction, which means that stocking isstill in order. We did not find any young-of-the-year walleye in Rose Lake either.Unlike Summit and Upper Post, Rose Lake hasa naturally-reproducing walleye population.

Greater Bass Lake – The largemouth bass pop-ulation in Greater Bass Lake is improvingthrough the combination of fish being transferredinto the lake and an 18-inch size limit in effectsince 2003. As the bass population increases,they should help thin out and improve thebluegill, pumpkinseed, and crappie populations,producing more quality panfish for anglers.

Spring ponds – The spring ponds all had somenice populations of naturally-reproduced trout.If it’s brook trout you’re after, go to Maxwelland Willow springs. Hatton Springs has a fewbrookies, but it is dominated by brown trout,some of them very nice size.

TERRY

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Little Fork). We found a strong walleye popu-lation, centered on 12 inches and with goodnumbers to about 18 inches. The chain has areputation as an action packed musky fishery.We saw this during our fall 2006 surveys; lotsof muskies but only a handful of fish over 40inches. However, during the spring spawningseason the story was a little different: Aboutone-third of the muskies were over 40 inches,including a 50-plus inch fish handled andreleased by the WVIC crew.

The abundant Three Lakes walleye arekeeping bass numbers in check. Low num-bers of smallmouth bass were captured, but81 percent of them were 14 inches and larg-er. Panfish also showed low to moderate den-sity. Panfish size structure was good fornorthern Wisconsin, with good numbers ofbluegills out to eight and crappies to 11 inch-es. We also saw a few nice perch, but mostwere only six to eight inches.

Moen Chain – We estimated an average den-sity walleye population of 3.6 adults per acre,with good numbers of fish measuring into theupper teens. Northern pike and musky weremoderate in abundance but with good sizepotential. Most pike were 16 to 25 inches,while all sizes of musky were well represent-ed out to 45 inches. The largest pike we han-dled was a 39.7-inch female and the largestmusky was 49.2 inches. Moderate numbers ofgood-sized black crappies, perch and bluegillswere also present.

Musky population estimates found low tomoderate numbers of 30-plus inch fish onBuckskin (one every five acres) and NorthNokomis (one every 2.3 acres). On PelicanLake, a 50-inch minimum length limit formusky took effect in 2007. Musky anglersreport that some large fish are already present,but it will take a few years to really benefitfrom the increased protection. It took 17 yearsto grow a 52-inch, 34.8-pound musky taken

Northern Wisconsin continued

from Pelican by an angler this year.Fall surveys found good numbers of bass,

northern pike and panfish on Indian, Maple,Shishebogama and Gunlock lakes.

Trout populations in northern Wisconsinare down after six years of drought condi-tions. Look to stocked waters and largerstreams to provide the best fishing opportuni-ties. Look for brown trout in Dorothy Lake.Rainbows are planned for Perch, Hawk andLittle Bass lakes and brook trout will go intoMercer Springs and Brown, Gudegast, Scott,Starks and Thunder creeks. – John Kubisiak, senior fisheries biologist,

Rhinelander

Sawyer CountyNamekagon River – The pilot project forthe addition of 50 big woody cover structuresin the Larsen Road reach is now slated forsummer 2008.

The Namekagon is alive and well and con-tinues to be an excellent wild, trophy, browntrout fishery. Over the last 26 years the Larsenreach has supported 400 to 2,000 trout permile. Trout larger than 15 inches have account-ed for 10 to 30 percent of the population withdensities ranging from 30 to almost 200 permile. The 2007 survey showed around 1,000total trout per mile with 30 percent of that totalfish larger than 15 inches. That is about half thetotal population seen in 2006, but twice theproportion of big fish. Both years showed pop-ulations higher than the long-term average.

Try these Namekagon trout opportunities:Cable reach from Pacwawong Flowage

upstream to Lake Namekagon – Nine inchminimum, three bag, any gear. This fishery isnow about half brook trout.

Lenroot Reach downstream of Pacwa-wong Flowage to Phipps Flowage – One bagand 15-inch minimum, artificial only. Probablythe best section for brown trout, both numbersand size.

Phipps Reach – Between Phipps dam andLake Hayward. This section is entirely catch-and-release and artificial only. It has fewer troutthan above but may have even more big fish.

Below Hayward – Stocked, good winterfishery and the only inland stream fishery inWisconsin which is open year-round. It has anine-inch minimum and three bag limit duringthe regular open-water trout season, and catch-and-release and artificials only October through

Marinette CountyPeshtigo and Bagley flowages – Preliminaryresults from comprehensive lake surveys inspring 2007 show a healthy fishery in bothflowages supporting a range of game fish andpanfish including northern pike, largemouthbass, smallmouth bass, walleye, bluegills,black crappies, rock bass, pumpkinseed andyellow perch. In Bagley Flowage, northernpike ranged from 9.2 to 40 inches, averaging16.5 inches. Largemouth bass ranged fromnine to 19.5 inches and averaged 15.8 inches.Smallmouth bass ranged from 12.4 to 18.1inches, averaging 16.4 inches. The size of pan-fish is catchworthy in Bagley with bluegillsranging from 3.2 to 9.8 inches and averaging7.2 inches. Black crappies ranged from 4.6 to13.3 inches, averaging 8.9 inches. Yellowperch ranged from 6.6 to 12.6 inches, averag-ing 8.9 inches. Similar results are expected forPeshtigo Flowage. Both waters offer an excel-lent fishing opportunity, however, the aquaticplant mass in Bagley Flowage makes for sometough fishing June through September, and thehigh pleasure boat and personal watercraft useon Peshtigo Flowage can make for a challeng-ing fishing excursion. Final lake survey reportswill be available by spring 2008.

Oneonta Lake – This lake in northernMarinette County suffered a severe fish kill in

early May. Wild, migrant brook trout and a fewnative rainbows are a bonus here, too.

This stream has been fishing exceptionallywell in the new early season, during March andApril. Good early hatches include large stone-flies and the Hendrickson mayfly. Rapalas,wooly buggers and leech patterns are also agood bet. These big trout eat big meat! – Frank Pratt, fisheries biologist, Hayward

Rusk CountyDairyland Flowage – High quality angling ison the horizon after the 2007 completion of alarge-scale, fish habitat improvement projectthanks to the Rusk County Land and WaterConservation Department, Rusk CountyWildlife Restoration Association and Dairy-land Power Cooperative.

The partners “came together to seize a rareopportunity and built around 150 fish habitatstructures while the impoundment of theFlambeau Hydroelectric Station was drawndown 30 feet for scheduled dam maintenance,”says Paula Carow, Rusk County conservation-ist. “The last drawdown was in 1984.”

“The placement of rock and woody materi-als now serves to enhance the diversity andcomplexity of aquatic habitat where structuralfeatures were scarce,” says John Thiel, environ-mental biologist for Dairyland Power.“Additional substrates now provide fish coverand attachment sites for adhesive fish eggs,insects and invertebrates important in the foodchain.”

Fish will undoubtedly occupy the newhabitat, and the structures may serve toincrease angler success. The large number ofstructures should help prevent concentratedfish and anglers and many anglers enjoy fish-ing over structures and graphing lakebed fea-tures on depth recorders.– Jeff Scheirer, fisheries biologist,

Park Falls

Northeastern WisconsinNovember 2006. Fisheries surveys in springand summer 2007 found almost no live fishleft in the lake. The cause of the fish kill couldnot be determined. A rehabilitation plan hasbeen completed that will include stocking ofnative species to rebuild the fishery. The localsports groups as well as the lake associationare working together with the DNR to securefunds for the project. During 2007 we contin-ued our cooperative effort with the PeshtigoRiver Sportsman’s Society and stocked onemillion walleye fry into High Falls Reservoir.

Stream surveys were carried out on theSouth Branch Pemebonwon, the North BranchBeaver Creek, Holmes Creek, HomesteadCreek, Iron Springs Creek, Lower MiddleInlet, North Fork Thunder River, WausaukeeRiver, The Outlet, Rat River and the PikeRiver. The overall health of the streams sur-veyed was good, with natural reproduction ofbrook trout detected in trout waters and small-mouth bass in warm water systems. – Justine Hasz, fisheries biologist, Peshtigo

Oconto CountyArchibald Lake – Preliminary results from acomprehensive fishery survey in spring 2007show a healthy fishery supporting a range ofgame fish and panfish species, includinglargemouth bass, walleye, musky, northernpike, bluegills, black crappies, rock bass,pumpkinseed and yellow perch. Initial resultsshow a decline in the walleye population andan increase in the musky population. Thelargemouth bass population is very healthywith a good size structure. The panfish fish-ery also is very healthy with dominant speciesbeing bluegill, yellow perch and rock bass.

North Branch Oconto River – Stream sur-veys were carried out on the North BranchOconto River, West Thunder Creek andChristie Brook. The overall health of thestreams was good, with natural reproductionof brook trout detected in trout waters andsmallmouth bass in warmwater systems.

