I just did pretty good,
and he's legal anyway.
Oh yeah!
Oh, that's a damn soccer.
Yeah, I got up to
I got out too early
Oh, well, yeah
Good thing is you can leave them on
the bank
I think it'll be here.
Morning, how are you?
I'm doing good, you?
Doing well, anything biting today?
Cock-a-doodle-doo, cock-a...
Will?
Coming in?
Coming in again?
Yeah.
Have you got this thing?
Uh, we were out here yesterday and
there were quite a few fish around.
We got, we tagged over 200
yesterday.
Yep.
Right, you got that?
The reason why I ask, how far you
can reach over, I
just lost an eight dollar lure,
right?
Um, okay.
Oh, he's gone.
Oh no, there it is.
Don't worry about it.
It ain't worth all that.
We'll we'll get one of our
dip nets out actually and see
if we can
I hope you guys are seeing the
end call. No sir, don't worry.
Yeah, then I don't know that we'll
be able to get it if it's already
hooked onto something.
I'm afraid of that.
Got these guys fishing down here
losing lures.
That's right!
I got distracted there for a
second.
I thought it was somebody fell out
of their kayak right there,
and that was when I got too close
to the dock.
I thought somebody just fell in the
water out of the kayak,
and it's not a good time
to be in the sea.
But then I saw the little
diver flag and saw their fins,
so they
scared the bejeebers
out of me for a second.
All right, we should
be ready to go.
But he can
hop on here now
that I'm
not hanging into the dock.
I have to give it more.
What?
That's some launches even more!
Is that Ed the diver?
Do you know?
That's not every day.
Okay, I'm scared that
I saw the empty kayak.
Island right up here.
It's relatively shallow in
this area, only four to five feet
deep, so our electrofishing
works really well.
And there's some really shallow
riffle areas that we've
caught a couple of females that were
releasing eggs on the other day, so
there might be some of the early
spawners moving up to spawn in
those areas.
Could you control the whole river
over the course of a few weeks or
something, or is it just kind of
this area?
Typically not.
Our electrofishing is only
effective in maybe five feet of
water, six feet of water at best.
And so we typically stay up in these
shallower areas where we can more
effectively operate.
Once you move downstream, it gets
pretty deep pretty quickly.
It's a I think more of a dredged
river farther downstream.
So we're not that effective.
So, we mostly target areas
where where our gear is gonna be
effective.
Brandon, you want to spin the
the booms around?
I'm going to sneak behind you and
grab a clipboard out
and collect some of the
data that we
collect when we temperature
the data we
collect.
Before we start.
Romany River
Marinette County
he is the
eighth
The water temp is 36.5
degrees.
First station for the day, we're
going to give all the walleyes
we capture foie tags, we are
targeting walleyess.
Doing some pulse DC.
How does the water temperature
affect the wall out?
So...
The water temperature is
one of the key factors that
brings them up to
spawn as the rivers start to warm up
in the spring and we get higher
flows, they tend to move
up to spawn.
It also likely
influences their egg development.
We will get some females that are
already spawning, you
know, but being a cold
water fish kind of their metabolism
and things work based on
water temperatures.
Typically walleyes try to spawn
when water temperatures get to be
that 42 to 43 degree
range. So it was a
little bit warmer last week but
it since has gotten pretty cold.
I don't know what's...
Why is this not closed?
Okay, now I have my
good boy.
Comes out of the generator, runs
through the wire, and
it actually comes into our box
through another wire down
there. So this is our whole control
box. This is what controls the
amount of electricity and the type
of electricity, whether it's
AC or DC, that we're actually
putting into the water.
And I'll be driving the boat as well
as the electrical settings.
From the box.
Once we get the electrical settings
the way we want them it goes through
another wire out of the box
and through
the boat, through wires through
the boat and up through wires
that run through those orange booms
that are sticking out in front of
the boat there and
then it eventually those
wires connect to those
steel rings that are out on
the front of those booms and goes
into the water in those droppers
that are spun around,
sprung around the rings that
are out on the front of the booms
there. So that's how the electrical
field is created and the hull of a
boat actually completes the
electrical field.
