Okay, we're set.
Well, I guess let's start with, can
you kind of sum up what we were
doing, what was the point, the goal,
and then the methods for what we're
doing.
Yeah, so today you came out on
the Lake Winnebago Bottom Trawl
Survey. It's a survey that
has been conducted with the
same methodology since 1986.
It really samples pretty
much every species and
I guess life stage of species that
exists out there where we're
able to trawl using that
gear.
But kind of the main objectives for
us, some of the first questions you
get when you go out where.
Really looking at the
year class strength for
walleye as well as
a lot of the other game and panfish
species that people target on the
system here.
So that's essentially the number of
the smaller individuals that
you catch, you know, the more
smaller ones, the ones that were
born the previous spring.
So I call them young a year, often
abbreviated as Y-O-Y.
The whole thing or just?
Yeah, the whole
Oh, that's fine. I could probably do
it better.
So it's
called a bottom trawl survey.
Yes, yep.
So you were talking about how long
ago did it start?
So the bottom trawl survey in
its original, or I guess in its
current modern methodology started
in 1986.
The research vessel that you guys
are out there on today was actually
part of a much earlier
rough fish removal program.
And that kind of dates back, I think
it ended around the 70s.
But now that vessel is used
primarily for, actually it's really
only use that we have for it now is
the Winnebago bottom trawl survey.
And again, it samples.
Pretty much all species that you
find out in the lake, some species
are gonna be more
geared towards
being observed in the trawl.
It's really good at documenting
walleye population numbers,
the young of year catch, so the
year-class strength, basically the
more fish that you catch, the
small ones that were born the
previous spring.
It tells you that they had a
successful spawn if they're caught
in high numbers.
You can then even then look at
recruitment. Of those young of year
fish comparing the young of year
catch from, say, 2022
to the yearling size
catch of 2023.
So you can look at recruitment that
way.
It really just gives us a good way
to keep tabs on the,
you know, multiple fisheries,
all the different species, you now
how they're doing, how the
reproduction is going, what the
adult population is like, what size
structure is like.
And gives a lot of insight to
anglers as well.
We put out that report, usually
comes out around November and I
typically get some phone calls and
emails asking for it before it's
actually out there.
This what we got today is not the
only survey like you do
this multiple times and average them
out it's not just the one
day that you're out there and what
you got that day
Yeah, so Winnebago is a
absolutely massive body of water.
It's the largest inland lake in
Wisconsin. It's about 137
some thousand acres.
So it's kind of hard to wrap your
head around if you're used to just
like normal sized inland lakes.
We also have the upper river lakes
that are part of the system as well,
but the survey does only cover
Winnebego.
Kind of scattered throughout the
lake, we have 46 way points.
Those are the same 46 waypoints we
have. Been trawling on you know
going back to 1986 to keep it
standardized and comparable across
all these years of data that we have
and then we'll do it the first week
in August the first week in
September the first weak in October
and then each one of those months we
do the same 46 waypoints so
they're essentially done in
triplicate and we take the average
of those three months to I guess
write up the final report.
I don't think a lot of people
realize how much just counting
goes into this.
Yeah, yeah, there was,
I mean, today you guys saw it, we
had some extremely high catch rates
for trout perch, which are these
kind of small forage
fish species.
They're a highly utilized forage
species for a lot of our sawed after
game fish like walleye and sauger.
And actually yesterday, the day
before you guys came out, we had
16,500 in a
single net pull. I think we were on
the table counting for a good 20, 30
minutes there.
Today we actually moved over to
check weighing them as you guys
probably observed and yeah if we
kept on getting those really high
numbers That's kind of what you have
to do
What is so significant
about making sure that this count
is comparable to the last
20, 30, 40 years of count?
Well, I mean,
for the standardization of it, you
know, if you were to switch up your
waypoints or do something different,
this has been done the same way
since 1986.
If you change something and then get
a different result, you really can't
use it to compare.
That's a really big thing in
fisheries management in general, the
standardization of methodology.
And it's all relative.
You know, it's trend data and it's
relative to what has happened
before.
And so that's important for people
to understand, because fishermen
will think, well, they're hitting
over here, or last year they were
hitting over there, but you can't
just go where you think they're
hitting or where the word of mouth
at either the bar or the bait
shop is.
Yeah, and that kind of gets into, I
guess, like the the law of averages
and why we have forty six different
waypoints scattered all over the
lake. And then not only are we
hitting that, like, again, we're
doing them in triplicate and taking
the average of those.
So, you know, maybe there's an off
day and fish aren't in whatever
location for whatever reason.
That's why we do it in triplicated
to get that average.
And then if you do it the same way,
again, law of average is everything
comes together and it's comparable
over the the long term.
So what did you see today in
terms of the number of walleye per
net pull? Was that average, high,
low? Yeah.
Yeah, so currently right now in
Lake Winnebago and the Winnebego
system in general, we do have a
above average adult walleye
population. We had a very large
year class in twenty twenty two.
You guys probably saw today the
biggest net pull of young of year
walleye. Again, the young of your
indicating the year class strength
or how successful the spawn was.
I think we had like thirty five in a
net pull in twenty twenty two, we
are having net pulls well over a
hundred, you know, basically
indicating that they had a various,
very successful spring.
The adult numbers are up,
the average is right around five and
most net poles we were getting
between five and 10.
So we do have a lot of the survey
to go. We are also right on the west
side here, right in the main lake.
That is where we typically see
a good amount of walleye.
We can kind of get lower numbers on
the north end and maybe the east
side occasionally, but they can,
you know, they move around and
numbers fluctuate and vary.
You could look at like the standard
deviation of the data set between
waypoints and it can be
somewhat surprising actually.
The young of year catch overall,
you know, again, like people will be
calling and asking like, hey, how'd
the first week of the trawl survey
look like? How's the year class?