South Branch Oconto River – In June 2007a tornado ripped through several counties innortheast Wisconsin, causing a path of de-

struction more than 30 miles long. The U.S.Forest Service has begun cleanup in severallocations but access may be restricted tosome streams through 2008 until all haz-ardous trees are removed.

The South Branch Oconto River troutstocking project continued in 2007. Throughthe cooperative agreement between the DNRand the Oconto River Watershed Chapter ofTrout Unlimited and the Suring Sportsman’sClub, wild brook and brown trout were raisedfor stocking into area waters. In the fall of2007, over 800 large fingerling brook troutwere raised and stocked into Fischer Creek inManitowoc County to help rehabilitate a fish-ery that was adversely affected by a manurespill. A total of 12,000 brown trout werestocked in the fall of 2007 and were dispersedamong the Oconto River, South BranchOconto River and North Branch Oconto River. – Justine Hasz, fisheries biologist, Peshtigo.

Northern Green BayOutlying waters of Green Bay – Annual latesummer trawl surveys show several strongyear-classes since 2003 and yellow perch fish-ing on Green Bay should continue to be

rewarding for several years. The trawling sur-veys showed that 2007 produced a strong year-class with the relative abundance of young-of-the-year yellow perch ranking as the secondhighest in 20 years. Data collected during the2007 summer creel survey shows that 42 per-cent were age four (2003 year-class) and 39percent were age two (2005 year-class). Mostof the perch caught were between seven and 10inches, with an occasional fish 12 inches to 14inches. These large fish were mainly age sevenor nine. The open water sport harvest of yellowperch more than doubled from 2005 to 2006.This was partly due to regulation changeswhich allowed a daily bag limit of 15 fish in2006 instead of 10 in 2005. In addition tobeing able to keep more fish, anglers weremore successful in 2006 and caught nearlytwice as many yellow perch per hour spentfishing as the previous year. Harvest estimatesfor 2007 will be available in early 2008.

Seeforellen strain brown trout broodstock collections in the Menominee Rivercontinued for the 16th year in 2007. See-forellens captured by boom shocking on theMenominee River averaged 31 fish per dayin 2007. This was the same catch per day as2006. Most of the Seeforellens were two-

Joshua's fourth-grade field trip and fishing day atthe Tommy G. Thompson State Fish Hatchery inSpooner was really one to remember. He caughtone of the hatchery's retired broodstock fish, a big beautiful rainbow.

Members of the Oconto Chapter of Trout Unlimited and DNR fisheries crews install a weir on theSouth Branch of the Oconto River.

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Northeastern Wisconsin continued

and three-year olds stocked in 2005 and2006, with an average size of 26 inches andthe largest 37.8 inches. Domestic brown troutaveraged 23 inches with the largest 31.5inches. Large numbers of whitefish were alsoobserved during the late fall sampling.Walleye fishing in the Menominee andPeshtigo rivers and surrounding area ofGreen Bay has been good for the past fewyears and should persist based on the num-bers seen this fall.

The DNR continues annual stocking ofbrown and rainbow trout, Chinook and cohosalmon, and splake in Upper Green Bay.These fish will provide future opportunitiesfor stream angling and trolling. Efforts torestore the spotted musky population inUpper Green Bay continued with stockingyearling fish in 2007. – Tammie Paoli, fisheries biologist,

Peshtigo

Waupaca and Shawano countiesShawano Lake – Routine annual boomshocking surveys conducted on Shawano Lakeindicate largemouth bass populations are ingood shape. During 2007 fall assessments, 36bass per hour were captured during electrofish-ing with 22 percent larger than 14 inches.Panfish anglers can expect continued goodangling for bluegills. Bluegill catch rates aver-aged 324 bluegills per hour of electrofishingwith fish up to 7.9 inches. Northern pike num-bers appear to be down; however, size struc-ture has improved with 21-inch and larger fishmaking up a significant percentage of thecatch. Walleyes are still at very low densitieswith most of the population comprised of larg-er (20-plus inches) adults from year classesproduced in the 1990s. Muskies have contin-ued to provide a great fishery with several 45-to 50-inch muskies captured and observed dur-ing our fall assessments. This past year theDNR stocked 1,667 musky fingerlings.

Upper Red Lake – Surveys conducted dur-ing spring of 2007 indicate a healthy popula-tion of game fish and panfish. Upper Redsupports the highest quality northern pikefishery in the area. During our survey we cap-tured 232 adults ranging from 11.1 inches to35.6 inches, with more than 36 percentexceeding 26 inches and more than nine per-cent exceeding 30 inches. Panfish catch was

comprised mainly of abundant bluegills (over300 per net night) and average size structure(33 percent of catch greater than six inches).Largemouth bass were found in good num-bers and size with several bass up to 20 inch-es and more than 50 percent of the catchgreater than 14 inches. Muskies are alsofound in Upper Red Lake with some fishsampled up to 42 inches. Anglers venturingover to Upper Red Lake should concentratetheir effort during spring, late fall and wintermonths due to the extensive growth of aquat-ic plants which can limit the ability to fish iteffectively during the summer.

Wolf River – Anglers will continue to finddiverse angling opportunities as electrofish-ing surveys showed good populations of var-ious game fish and panfish throughout theriver. Game fish catch was comprised ofmainly smallmouth bass with lesser numbersof walleye, largemouth bass, flathead catfishand northern pike. Smallmouth bass catchrates were the highest in the reach betweenShawano and Shiocton with as many as 10bass caught per hour of electrofishing.Smallmouth bass size averaged 9.4 incheswith 21 percent over the legal size. This reachof river makes a nice float in a small boat orcanoe for anglers who want to get away fromthe crowds. Hoop net surveys conducted nearGills Landing and above the Mill Cut cap-tured good numbers of channel catfish.Channel catfish size averaged 21.3 inches andranged from 12.8 to 34.8 inches. The largestchannel catfish weighed in at 17.2 pounds.The highest number of flathead catfish weresampled at the Gills Landing/Red Banks area.A total of 182 flatheads were captured, rang-ing from 4.6 to 44.9 pounds.

Radley Creek – Habitat work completed bythe Wild Rose operations crew on RadleyCreek will help maintain this quality fishery.Crew members did maintenance work on sev-eral hundred feet of overhead bank cover in theRadley Creek Fishery Area. In addition, TroutUnlimited contributed several work days tobuild brush and Christmas tree bundles to cap-ture sediment and reinforce stream banks.Trout population surveys conducted in RadleyCreek have shown trout abundance at 1,568per mile with more than 20 percent of the troutexceeding the legal minimum size of nine inch-es. The creek has multiple areas for anglers toaccess the stream. Several marked parkingareas are located along state Highway 22.

Shawano County trout streams – Brooktrout populations in these streams have beenunder some stress due to low flow conditionsover the past couple years. However, troutpopulation surveys show acceptable levels ofabundance to provide decent fishing. Anglersinterested in brook trout fishing should con-centrate their efforts on headwaters of MillCreek and North Branch Embarrass River,where the 2007 surveys found abundantbrookies of all ages and sizes. – Al Niebur, fisheries biologist, Shawano

Door, Manitowoc, andKewaunee countiesLake Michigan and Green Bay, includingtributary streams – The Chinook (kingsalmon), continues to reign as Wisconsin’spremier sport fish in Lake Michigan. Duringsummer 2007 there was little doubt that biglake anglers were continuing to experiencethe best stretch of Chinook salmon fishing indecades. Because of low water levels, manyof the smaller boat launch access points willbe unusable again this coming summer.Anglers planning to fish the lakeshore areadvised to check with local municipalitiesbefore going to a particular launch. One newboat launch on Little Sturgeon Bay recentlybecame available, improving boater access tothis popular fishing area. The boat launch atthe Old Stone Quarry at the mouth ofSturgeon Bay has been expanded and nowincludes a harbor of safe refuge, a six-laneramp and plenty of parking.

Smallmouth bass populations along theDoor County shoreline remain strong andshould provide exciting fishing in 2008. Thestrong 1995 year-class of smallmouth willcontinue to provide abundant fish in excessof 18 inches. Trophy-sized fish above 20inches from the 1995 and older year-classesare not uncommon. Walleye populations inand around Sturgeon Bay and Little SturgeonBay received important supplemental stock-ing in 2003 and 2004 as nearly 425,000 wall-eye fingerlings were divided between the twobays. This walleye stocking effort shouldhelp establish two good year-classes of wall-eye, which should be available to anglers forseveral years to come.– Paul Peeters, fisheries supervisor,

Sturgeon Bay

Lake Michigan tributary streams –Following the spring melt, anglers can hooksteelhead, brown trout or northern pike inmany tributaries. In years with normal flow,anglers should try fishing farther upstream inlarge rivers or in smaller tributaries to avoidthe crowds. Suggested locations include theupper Manitowoc River, Branch River, StonyCreek or Whitefish Bay Creek. In low wateryears, the best bets will be the lower sectionsof larger rivers. Anglers looking for a differentfishing experience may want to try dip-nettingsuckers or smelt as they migrate upstream inLake Michigan or Green Bay tributarystreams. Summer should once again seeanglers catching a variety of fish in tributarystreams. Smallmouth bass fishing can be veryproductive during summer months in thelower Manitowoc and Kewaunee rivers.Following the reopening of the yellow perchseason in June, anglers can catch some nicesized perch in the Manitowoc Harbor and

River. If you are looking to hook some catfishor bullhead, try harbor fishing in Manitowoc,Two Rivers or Kewaunee. Anglers looking tocatch Skamania steelhead should be ready tofish the Manitowoc, East and West Twin,Kewaunee and Ahnapee rivers following acool, late summer rainfall.