So the electrical feel is kind of
centered right out in between the
droppers or the ends of the boom and
the boat out on front.
So that is where the fish are going
to get stunned so that those people
standing up on the boat can actually
dip the fish and put them in the
live well behind them there.
All right,
I'm hooked up,
so we get ready.
There's a couple of things here.
9.4948
GPS coordinates 45,
06, .319,
87,
37, 48...
Five, eight, nine.
So that's just our starting time and
our starting GPS location.
Alright
You guys are on,
and we are shocking.
We don't need a lot
of electricity to shock walleyes,
especially when the water is cold.
We're running about 120 volts
and 4 amps right
now as far as our electrical
settings go.
No, we run much higher settings
if we're doing like fast pan fish
surveys later in the spring
when water temps are warmer.
Is there any reason that the walleye
took the relief?
A lot of it is just
the colder water.
Fish do have different ions
in their body so they're
susceptible.
They have different susceptibilities
to electricity and different
settings work best for different
species.
But with the cold water, it doesn't
take a lot of electricity, in
my experience, to really
shock them.
We're in a little bit deeper water
here, we're in five to six feet.
I want to get up into some shallower
water up here.
Look our way up there.
Yeah, that's typically what we
uncomfortable putting in there.
We've got two fill pumps
that I can run and a recirculating
pump to keep fresh water going over
them. A lot depends on the size of
the fish. If it's smaller males, we
can put more in there if we get
more of the bigger females.
They don't fit as
many of them.
We're gonna fill it up every time we
go out.
Uh, not necessarily if we
have a really poor station.
You know, we kind of run out of
jockeying room, then what
we get is what we GET.
Hey Brandon, is that
guy around the corner that was
fishing there?
I think so
I don't have to play anymore.
Some of the fish do take a little
bit of time to recover.
It all depends on where
they came up in the electrical field
and the time that they were in the
electrical field for how long.
They might have gotten stunned.
Some of them, as you saw, as soon
as you put them in the live while
they're swimming away, others of
them take a little bit time.
Good boy, Tim.
Now we're getting up into a little
shallower water and should see
some more fish, we're in 3 to 4 feet
now.
Is your stuff okay getting wet?
Okay
Yep.
I'm glad I went with the waiter's
stuff.
So we started off in the center of
the deeper water where they're in.
Where's the car, Jason?
Many fish.
We'll be moved up here to some
of the shallow
water right at the base of
some of those just right below.
Right below these riffles.
So that's my scooping.
Now two.
Two or three fish at a time
sometimes in the nets.
The walleye numbers have been doing
the last few years.
The Green Bay supports a really,
really healthy walleye population.
Based on our creel surveys over
the last couple of years, it's
estimated that anglers are catching
about 300,000 walleyes
and harvesting, you know, 100 to
150,000 walleye.
So it supports a real healthy
wall eye fishery.
People come from all over the
Midwest now.
To fish for walleyes, especially in
the spring when the larger females
are moving up into
the shallower water.
People can shore fish for them.
You don't need a really big boat to
fish them out on the bay.
But yesterday I talked to a group of
guys that were here from South
Dakota.
They came all the way over from the
Dakotas to
try their hand at fishing the Green
Bay walleye fishery.
So it's a really healthy, really
popular fishery right now.
All their shoes are long,
and or they have height,
so they can't really fit.
Sorry Brandon, I was going too fast.
It'll be interesting to see if you
get some cool GoPro footage
off of those nets or
off of that net handle.
I'm really excited to see what we're
about to do with the reports.
The Green Bay Fishery is
the shore fishing opportunities
that it provides in the spring.
It's not uncommon for us to
see all kinds of anglers along this
shoreline here and
shorelines around the Menominee
River. Also the Oconto River,
Peshtigo River, Fox River
and Sturgeon Bay areas
all have really big
spawning populations of walleyes
and shore anglers.
You know you don't even need a boat.