And it's like, as of now, we're
probably sitting at above average
hatch for Winnebago system walleye.
That being said, you now those
numbers could drop off as we move
into the later months, so I don't
really want to make any claims on it
now. But yeah, the adult walleye
population was definitely looking
good above average
for sure.
So why didn't we see any larger
walleye in any of the net poles?
It seemed like there were a few
leavened of maybe 14.
Yeah, I mean, so the average size of
fish on Winnebago, you know, you're
really going to see fish between
like 15 and 18 inches.
You do see bigger fish.
Like in our spring electrofishing
survey, when we're up there during
the spawn, we see fish as big as 28,
29 inches.
They are relatively rare.
It's definitely more
of a, I guess
you could say, like consumption or
harvest oriented fishery
around here.
Really what the system is relying on
is a lot of natural reproduction,
and then the anglers most definitely
utilize that resource.
And people will, I guess,
ask a lot about if adult numbers
go down, that's actually not
the most concerning thing that could
happen on the Winnebago system.
The most concerning would be the
lack of production for a prolonged
period of time.
The system is absolutely massive.
We have a...
A really unbelievable amount of
spawning habitat for these fish to
utilize, and as long as
environmental conditions line up the
reproductive history of fish, not
just walleye, but fish in general,
it's to, you know, spew out a whole
lot of eggs and then how many
of them survive. So as long that can
still occur and those fish can be
replenished, the
young of your catch, I guess, is
what I'm getting at could be more
concerning.
You were talking about the size of
this lake versus other lakes that
most people will probably be on if
you don't actively go fish
Winnebago.
And it is stunning to see,
just the drone that we pulled out,
just like the number of fish,
period.
Yeah, just the
biomass of the freshwater drum that
we get in the trawl is very,
very impressive.
I think if you look at the
end results from the survey, it's
well over 50,000 individuals
each year.
They're not small fish either.
The trout perch, obviously, they're
those little kind of forage fish
type, but yeah, the drum, they range
from nine inches to we get
them up to 25, 26 on some
exceptionally large individuals.
And you also pulled a few sturgeon,
and you scanned those.
Looks like one came across as having
been tested. Yeah.
Yeah one of them did have a pit tag
so Lake Winnebago is home to
one of if not the largest
lake sturgeon population in the
world and if you you know want to
take it into account like
fish per acre or
however like yeah maybe obviously
great lakes are so much bigger so
the population might have more
individuals but for density
Lake Winabago is probably if
not the biggest, one of the biggest
in the world for Lake Sturgeon
populations.
And so what's the significance of
having volunteers come out and do
it?
Yeah, so volunteers are great.
You know, one, it really helps us
get our work done.
You guys saw how many fish we are
counting today and how many, like
how much time it takes to do that.
If we had to have that much more
staff on the boat.
And then two, you guys are out on
the boat today with a lot
of walleyes for tomorrow members.
And those guys not only do a lot of
their own work all around the
system. I know I think you guys were
covering some of their portable
hatchery work, but they
fund projects for us.
They come to, you know.
Winnebago Fisheries Advisory
Committee meeting, have their input,
and it's just a really good way
to gage the
wants and concerns of the public
versus what we're doing as a state
agency. So not only the Walleyes for
Tomorrow guys, but then all the
other volunteers that come out, they
are typically with a sportsman's
club, or they're just an average
angler who read the trawl report and
saw at the bottom that they could
sign up to volunteer.
So it's a really good.
Way to kind of bridge that
disconnect that often happens
between anglers and the state
agencies managing these resources.
They probably get a different
perspective of what it's like out
there versus just being in their
own boat.
Yeah, I know. And it's like all
anglers are going to have their own
anecdotal fishing experience.
Like, oh, I caught more fish this
year and I caught more fish here and
it's, like, well, if you come on our
boat, will you really get a better
understanding just because of
the sheer amount of
fish that we're handling and the
gear that we are allowed to use to
sample the population.
And a couple more detail-oriented.
So the net and the drag
cover one acre in each
of the waypoints.
Yep, so the net is 27
feet wide. When the boards have it
expanded open, we tow that
behind the boat at four miles per
hour for five minutes.
If you do that calculation there,
someone can fact check me if you
want. It comes out to roughly one
acre. So each trawl will
cover one acre,
each trawling event, you know, the
46 way points in triplicate will add
up to 138.
If you think that Winnebago is
137,000 acres, like
the entire, if you think about the
acreage coverage versus the whole
system, it's like .01%
of the system that we're actually
covering with that bottom trawl, or
I guess of the lake, not the system,
but.
But that's enough to have accuracy
and faith in the numbers you're
putting out. Yeah.
Yeah and it's all again going back
to the standardization and
the relativeness so it's relative
to what we have been doing and it is
a very extensive survey.
I guess it's a very big lake but we
have 46 different sites scattered
all throughout. We're dragging that
net down there for five minutes four
miles an hour.
It's uh we catch a lot of fish get a
good idea what's going on out there.
Can I get you to say and spell your
name and give your title and then
just give us the names of the other?
Yeah, Angelo Kozola,
that's A-N-G-E-L-O-C-O
Z-Z-O L-A.
I am a senior fisheries biologist
for the Wisconsin DNR based out of
Oshkosh covering game fish
management on the Winnebago system.
The other DNR staff on the boat,
Jason Coles was the guy with the
orange bib on.
Jason is J-A-S-O N-K-O
H-L S.
The The gentleman with
longer hair was Nate Chemanski,
that's N-A-T-E-S-C-H-M-A
N-S K-I,
if I want to spell check that one.
And then the boat captain was Ryan
Zernzak, that is R-Y-A
Z-E R-N-Z-A
C-H.
Thank you so much.
We're good with that end.