With the onset of fall spawning migra-tions in mid-September, tributary fishing canbe fantastic! For a little more solitude, tryfishing smaller streams such as HibbardsCreek, Stony Creek, Silver Creek or FischerCreek. If the water is low this fall, the largerrivers will be the best bet for good fishingaction. During September and October,Chinook salmon and Skamania steelhead canbe found in streams in large numbers. WildRose brown trout can be caught duringOctober. Late October and November bringscoho salmon and Seeforellen brown troutinto streams. Finally, as the year comes to aclose, early running Chambers Creek steel-head can be found in lower sections of thelarger streams. – Steve Hogler, fisheries biologist, Mishicot

Winnebago SystemWolf and Upper Fox rivers, Winnebago,Butte des Morts, Winneconne, Poyganlakes – Walleye fishing will continue to begood to fantastic based on stats from therecord 11,000 walleye that state crews andvolunteers tagged during 2007 spring runs onthe Upper Fox and Wolf rivers. More than halfof the fish were 17 inches or larger and about15 percent exceeded 20 inches. Males rangedfrom 12 to 24.4 inches and averaged 16.75inches and 1.6 pounds. Females ranged from15.5 to 29.4 inches with 64.5 percent between19 and 22 inches and 13 percent exceeding 24inches. Please remember to release any fishyou catch with dark “polka dots” on the dorsalfin. These are sauger and walleye/saugerhybrids and they may not be kept while wework cooperatively with Walleyes forTomorrow and Otter Street Fishing Club torestore their population.

Bass populations continue to be healthyand their numbers are increasing, especial-ly smallmouth. They have become muchmore abundant in the last five years, espe-cially on the big lake along reefs and rockyshorelines. Based on bass tournament data,smaller fish (14 to 16 inches) still make upthe majority of anglers’ catch. Largemouths14 to 16 inches made up 66 percent of fishbrought to the scales. Smallmouths wereonly slightly larger, with a mean length of15.9 inches and weight of 2.02 lbs. Largefish are scarce.

Good perch and bluegill fishing has beenreported on the system as the resurgence ofrooted aquatic plants in bays, channels andshallows over the last five years has produceda cornucopia of panfish. Twice as many adultblack crappies were captured in trawl surveysfrom 2001-07 as the previous period, 34 timesas many yellow perch and bluegill were 67times as plentiful. There have also beenincreases in the trawl catches of young-of-year(YOY) for these species, especially perch.These increases have translated into somegood angling, and this summer should proveno different. – Kendall Kamke, senior fisheries biologist,

Oshkosh

South Central WisconsinDane CountyMadison chain of lakes – Musky anglers, takenote. Survey work conducted in 2007 on theYahara Chain (Mendota-Monona-Wingra-Waubesa-Kegonsa) focused on finalizing apopulation estimate for musky on Lake Wau-besa. Adult fish concentrate in spring and arevulnerable to netting efforts. Crews captured312 muskies, with 43 percent (145 fish)exceeding 38 inches, and 17 percent (56 fish),larger than 42 inches. From the 2006 markingsample, 63 fish were recovered, yielding apopulation estimate of 1,163 fish or .56 peracre. The largest fish was 47.1 inches andtipped the scales at 34.5 pounds.

Additionally, Waubesa walleye numberslook robust with ample numbers of fish

greater than 15 inches. More than a quarter ofthe fish sampled measured over 20 inches,and eight percent exceeded the “memorable”

definition of more than 25 inches.We noted better-than-average catch rates

and size distribution for walleye in Lake

Fisheries biologistTammie Paoli holdstight to a Great Lakes spotted muskyfrom the lowerMenominee River. M

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South Central Wisconsin continued

inches. Only three young-of-the-year wall-eye were sampled in 2007 fall electrofishing.Bluegills up to nine inches and yellow perchup to 8.9 inches were also sampled. Rockbass was the second most abundant panfishspecies at 39 fish per hour.

Rock River – This is the third year of anongoing fish tagging study to evaluate theeffectiveness of the Jefferson Dam fish pas-sage. The passage was installed in November2005 to allow game and nongame fish speciesupstream and downstream navigation of theRock River. To date, more than 2,000 fishhave been tagged as part of the study, andgood numbers of tag returns have beenreceived. So far the study has documentedsubstantial seasonal movement of fish fromLake Koshkonong to the Jefferson Dam andup the Crawfish River. Tag returns have docu-mented that one channel catfish, tagged inLake Koshkonong, was recovered below thelower Watertown Dam, indicating movementthrough the fish passage. – Laura Stremick-Thompson, fisheries

biologist, Horicon

Columbia CountyLake Wisconsin/Wisconsin River – Thenumber of walleye and sauger exceeding 20inches continues to increase five years afterregulations eliminated harvest of those fishbetween 20 and 28 inches. Fall 2007 shockingfound 33 walleye exceeding 20 inches versusthe 1993-2001 average of 12. Sauger largerthan 20 inches were nonexistent before therules, but eight were collected in 2007. Reportsof 28-plus inch walleye are starting to appear.Lower reproduction of both walleye andsauger was again noted in 2007. A largemouthbass population estimate was calculated frommarking and recapture of tagged fish at fivebass tournaments in 2007. Legal size large-mouth (14-plus inches) numbered about 4,000.A similar study in 2004 with smallmouthfound about 3,000, 14-plus-inch fish. LakeWisconsin supports quality panfishing forbluegills and crappies, along with good year-classes of white bass, according to recent sur-veys. Both channel and flathead catfish wererecorded. Some are very large. One guaranteeis that no fishing trip to Lake Wisconsin will beshort on catching drum (sheepshead), whetherthey are sought or not. Give them a taste test.You’ll be surprised.

Lake Columbia – The annual late fall elec-troshocking survey continues to confirm amajor change in this fishery, likely due towarmer lake temperatures. The once domi-nant largemouth bass fishery has declined tonear zero levels. No recruitment has beennoted since 2004. The stocked hybrid striperscontinue to survive, but no fish larger than 25inches has been found during the last fouryears. Channel catfish numbers of fish lessthan 12 inches continue to decline. This couldbe due to predation by flathead catfishery.Flatheads favor small bullhead/catfish typebait. A record number of 20- to 40-inch flat-heads were collected. Shad and smallbluegills continue to be abundant. The lake isopen year-round and allows for carry-in boatsand outboard motors at the public access onthe lake’s south end. A fish refuge is presentnear the power plant on both sides of the cen-ter dike.

Park Lake – Despite lower levels of shadnoted in fall 2006 and spring 2007 surveys,water quality and aquatic vegetation did notshow improvement during 2007. Shad wereabundant by fall 2007. Since the dramaticloss of habitat around the year 2000, the bassand panfishing have dramatically declined,with shad, and to a lesser degree carp, domi-nating the fishery. On the bright side, thestocked channel catfish of years ago are now22 inches to 28 inches and are reproducing,and nine- to 12-inch fish are abundant. Also,dense stocking of walleye from 2003 to 2006has created a decent walleye fishery of threefish per acre at or exceeding the minimumlegal size of 15 inches. Yellow bass are abun-dant and large enough to attract anglers.

Swan Lake – Despite abundant shad, thelake’s deep water negates their value as for-age. The most recent survey of 2005 notes agood walleye fishery maintained by stock-

ing, an excellent largemouth bass population,along with some smallmouth. Stockedmusky also provide action fish 45 inches andgreater. Crappies, bluegills, yellow bass,perch and channel cats round out the fishery.

Tarrant Lake – This 25-acre impoundmentwithin the Village of Cambria was refilledduring spring 2007. Stocking of pre-spawn,adult bluegills and fall fingerling bass willcontinue for the next three years. An Augustsurvey found good bluegill reproduction.This used to be a phenomenal little fishery,especially used by local kids.

Silver Lake – This 70-acre lake has alwaysbeen plagued by stunted bluegills, but theyprovide good action for kids. It has low den-sity largemouth bass, though some aredandies. There are also naturally-reproduc-ing northern pike, limited large walleyesfrom volunteer stocking and on any givensummer evening there will be three to fourboats casting for musky. Poor forage baseresults in slower musky growth but fish 40inches or greater are still present.

Long Lake – There is a little bit of everythingin this 69-acre lake just west of Portage, butit’s good for bass, northern pike, crappies andbluegills. There is poor boat access on thelake’s east side.