You can come and catch walleyers
all day long from shore in locations
and so it provides a
unique opportunity that most other
places don't
exist. We do have reduced bag limits
in the spring.
It's a one bag and a
15 inch minimum on much of
the system except for the Fox River.
It has a one-bag and a 28 inch
minimum.
But anglers certainly have the
opportunity to come out
here and fish for
really big walleyes without
a boat, Which It's pretty
cool, you know, there's not a lot
of other places that you can fish
for really big walleyes without a
boat.
Nice steer!
Rock, rock, rock.
Here I see that we're in rocks now.
Other fish.
If we end up getting a
lure that's in one of the walleyes
that we capture,
I oftentimes donate those to
kids if we see them along the
shoreline just to give them a
little something from their trip as
well.
But, you know, there's not a lot of
opportunities that younger kids have
to come and shore fish and see
this, You know, many walleyes
and this many fish get caught, so...
I don't know if we got a 30 but...
No, I don't think we got any
turkeys.
Submit to Alpha 20's.
We're going to nudge this up a
little bit onto the sand.
For a big reward tag study that
we started last year,
our goal is to tag up to
5,000 walleyes each year
across each spring across the
Green Bay system to get a better
estimate of angler exploitation
rates or the percentage of the
adult walleye population that's
harvested by anglers every year.
And so we're.
Putting out about
5,000 tags and we can get the
percentage of the adult population
based on kind of the percentage tag
returns that anglers report
by calling them in.
So we're going to insert the tags
right behind or right below
the back dorsal fin on
the left side of the fish and
each one of the tags has its own
unique number associated
with it. And there's an email
address on the tags for
reporting those tag returns to
the email.
We also have a phone number to
report those tags to.
And that's area code nine two
zero six six two five
four one one.
So we encourage anglers to report
all of the tag walleyes
that they catch on the Green Bay
system.
So we're going to start with yellow
tags. Those are non reward
tags. So if an angler reports
catching a walleye with a yellow
tag. We'll give them the history
of that fish, where it was tagged,
when it was tagged, how big it was
when it was tagged.
It's estimated age based on its
length and our growth rates and
things. So it's a cool, we send it
to them on a certificate.
Um, we do are putting out red
reward tags as well.
Um, this year we're going to put out
400 red reward tags,
um, and anglers
receive a hundred dollar reward
from walleyes for tomorrow, our
partner on this project.
And we're greatly.
Really grateful for their support in
order to do the reward
tag component of this.
So if an angler catches a
red reward tag walleye and
it's still valid, they'll receive
$100 from walleyes for
tomorrow.
The reward tags are valid for
approximately a year.
The reward tag that we're putting
out this year, this spring,
are valid until March 31st
of 2026.
And we've got about 250
or 260 of the 400
reward tags that we're gonna put out
this year out in the system already.
So.
I guess we'll work through
processing some fish.
Real quick, I'm just going to adjust
the mic.
All right, green.
So that means that it's a female
that hasn't released her eggs yet.
She's still still hard
or green. She still has to spawn
yet. Seven three zero seven
seven hundred and thirty
millimeters.
And that's what, like twenty eight
inches. Twenty eight and three
quarter. Twenty eight three quarter
inches.
OK.
Then Brandon will insert the floy
tag right below
the dorsal fin on the side of the
fish there.
The boy tags have got a little T at
the end, and that T
hooks into their grays
that stick down from their fin into
the body to help hold those in
place. Two one five one four.
Two one, five, one four, so
that's the five-digit number that's
associated with that walleye.
And then they get released.
Green,
six, three, eight.
168,
161, 515
We had a trailer here yesterday.
Still says it's three.
At the back of the boat.
You see if we can do an okay right
here? Yeah.
You see any? No.
Green
694
Another one that's just shy of 28
inches.
That's a nice word.
Male 493
Green.
7-0-3
Green.
613
Green!
Six five two.
Are their bellies pretty hard
Brandon or are they softening up?
They're getting a little softer, but
this one's...