Spring Lake – A fall 2004 shocking surveyfound the lake to be “alive with fish.” Look fornice bluegills, some crappies, largemouth bass,walleye, northern pike and a few muskies.

A boat ramp provides access on the southside of this 24-acre lake, just below ParkLake in Pardeeville. No outboard motors areallowed. Fish from downstream Swan Lake;you can enter via the Fox River connection.

Crystal Lake – Getting to this groundwater-fed, 27-acre lake, southeast of Pardeevillewill require a half-mile walk, but it’s worththe effort. You’ll find deep, clear water withgood vegetation and plenty of bass, bluegills,crappies and perch.

Fish Lake – The most recent survey, 2003,found a good opportunity to catch andrelease bass under the 18-inch size limit.Dense milfoil beds allow bluegills to escapepredation, thus they are abundant but don’tgrow to quality size, although a fair numberof seven-inch fish exist. Carp are abundantand nutrient levels from agricultural runoffover the years have decreased water quality.Mud Lake, connected by a road culvert, con-tains good populations of quality size yellowbullheads and seven- to nine-inch crappie.Water levels have dropped due to dry condi-tions the past few years, making the boatramp more accessible.– Tim Larson, fisheries supervisor, Poynette

Sauk CountyDevil’s Lake – The brown trout fishery con-tinues to grow in popularity. About 15 per-cent of the catch is comprised of two-year-old trout (14 to 17 inches) which have sur-vived one summer. Stocked at nine inches inApril, they grow to 12 inches by fall. Anglersenjoy ice fishing for the trout, using fatheadminnows. The lake touts a trophy northernpike fishery with its 32-inch size limit. A2006 ice-out netting survey found low densi-ty but a stable number of pike. The surveynoted good numbers of large females, 32 to41 inches and good recruitment of the 2004year-class. Largemouth, smallmouth bassand jumbo bluegills are also present. Onlyelectric motors are allowed.

White Mound Lake – Sampling in 2007 stillfound plenty of small gills, though anglerswere reporting larger bluegills and crappiescaught in deeper water. The bass numbers(eight-plus inches) are up 27 percent com-pared to a 1999 survey. Numbers of eight-plus-inch fish are 12 per acre, better thanaverage for local lakes. A robust five per acreare 14- to 17-inch fish.

Lake Virginia – This lake is becoming aquality bass and bluegill fishery four yearsafter the lake was drained, refilled in spring2004 and subsequently restocked with adultbass and bluegills.

Mirror Lake – The most recent survey in2006 reports this 137-acre state park impound-ment continues to support an excellent large-mouth bass population. Native northern pikeare also present and stocked walleye supportgood numbers of 10-to 18-inch fish. Bluegills,black crappies and yellow perch provide plen-ty of action as well. There is a township boatlanding on the lake’s northwest side and a verynice access in the park.

Lake Delton – This 267-acre impoundment isa playground for Wisconsin Dells water activ-ity. However, when activity tapers off in thefall and early spring and during early morningand evening, it offers excellent fishing. A goodlargemouth bass population, stocked walleyeand spillover northern pike from Mirror Lakeoffer outstanding action. The lake has shadforage, which allows for good growth.Bluegills, crappies and yellow bass providepanfishing. The main boat landing is in thelake’s southeast corner.

Leland Pond – Record rainfall during August2007 “flooded out” this 14-acre impoundmenton the North Branch of Honey Creek, locatedin the Village of Leland. A September surveyfound a variety of rough fish species belowthe dam had not migrated into the pond. Bassnumbers were down 50 percent compared to a

Mendota. The average size fish was 15 inches,with fish in the low 20-inch sizes common.Similarly impressive were robust panfishsamples on both Lakes Monona and Waubesa.Monona bluegills ranged all the way to 9.2inches and 63 percent of fish captured werelarger than six inches. Waubesa showed excel-lent bluegill numbers, appropriate for younganglers who require more “catching” than har-vest. Bass anglers can choose visits to eitherLake Monona for largemouth or LakeMendota for smallmouth. Both lakes haveexcellent numbers of catchable fish greaterthan 12 inches, and harbor memorable fishmeasuring 18 inches and larger.

Black Earth Creek – Dane County troutanglers will be happy to find easier accessalong the banks of Black Earth Creek, whereDNR brushing crews have re-established theopen meadow conditions characteristic ofspring creeks. DNR stream surveys were con-ducted at 14 sites on seven systems includingDeer Creek, Gordon Creek, Black EarthCreek, Elvers Creek, Kittleson Valley Creek,Primrose Branch and West Branch of theSugar River. The most striking trend was thestrong number of six- to 10-inch fish in allsystems. This is indicative of good carry-overof both natural and stocked fingerlings fromthe previous year. Recent stream habitatrestorations and land use improvements with-in their respective watersheds may be respon-sible for improvements in these streams.

TABLE 1 Catches of brown trout per mile, Dane County, 2007

STREAM NO. TROUT PERCENTNAME PER MILE > 9 INCHES

Gordon Creek 425 14

Black Earth Creek 1,341 31

Elvers Creek 443 32

Kittleson Valley Creek 322 28

Primrose Branch 450 21

West Branch Sugar River 99 71

In each system, fish greater than 14 inchesare available, however Dane County streams“grass over” by June, making mid-summerfishing more challenging.– Kurt Welke, fisheries biologist, Fitchburg

Dodge and Jefferson countiesBeaver Dam Lake – As usual, the severity ofthe winter of 2008 will determine the fate ofupcoming fishing on Beaver Dam Lake.Volunteers from the Beaver Dam LakeImprovement Association operate an aerationsystem on the lake and are prepared to install it.

Fox Lake – Walleye catch rates for 2007 fallelectrofishing were 54 per hour, compared to116 per hour in 2006. The number of young-of-the-year (YOY) walleyes under 10 incheswas 15 per hour compared to 22 per hour in2006. In 2007, DNR did not stock walleyesinto Fox Lake due to VHS restrictions placedon the state hatchery system. Therefore, theyoung-of-the-year walleyes sampled in fallelectrofishing surveys may be the result of nat-ural reproduction in the lake. Catch rates oflargemouth bass in 2007 (43 per hour) wereconsistent with those in 2006 (49 per hour).Favorable conditions for aquatic plants contin-ue to support a productive fishery on FoxLake. Anglers should continue to experiencegood crappie fishing. 2007 fall electrofishingsampling reported black crappies up to 10.5inches. Bluegill catch rates remained good in2007 (449 per hour), consistent with 2006catches (477 per hour).

Rock Lake – Fall electrofishing surveys pro-duced largemouth bass up to 20.5 inches andsmallmouth bass up to 18 inches. Overallcatch rates for walleyes remain consistentlylow at 3.7 per hour, compared to 2.4 per hourin 2006, with fish ranging from 7.1 to 23.8

Linda Swenson shows that fall musky fishing can pay off. She reeled in this 39-inch fighter from LakeWingra in Dane County in November, only to hook a 34-incher less than two hours later.

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South Central Wisconsin continued

1995 survey. The pond was stocked in fall2007 with 1,200 bass fingerlings. Carp num-bers have increased, but the pond is still dom-inated by dense vegetation, which would notbe present if carp were overabundant. Thebluegill population appears heavily harvestedas larger size fish were not noted.

Dutch Hollow – This very deep, 210-acreclear water impoundment can make daylightfishing difficult. A 2006 bass survey foundthe number of eight-plus-inch fish downfrom the last survey in 1993, with only 164fish per hour instead of 256, but still verygood for local lakes. Dutch Hollow is notedfor large-sized bluegills and crappies. The2006 survey found a good number of 16- to24-inch walleyes, supported by small finger-ling stocking.

Sauk and Columbia County trout streams– Stocking wild strain trout has provided twoto three times better survival in the troutstreams. About 80 percent of the streams arestocked. The better streams in ColumbiaCounty are Rowan, Rocky Run, Jennings andLodi, while in Sauk County try Dell, Rowleyand Manley for native brookies. Habitat workconducted in 2004 and 2005 on two stretchesof Honey Creek (Class II brown trout) inwestern Sauk County is showing positiveresponse and receiving high angler use. Aboutthree months after habitat work was complet-ed on 800 feet of a feeder stream to LodiSpring Creek in southwestern ColumbiaCounty, native population of brown troutexploded in that segment. We found 10 timesthe young-of-the-year and yearlings, fivetimes as many nine- to 11-inch fish, and twiceas many 12-plus-inch fish. This is an exampleof “if you build it they will come.”– Tim Larson, fisheries supervisor, Poynette

Lafayette CountyYellowstone Lake – Anglers looking forwalleyes or channel catfish will find Yellow-stone Lake to their liking. Expect good toexcellent fishing in 2008 for walleyes, chan-nel catfish, largemouth bass and smallmouthbass. Musky and northern pike populationsare low-density big-fish fisheries. Crappiefishing will be slower than previous years.The crappie population crashed in 2007 as aresult of a columnaris bacteria outbreak. Earlyice fishing reports from 2007 indicate thereare still a few crappies to catch as well asmany bluegills.

Smallmouth bass streams – Historically,southwest Wisconsin was nationally recog-nized for its smallmouth bass fishing in smallstreams. Although the national attention hasfaded, the quality of fishing has not. Thesesmall streams still offer a rare opportunity tocatch trophy-sized smallmouth bass. Unliketrout, smallmouth bass are present in lowernumbers. Good smallmouth streams will haveonly 50 to 100 mature fish per mile as troutstreams may harbor 750 to 1,000 mature fishper mile. Some of the more productivestreams include the Galena River, Yellow-stone River, Blockhouse Creek, RattlesnakeCreek, and the Platte/Little Platte rivers.Because of the generous contributions fromthe Badger Fly Fishers and Wisconsin Small-mouth Alliance, 1,800 feet of smallmouth basshabitat work will be completed onBlockhouse Creek in 2008.

Pecatonica River and East BranchPecatonica River – Channel catfish continueto be the mainstay of this fishery and one of thebetter channel catfish fisheries in south centralWisconsin. Channel catfish in the 19- to 23-

inch range are abundant, with some fish up to30 inches, and flatheads up to 42 inches. Thebest time to catch these fish will be mid-Aprilthrough the end of August, before many of thecatfish will migrate south to Illinois. Thesewaters up to Highway 151 (Pecatonica River)and Highway 39 (East Branch of the Peca-tonica River) offer anglers excellent opportuni-ties to pursue walleye during March and April.Walleyes 16- to 18-inches are common, withsome fish larger than 20 inches.

Gordon Creek – Trout habitat work wascompleted on 1,300 feet of Gordon Creekwith plans underway for work on another4,600 feet in the next two years. With aboutfour miles of public fishing easement, GordonCreek supports one of the better brown troutfisheries south of State Route 18. There are anestimated 300 adult trout per acre from sur-veys conducted in 2005. Surveys conducted in2007 supported this information and the troutfishery has remained stable. With brown trouttopping 20 inches, the creek offers anglers theopportunity to catch trophy-size fish.

Borah Creek, Little Grant River, GrantRiver – Located within 10 minutes ofLancaster, all of these streams harbor goodbrown trout fisheries. Combined, there areseven miles of public bank fishing easementsavailable to anglers. All of these streams har-bor brown trout populations near 300 adulttrout per acre. Adult brown trout range fromseven to 21 inches. For those of us accus-tomed to the “good ol’ days” of many largetrout within these systems, we will have tochange the way we view these fisheries. Goneare the days of stocking numerous largeholdover trout and brood fish measuring 12 to24 inches. It is advantageous for trout livingin these systems to have a smaller body size;so many anglers will not see the 21- to 26-inch brown and rainbow trout of the past.Trophy fish in these systems will now be inthe 16- to 18-inch range. There are still a few20-plus inch fish present, but anglers lookingfor these larger fish will have to look fartherdownstream on the Grant River. – Bradd Sims, fisheries biologist,

Dodgeville

Grant, Iowa andRichland counties Heavy rains and flooding in southwesternWisconsin in August 2007 eliminated thedrought conditions that had persisted for sev-eral years. All streams have returned to normalor slightly above normal conditions and thereare still good populations and good size struc-tures. The flooding subjected trout to a periodof serious physical abuse and water qualityproblems, and that’s a concern for survival ofsome of them, but there are still a whole lot ofspawners, since the flooding created a lot ofgood clean gravel for spawning. The watervolume is up and the water quality is current-ly very good. Only time will tell, but our wildtrout populations have shown to be very hardyand resilient to most environmental changes.Adult wild brown trout average 10 to 13 inch-es with big trout measuring 14 to 16 inchesand trophies measuring 17 or 18 inches. Wildtrout in excess of 18 inches are very scarce inthe small streams of this part of the state.

Lower Wisconsin River – The overall fish-eries of the Lower Wisconsin River (LWR)are in very good shape. The walleye popula-tion has seen a significant increase in thenumber of 15- to 18-inch fish resulting fromincreased protection afforded by the newlyestablished 18-inch size limit. Fair increasesin the number of 19-inch and larger fish havealso been noted in the surveys. In particular,anglers report that the number of mediumand, to some extent, larger walleyes caughtdownstream has improved significantly.There was a summer kill of walleye at thePrairie du Sac Dam in July. About 150walleyes of all sizes were killed, a significantnumber, but in the overall scope of the river,it shouldn’t have too great an impact. InOctober 2007 we stocked 500 extendedgrowth young-of-the-year (YOY) walleyenear the dam to help mitigate the loss.

The channel catfish are currently in goodshape and continue to be the most importantfishery on the lower part of the LWR. Thesmallmouth bass population has a good num-ber of fish with a number of medium andlarger fish. Almost all bass anglers on theLWR practice catch and release exclusivelyand the population is improving to reflectthis practice. The crappie population remainsin pretty good shape for number and size dis-tribution. The population of large bluegillshas passed out of the system, replaced byvery good numbers of medium-size fish.These are little-utilized fisheries and wouldprovide good fishing for people wanting tospecifically target these species.

Blackhawk Lake – The largemouth basspopulation has responded positively to thespecial “no size limit” regulation in effect forthe past few years. The overpopulation ofmedium bass has been reduced and the cur-rent population still consists of good num-bers, but the fish are much heavier for theirbody length and there are more large fish.

Cox Hollow Lake – The special “no sizelimit” regulation for bass has eliminated theseverely stunted population of bass but thebluegill fishery remains dominated by amoderate number of medium and larger fishwith only a limited number of smaller fish.The liberal bass regulation will remain ineffect until the number of smaller panfishdramatically improves.

Twin Valley Lake – Intensive managementefforts in recent years have greatly improvedthe overall quality of the fishery. The lakecurrently has dense populations of small tomedium bluegills and small crappies, andthere is no limit on the number that may beharvested in any one day. The largemouthbass population is protected by a catch-and-release regulation and has an excellent num-ber of large fish and an excellent size struc-ture. The number of muskies stocked in thelake has been reduced and significantamounts of musky forage have been plantedin the lake. This has resulted in normal catchrates along with fish in much better condi-tion. While not a producer of trophy musky,the number of 36- to 40-inch fish is outstand-ing for a small lake. The lake has a 40-inchmusky size limit. – Gene Van Dyck, fisheries biologist,

Dodgeville

Southeastern Wisconsin

Southern LakeMichiganOpen lake fishing – Chinook salmon fishingon Lake Michigan has been phenomenal inrecent years and another harvest record wasset in 2007, when angelers caught more thanan estimated 430,000 Chinoock. In the sum-mer of 2007, many fish in the 15- to 20-poundrange were reported. A slight reduction inChinook stocking implemented lakewide in2006 should further improve their growth andsurvival in coming years.

In spring 2007, coho were abundant, andsouthern Wisconsin anglers enjoyed goodfishing. However, a reduction in coho stockingby Michigan DNR in spring 2007 may have

Lake Waubesa in Dane County’s Yahara chain of lakes ranks 10th in the state as a fishing destination,no surprise given its robust walleye population. Surveys in 2007 found that more than a quarter of thefish sampled exceeded 20 inches and eight percent topped 25 inches.

Scott Bunde and his daughter teamed up to land this 20-pound Chinook while fishing LakeMichigan.

implications for Wisconsin anglers in 2008and beyond. Coho stocked in Michigan pro-vide a significant portion of the fishery insouthern Wisconsin because coho follow anannual clockwise migration pattern aroundLake Michigan’s southern basin. As the seasonprogresses and water temperature increases,most coho follow the Illinois and Wisconsinshore north. Through an unprecedentedfundraising effort, Wisconsin and Illinois sportanglers provided more than $47,000 toMichigan DNR to raise additional yearlingcoho for stocking in 2008.

Nearshore fishing – Shore anglers enjoyedsome good fishing in July and August work-ing harbors and river mouths for Skamaniasteelhead. These fish were staging in antici-

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West Central Wisconsin

pation of their early fall spawning run. TheChambers Creek and Ganaraska strainsshould also provide some action for anglersin late winter and early spring.

In recent years, two additional rainbowtrout strains have been stocked on an experi-mental basis to boost opportunities to fishfrom shore or small boats: the Arlee strainstocked since 2001 and the Kamloops strainsince 2003. Both strains have quickly beenreaching catchable size, as reported by theLake Michigan creel survey.

Brown trout fishing was good in spring andfall 2007. Browns provide a consistent near-shore fishery during the cold months, especial-ly at warmwater discharges and near rivermouths. We see dependable returns on domes-tic brown trout, while the fast-growing, hard-fighting Seeforellen strain continues to addexcitement to the brown trout fishery.

Numbers of yellow perch in Lake Michi-gan are slowly showing signs of improvement,but overall the population is still low. The 2002and 2003 year-classes now contribute mostsignificantly to the sport harvest, but the 1998year-class is still represented in the sport catchas well. In addition, the 2005 year-class is alsoappearing in significant numbers in annualDNR surveys, indicating a healthier perchpopulation developing in the lake.

Many of our harbors have seen habitatimprovements over the last decade. This hastranslated into increasing naturally reproduc-ing populations of smallmouth bass and north-ern pike, two species native to Lake Michigan.Fishing for these species has increased asmore anglers choose to target them.

Walleyes stocked in the Milwaukee Riverhave shown good survival and high growthrates. Walleye anglers can be found throughoutthe lower Milwaukee River, the MenomoneeRiver and canals, as well as in the harbor.

Tributary fishing – Dry conditions through-out early fall 2007 led to low flows in areatributaries and a relatively mediocre salmonrun. In fall 2008, we anticipate good returnsof Chinooks and coho, provided the riverwater levels remain conducive for upstreamfish migration.

Spring and fall steelhead runs have notbeen strong in recent years. Anglers can gen-erally look for Skamania as water tempera-tures start to cool in mid-September.Chambers Creek usually follows in late falland Skamania can be found through Marchand early April. Ganaraska enter the streamsas early as late November and December andagain from late March through April.

For up-to-date fishing information, callthe Southern Lake Michigan Fishing Hotlineat (414) 382-7920. To read information aboutour Lake Michigan program visit dnr.wi.gov/fish then look under “Fisheries Program” tofind “Lake Michigan.”– Pradeep Hirethota and Cheryl Peterson,

Southern Lake Michigan fisheries,Milwaukee

Walworth and Racine countiesBrowns Lake – Browns Lake is a good bet forplenty of action on largemouth bass and north-ern pike. Our electrofishing surveys revealedgood numbers of largemouth bass. Catch ratesfor the last four years ranged between 85 and110 per hour and averaged 92 fish per hour.Most fish are 14 inches and in good condition,with five percent 16 inches or longer. Northernpike are abundant and should provide excellentice fishing action. Our catch rates werebetween 18 and 23 per hour and averaged 21per hour. We sampled northerns up to 32 inch-es but most are between 18 and 21 inches.

Delavan Lake – This lake supportsexcellent populations of walleyes, north-ern pike and largemouth bass. Our fykenet and electrofishing surveys sampledwalleyes up to 26 inches. We estimatethere are 11,800 adult walleyes, or 5.7per acre, which is excellent for stockedlakes. These walleyes are in excellentcondition and many are larger than the18-inch minimum size limit. We esti-mate 4,970 adult northern pike, or 2.4per acre, which is very good and repre-sentative of healthy naturally reproduc-ing populations. Angler catches of fishexceeding 32 inches are fairly common.

We sampled largemouth bass up to 25inches. They are in excellent conditionand most bass are between 12 and 18inches with nine percent 18 inches orlarger. Smallmouth bass aren’t quite asabundant but size structure is excellent.Smallmouth average 16 inches and wehave sampled fish up to 19 inches. If youare lucky enough to hook a musky, it willbe worth your time. We have sampledmuskies up to 48 inches. The lake hasplenty of bluegills, with the average size

six inches but also fish eight inches and larger.If you like big crappies, Delavan Lake hasthem. Average length is eight inches and thereare crappies 12 inches and larger out there.

Geneva Lake – Geneva Lake provides excel-lent angling opportunities for warmwater,coolwater and coldwater game fish. This lakesupports naturally reproducing populations oflargemouth bass, smallmouth bass, bluegills,black crappies, yellow perch, rock bass andnorthern pike. Walleyes, lake trout, and browntrout are stocked. Largemouth and smallmouthbass anglers go here for big bass and lots ofthem. Our fisheries surveys revealed that 85percent of the largemouth bass we caught werelegal size (14 inches or larger) and 10 percentwere 18 inches or larger, with some up to 20inches. We have sampled walleyes up to 30inches and 13 pounds, and yellow perch androck bass up to 10 inches. Big crappies arehere and anglers have harvested fish up to 16inches. Lake trout are stocked annually andprovide anglers using downriggers good actionin the summer. Most lake trout are between 24and 28 inches. – Doug Welch, senior fisheries biologist,

Sturtevant

Waukesha CountyPine Lake – Results from the 2005-2006Pine Lake Comprehensive Survey indicates aquality size structure for walleye as well asan abundance of bass and bluegills.Estimated walleye harvest is one out of everyfive fish caught. Walleye growth rates areslightly higher than the statewide average,yielding an average length of 17.5 incheswith the largest fish measuring 33 inches.The electrofishing catch rate for largemouthbass was 32 per mile, providing fast actionfor bass anglers. Average length of the large-mouth bass sample was 11 inches with thelargest measuring 22 inches. Average lengthof smallmouth bass was 13 inches with thelargest measuring 21 inches.

Other Waukesha County lakes – Whethercasting for a trophy musky or looking for ameal of keeper bluegills, anglers can findopportunities throughout the county.

Walleye – Lac La Belle’s 20-inch size limitand one daily bag limit maintains high num-bers and an average size structure. For largerwalleyes, opportunities include Oconomowoc,Pewaukee, Nagawicka and Little Muskego.

Bass – For largemouth bass, Okauchee,Pewaukee, Keesus, Denoon and Big Muskegoall provide decent size and numbers. Ocono-mowoc, Pine and Nagawicka are excellentchoices to target smallmouth bass.

Musky – Each year Pewaukee and Okaucheereceive up to 3,000 musky fingerlings andboth lakes continue to produce a few 50-inchfish each year. Other fishable musky popula-tions are found in Oconomowoc, Fowler andLac La Belle.

Northern Pike – Big Muskego continues tosupport excellent pike action for the region.Other pike destinations include Golden,Ashippun and Phantom lakes.

Panfish – Lower Genessee, Nagawicka andBig Muskego lakes are producing quality sizepanfish. – Benjamin Heussner, fisheries

biologist, Waukesha

Sheboygan, Washington and eastern Fond du Lac countiesFish surveys on the Sheboygan River fromJohnsonville downstream to Kohler in 2007indicated that anglers should be able to findan abundance of smallmouth bass to catch.Few of the bass exceeded the 14-inch sizelimit but they should provide a good deal ofaction. Access to the river can be found at themany bridge crossings.

Friess Lake – A fish survey of Friess Lakenear Richfield in spring 2007 yielded goodresults for anglers. The lake has a fairly goodpopulation of bluegills and black crappies. Afew nice-sized northern pike were also caughtby trap nets during the survey.

Pike Lake – Pike Lake continues to producesome excellent largemouth bass fishing. Thewalleye population remains strong in the lakebut walleyes can be tough to catch due to theabundance of small panfish in the lake.

Long Lake – Long Lake remains the bestlargemouth bass lake in the region, produc-ing both good numbers and higher than aver-age size. Best fishing for bass is early morn-ing and evening when boating activity is low.Bluegill fishing in Long Lake should also bevery good during 2008. – John Nelson, fisheries biologist,

Plymouth

Kenosha CountySilver Lake – Anglers will find quality

fishing for largemouth bass here. These fishreproduce naturally and no stocking is neces-sary. We do however, stock walleyes, musky,and northern pike into Silver Lake: 23,000walleyes are stocked every other year; 900muskies are stocked every year; and 1,700northern pike are stocked periodically. Fykenet and electrofishing surveys yieldedmuskies up to 48 inches, walleye up to 22inches and northern pike up to 38 inches.Bluegills are moderately abundant and pro-vide good action in late spring, early summer.Black crappies do well in this lake with 12-inch fish being reported. – Doug Welch, senior fisheries biologist,

Sturtevant

Mississippi River Backwaters – (Pools 4, 5,5a and 6) Based upon recent shocking and net-ting surveys, fishing should continue to begood for many species during 2008. Surveysfound good numbers of bluegills and blackcrappies. Black crappies averaged 9.3 inches,

while 30 percent were between 10 and 12 inch-es. Black crappies ranged to near 14 inches. Ofthe bluegills surveyed in 2007, 59 percent weresix inches to eight inches, with about one infive bluegill from seven to eight inches. The2007 surveys showed average numbers ofnorthern pike. Similar to previous surveys, theaverage pike was near 26 inches, while thelargest was 39 inches. During 2008, large-mouth bass should provide plenty of catchingopportunities. The 2007 surveys showed goodnumbers of largemouth both above and belowthe 14-inch size limit. Good numbers of large-mouth 15 inches to 17 inches are available,while surveys have shown fish up to 20 inches. – Brian Brecka, fisheries biologist, Alma

Adams and Juneau countiesNeenah Creek – DNR fisheries crews elec-trofished a stretch of stream from the conflu-ence of Peppermill Creek 1,250 feet upstreamon Neenah Creek. The survey captured 137brown trout ranging from four inches to 15.4

inches, with an average length of eight inches.The survey determined a healthy population ofnaturally reproducing brown trout. The 1983habitat improvement project is still functioningafter 24 years and is creating excellent troutfishing opportunities into 2008 and beyond.

Big Roche-a-Cri Creek – DNR fisheriescrews electrofished 4,000 feet of stream westof County Highway G and found a healthypopulation of naturally reproducing brooktrout and a small population of brown trout.We captured 351 brook trout ranging from fourinches to 14.9 inches with an average length of7.39 inches. Fourteen brown trout were cap-tured and ranged from 6.5 to 14.4 inches withan average length of 8.59 inches. The old habi-tat project from 1980 is still functioning wellafter 27 years and excellent trout fishing can beexpected in 2008 and into the future.

Castle Rock Flowage – Walleye continues tobe the main target species for most anglers andsurvey results suggest anglers will find moreand bigger walleyes in 2008. A spring 2007netting survey of the Castle Rock Flowage car-

Keep the lead out!Lead fishing tackle kills aquatic wildlifedependent on Wisconsin's lakes, riversand streams. Just one lead sinker isenough to kill a loon.

You can prevent lead poisoning inwildlife:• Replace lead jigs and sinkers with

those made of tin, bismuth, steel,tungsten or ceramic.

• Ask the business where you pur-chase fishing tackle to carry non-lead products.

• Dispose of old lead sinkers and jigsproperly at your local hazardouswaste collection site.

• Outfit your children's tackle boxeswith non-lead tackle.

Visit dnr.wi.gov/fish/pages/gettheleadout.htmlfor more information.

The DNR project to rehabilitate habitat and waterquality on Big Muskego Lake in Waukesha County in the 1990s is producing great fishing, hunting and clean water. Thomas Zagar caught this 21-inchlargemouth bass in 2007.

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West Central Wisconsin continued

ried out by DNR fisheries crews captured 345walleyes, ranging from seven to 30.4 inches.The number captured, (8.1 per net) is amongthe most captured in any previous netting sur-vey. The proportion of walleye exceeding 20inches also increased to 5.8 percent and includ-ed four walleyes between 29 and 30 inches.That compares to the 0.8 percent and no fishlarger than 28 inches found in 2003, indicatingthat the slot size limit is doing exactly what itwas designed to do by increasing the numberof walleyes larger than 20 inches. The mini-mum length limit on walleye and sauger is 15inches but fish from 20 through 28 inches maynot be kept and only one fish over 28 inches isallowed. Sixty-two percent of the walleye pop-ulation in the flowage fall under 15 inches andthese fish are protected by the slot size limit,while 31 percent fall within the harvest slotbetween 15 and 20 inches. The average lengthof the male walleyes was 13.5 inches while theaverage length of the females was 19.2 inches.

Two significant findings were the largenumber of black crappies and the excellentaverage size of the bluegills. The survey cap-tured 1,612 black crappies, ranging from 4.7inches to 12.6 inches. The average length ofthe crappies was 6.6 inches. The survey alsocaptured 159 bluegills ranging in size fromfive inches to 10.2 inches. The averagelength of the bluegills was 7.3 inches

The survey captured 186 northern pike,(4.42 per net) ranging from 12.7 to 40.4 inches.Of the pike population, 92.4 percent are underthe 32-inch size limit while 7.5 percent are overthe size limit. Male northern pike averaged21.7 inches and females averaged 27.1 inches.The good news is that the number captured,(4.42 per net) is significantly higher than the2.7 per net captured in the 2003 survey. – Scot Ironside, fisheries biologist,

Friendship

Marathon and Portage countiesWisconsin River – The Wisconsin River con-tinues as a great destination for anglers toexperience a wide range of fisheries. Gamefishsurveys completed at five locations in 2007found that smallmouth bass comprised 65 per-cent of the combined catch, followed by wall-eye representing 15 percent, channel catfishwith 9.3 percent, musky and largemouth basseach at four percent, northern pike at 1.3 per-cent and white bass at 0.67 percent.

The greatest catch rate of smallmouth (46fish per hour) was recorded below the StevensPoint Dam. Smallmouth ranged from three to18.1 inches and averaged 10.7 inches, verysimilar to 2006. At four of the five sites, 60 to80 percent of the fish were 11 inches or greater.

Walleye were captured at all five locationswith the greatest catch rate found below DubayDam at 8.1 fish per hour. Walleye ranged from6.7 to 19.2 inches and averaged 11.2 inches.

The annual channel catfish hoop net studyfocused on new sites in 2007, below MosineeDam and below Rothschild Dam. The greatestcatch was recorded below Rothschild (22.4 fishnet per night), where 22 percent of the catfishexceeded 16 inches and 11 percent exceeded 24inches. The catch below Mosinee was 4.75 netper night and 68 percent of the catfish belowMosinee were greater than 16 inches.

Collins Lake – Survey results indicate north-ern pike remains the dominant predator butanglers will find significantly more big fishthan a generation ago. Catch rates of 3.4 fishper net per night in 2006 are similar to the 2.2fish per net per night in a 1970 survey, but the26-inch minimum size limit has changed thesize structure so that fully 64 percent of thefish caught in 2006 exceeded 21 inches, upfrom 17 percent in 1970. Eight percent of thefish are greater than 28 inches. Fall elec-trofishing indicated that largemouth bass arealso a stable component in the predator pop-ulation, with a catch rate of 9.3 fish per mileof shoreline. Bluegill and black crappie arethe main panfish species. Bluegill sizes haveimproved since the last survey, with 42 per-cent exceeding six-plus inches and three per-cent near eight inches. The black crappie pop-ulation has also become stronger. In 2006, 83percent were eight inches or greater and 25percent were 10 inches or greater. CollinsLake appears to have one of the better pan-fish fisheries of the local small lakes.

Big Bass Lake – During our fyke netting sam-pling on Big Bass Lake in 2006, we captured19 walleyes all 20 inches or larger, includingone 23.5 inches. The spring fyke net surveywas dominated by panfish species that includ-ed bluegill, pumpkinseed and yellow perch.Eighty percent of the fish are at or above thequality size of six inches for bluegill and pump-kinseed and eight inches for yellow perch.However, there are few fish at the preferred sizeof eight inches for bluegill and pumpkinseed,and 10 inches for yellow perch. A new bass sizeregulation will take effect in spring 2008 — totry to increase panfish size. Survey crews cap-tured 21 largemouth bass eight inches or larger;57 percent exceeded 12 inches, 29 percentexceeded 15 inches, and 14 percent topped 18inches. The biggest largemouth bass capturedwas 19 inches.

Tomorrow River – Surveys indicate thatbrown trout and brook trout populations in theriver above Amherst Dam are healthy and willcontinue to provide a vibrant fishery foranglers. At two stations, nearly 30 percent ofthe catch was of harvest size. Below Amherst,although the numbers were slightly lower thisyear, trout are still available to the angler will-ing to put in the extra effort. Once again, weexpect this part of the river to continuallyimprove with continued wild brown troutstocking.

Emmons Creek – The new habitat work nearStratton Lake Road will continue to improveavailable cover for trout. As in past surveys,about 30 percent of the fish were at or abovethe minimum length of seven inches.

Plover River – The Plover River will pro-vide great brook trout and brown trout fish-ing. At least five percent of the browns wereat or above the 12-inch minimum size and 15percent of the brook trout were of har-vestable size, which is eight inches.– Tom Meronek, fisheries biologist, Wausau

St. Croix, Pierce, Dunnand Pepin countiesRecent lake investigations in the area showlargemouth and smallmouth bass populationsare in great shape with excellent size structure.Legal bass average about two to 10 per acreon area lakes and flowages; sublegal bass areabundant. Bass anglers will find great actionon just about any lake they choose to fish.This spring, try casting a small jig and medi-um sized leech toward a shoreline structure oralong a weedline and be prepared to catch anassortment of bass and panfish.

Panfishing is very popular throughout thearea. In Dunn County, Lake Menomin pro-duces some of the nicest bluegills around and

Tainter Lake is projected to produce nicecatches of perch. In Pierce County, try NuggetLake and Spring Valley Reservoir for goodbluegill and crappie action. Squaw Lake hasbeen the most consistent producer in St. CroixCounty, however, according to 2007 surveysBaldwin Pine Lake should be a good bet.Local efforts by DNR and sport clubs continueto improve panfish habitat throughout the areawith the installation of fish cribs in Cedar andGlen lakes, St. Croix County and Tainter andMenomin lakes in Dunn County.

The 2008 inland trout fishing season isprojected to be another outstanding one.Historically, Pierce and southwest St. Croixcounties have proven to be hot spots for boththe early and regular trout seasons and thisyear will be no different. Some of the bestbrook and brown trout streams in this areawith high trout densities include the RushRiver, Kinnickinic River, Plum Creek, CadyCreek, Elk Creek just upstream from ElkCreek Lake and the headwater sections of theSouth Fork of the Hay River. Annual moni-toring of trout populations throughout thefour-county area show natural reproductionof brook and brown trout to be slightly lowerthan average in 2007, however, 2006 repro-duction was the best we have seen in the past10 years. This means in spring of 2008, legalbrook trout (eight inches) and browns (eightto 12 inches) should be very abundant.Anglers can expect some brown trout toreach lengths greater than 20 inches andbrook trout greater than 14 inches in thesestreams. Barring any late winter floods, troutpopulations are projected to be in great shapefor the 2008 season. – Marty Engel, senior fisheries biologist,

Baldwin

Buffalo, Clark, Jackson,and Trempealeau countiesTrout streams – Recent surveys of area troutstreams indicate stable adult and young-of-the-year catch rates despite drought-like condi-tions over the past couple years. Combinethese results with the DNR’s stocking programand there should be plenty of trout waiting foranglers in 2008. DNR and cooperative hatch-eries will stock 35,000 brook, 37,000 brownand 16,000 rainbow trout to area waters nextspring, before the regular season opener.

Also waiting for anglers are improved fish-ing conditions. DNR survey crews and troutanglers noted deteriorating habitat due to thedrought. Much needed rain and storms in latesummer and fall of 2007, although devastatingin other areas of the state, began restoring flowrates and water depth, and scouring sedimentout of holes, spawning habitat and other coverin many of our area streams. Other streams

were improved through DNR habitat restora-tion projects, including Pine Creek, TraverseValley Creek, Borst Valley Creek and BruceValley Creek, all in Trempealeau County.These projects were funded by the state’s troutstamp program and contributions from areaconservation organizations. Restoration activi-ties include creating overhead cover, pools,and spawning habitat as well as stabilizingstreambanks to minimize erosion. Work con-tinues on Pine Creek in 2008 and new projectswill start on French Creek and Tank Creek,both in Jackson County.

Lakes and rivers – Surveys conducted in2006 and 2007 indicate overall improvementsin catch rate and size structure of panfish pop-ulations in area lakes. Lakes surveyed includeHenry (Blair Pond), Martha (Osseo Pond),Crystal (Strum Pond), Arbutus, and PotterFlowage. Over the past couple years, Arbutushas produced some of the best crappie andbluegill fishing anglers have experienced in along time. Abundant natural reproduction ofboth species should sustain recruitment andangling success into the next few years. Muskyanglers take note: spring 2007 netting surveysfor Potter Flowage produced the highest catchrate of fish 40 inches or larger in the last 40years. Potters is stocked with large fingerlingmuskies (average 12 inches) on alternate years.

Continuous monitoring of the lower BlackRiver since 2001 indicates a recent trend ingame fish populations anglers will appreciate:catch rates for most species improved overthe past couple years. – Daniel Hatleli, fisheries biologist, Black

River Falls

Chippewa CountyLake Wissota – Spring netting surveys con-ducted in 2006 and 2007 provided a popula-tion estimate of one adult musky for every 10acres. The number of larger, older fish waslow due to low stocking levels from the mid-to late 1990s. Fifteen percent of the catch was40 inches and larger, with the largest a 54-inchfemale. In fall 2005, the local Muskies Inc.chapter stocked 500 Leech Lake strainmuskies and added another 833 Leech Lakefingerlings in fall 2007. The 2007 musky sur-vey also provided further information on wall-eye, northern pike and smallmouth bass popu-lations. Thirty-two percent of the walleyecatch was 18 inches and larger, which indi-cates that the 14- to 18-inch protected slot sizeis doing well at producing larger fish in thelake. For legal-size smallmouth bass, 23 per-cent of the catch was 17 inches and larger.Northern pike are more widespread through-out the lake compared to the 1989 survey.Little Lake Wissota and the Yellow River areaof the lake now hold good numbers of north-ern pike with 19 percent of the 2007 catch 26inches and larger.

Round Lake – Netting surveys of RoundLake in 2006 and 2007 documented a lowdensity but high quality walleye population.The adult population estimate was similarboth years at 0.8 fish per acre. For walleyesover the 15-inch minimum size limit, 96percent were 20 inches and larger in the2007 survey. The largest was a 29-inchfemale. Females averaged 25.6 inches andmales 22 inches. The lake is stocked withwalleyes in odd-numbered years. – Joe Kurz, fisheries biologist, Chippewa

Falls

La Crosse, Monroe,Vernon and CrawfordcountiesAnglers should experience excellent fishingin coulee region streams now and in thefuture. Record rainfall in August 2007scoured many stream channels down tounderlying bedrock, expanding spawningsubstrate and places for aquatic inverte-brates to attach. Post-flood stream surveysshowed little flood damage to DNR habitatimprovement sites and good trout numbers.With the increased spawning habitat, weexpect excellent natural reproduction andmany hatchling trout this spring. – Jordan Weeks, fisheries biologist,

La Crosse

Fisheries biologist Jordan Weeks displays a 27-inch brown trout from the Kickapoo River Watershed,Crawford County. In the area, trout stream improvements were completed on Sugar Creek, CrawfordCounty, Dutch and Mormon Coulee Creek, La Crosse County and Springville Branch Creek, VernonCounty.

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A kid’s catch: pumpkinseed This is the number one fish for kids tocatch all over Wisconsin! They are smallerthan eight inches long and like the shallowwater where they can be caught from theshore or pier by kids of all ages. Wear yourlife jacket and hold onto your pole. Theycan put up a good fight! They taste goodwhen pan-fried — that's why they are alsocalled "panfish."

To catch these petite beauties, grab anypole and wade in the shallows with somegarden worms, insects, leeches or pieces offish. Try fly fishing for them. In early andlate winter, try insect larvae and grubs. – EEK!/Environmental Education for Kids

FOOD – Pack a cooler with sandwiches,some cookies and water.

FUN – The younger the child, the shorterthe attention span. If the fish aren't biting,don't keep them chained to their fishingpoles or held hostage in a boat. On shore, letthem set the poles down and run around. Ifyou're fishing from a boat and it's hot, reelin, double-check the kids’ life preserversand throw them overboard for a swim.

PATIENCE – Keep the outing short andaccept that they may not keep quiet andthey probably will get a few tangles.

SAFE AREA – Check for swift or deepwater, dams and uneven footing alongbanks.

SIMPLE GEAR – Cane poles and closed-face reels are good choices. Barbless hooksmake it easier to release fish and resolveinjuries.

How to make fishing fun for kids

EEK!A website just forkids! dnr.wi.gov/eekSo much fishy fun you can find on EEK!Learn about Wisconsin's fish speciesMeet a fish biologistFind out where to watch fish Prepare to go fly fishingSee some whacky water crittersRead big fish storiesWatch a video on ice fishing

Catch 'n' ColorFish are swimming in circles just waiting tobe colored. Visit www.fishingwisconsin.orgto download pages of coloring fun.

First time fishing?Whether you're taking a child or novicefishing, or it's the first time yourself, youcan find all the information you need toget started at www.fishingwisconsin.org.

Some tips to help ensure their first tripisn’t their last

BAIT – Worms are good to use. Encourage,but don't force them, to bait their own hooksif they hate touching worms. Let them prac-tice with plastic worms. Eventually, they'llget used to the idea of doing it themselves.

TACKLE – A small box can hold a fewsmall hooks, a couple of bobbers and a fewsinkers. That's all they need to get started.

ROLE MODEL – Use good bait and fishhandling behavior that will help protect ourresources from disease. Remember to drainall water from your boat and equipment,don't move live fish between waters, andreport sick fish to the DNR.

– Theresa Stabo, aquatic resources edu-cation director, Madison

For more information on taking kids fish-ing, visit dnr.wi.gov/fish/kidsparents/ orcontact Theresa Stabo at (608) 266-2272 [email protected].

AnInvitation from the SecretaryKids need a connection with the outdoorstoday to become tomorrow’s stewards ofWisconsin’s great natural resources. Helpcreate tomorrow’s conservationists — takea kid fishing.

You’ll find great tips on this page forintroducing kids to this fun and relaxingrecreation. See you out on the water!

Sincerely,

Mathew J. FrankDNR Secretary

To to www.fishingwisconsin.org and click on 2008 Fishing Report to links to all activities on this page.

Printed on Recycled Paper


Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Box 7921 Madison, WI 53707

Editors: Alisa Lopez. Lisa Gaumnitz,

WNR magazine staff

Graphic Design: Waldbillig & Besteman

The Wisconsin Department of NaturalResources provides equal opportunity

in its employment, programs, and services and functions under an

Affirmative Action Plan. If you haveany questions, please write to Equal

Opportunity Office, Department of theInterior, Washington, D.C. 20240.

This publication is available in alternate format (large print, Braille,audio tape, etc.) upon request. Call

(608) 267-7498 for more information.

Family OutingsJune 7 and 8, 2008 – Free Fishing WeekendReel in a child or new angler and cast out to Wisconsin’swaters for Free Fishing Weekend. All the waters of thestate are open, including state waters of the Great Lakesand rivers bordering Wisconsin. For more informationvisit dnr.wi.gov/fish/kidsparents/freefishingweekend.html

Year round – Visit a hatchery or egg-taking facilityKeep our state fish hatcheries in mind when planningyour next day trip. These facilities are open to visitors andprovide unique opportunities to see lots of fish at allstages in their life cycles. Hours and days of business varyseasonally and certain times of the year will provide morefish action than others, so visit dnr.wi.gov/fish/hatchery/hatmap.htm to find information on a facility near you.

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