So as the females get closer
to laying their eggs, their bellies
start to get quite a bit softer.
21520 was the tag to run that last
one. Yep.
6-1-1
green 640
Green 638.
Male 553.
5-8-4.
That should be the last tag
on that raft, right?
Yep. OK.
Yep.
Male.
Five one three.
That should be 21526.
One five.
Six.
Some of them are really, really
pale.
That was getting really soft.
Green.
649.
I think there's more.
Green.
Seven, two, coming
in.
28 incher
Green,
five, six, eight.
Mail!
501
Hail!
498
Let's do a tag check.
This would be 533.
533?
That's what I am.
Yeah, 215-33.
Nice and deep.
I don't know, 5-3.
Okay.
Green 600.
Green 633.
Nail,
552.
Green five nine four.
Let's see here.
I don't know if that's a good one.
21537
Hail 546.
Nail.
Five one five.
Green.
655.
Male,
5'4", 7".
Now, 5-2-1.
Green.
Six one zero.
Is that 21594?
It's a 9-4.
21594
4-4
Oh yeah, four or four, sorry, four
four.
Can't read my own handwriting
sometimes.
Male, five-two-eight.
486
Mail?
Big mail.
603.
Excuse me.
Green.
Look at the females that sit there.
Triple six.
Mail!
Five, six, eight.
That should be 21,550.
I'm going to
grab these eggs.
Are you fishing her?
No not at all.
That was fish number
37 that we
were so far.
5-2-1
2-1-5-5 1.
Yep.
I bet.
Mail!
478
Sorry for that.
Definitely a male.
532.
Mail!
478
4, 6, 7.
Now...
492
Green!
Five, six, eight.
Ma'am?
500
562 Could
be 560
What did you say, Jason?
Could be, the first time she's
spawning.
5-2-6.
Lightly.
So that's like around 20 inches?
Yeah, a little. Probably five.
Five, and that's when they reach
second to 30?
Most females start to spawn
at five in the Green Bay system.
Okay.
Which is older than a lot
of other places.
Mail 500.
Meal!
Five one four.
Oh
5-8-9 Just look
at them and tell it's an old fish Oh
I know, it's got that
Yeah, cut down on most of them.
Center on the block.
485
All right, nice work.
Oh Jesus, I gotta change up what
I'm doing apparently.
Any time.
Do you know where the
sucker bite is?
Brandon will take you up on
fishing for some, especially if you
can catch a long nose sucker.
Hairstyles, you name it.
I can't recall seeing as many
long-nosed suckers when we were
shocking the Okonto.
More white suckers and redhorses.
For some reason, they don't go in
there, but they have to go in here.
Yeah, I've seen a lot more in the...
I don't see him in the Fox either.
Why particularly do you want
long noses?
He wants it because there's not a
state record for it and he wants
another state record.
They're only in the Great Lakes,
um, typically where
fish and spawn look like, mostly
above the Arctic surface.
Yeah? Yeah.
So like, the fact that we have them
in the great lakes is super unique.
Yeah. We get them in a trawler at
like 90 feet or something on a
quantity. Oh.
They sit out in the deep water and
they're only up here for a few
weeks.
That trawler would be something cool
to see.
Gotta be a lot of interesting stuff
in there. Yeah, I mean it's cool to
sees all the forage.
Where did that piece of paper go?
What you looking for, Jason?
Piece of paper just
You are on and we are shocking.
I'm good.
Thought for sure we would have
gotten some fish in there.
There's a little high-rise
reef area right back
there that they usually sit right
behind but
Apparently not right now.
And the idea of spawning
dates together just to our
little help.
For muskies.
It's way too early for those.
Everything is.
I didn't know if you had a bowl like
you wanted. I'd like to speak for
them.
I'm going to do it as early as
possible from a water temperature
standpoint.
You know, things are trending a
little bit.
A little bit
farther behind this year.
We spawned walleyes
on April 10th
last year on the Menominee.
We don't have the water temperatures
to really
to really get.
I don't think enough egg development
and stuff to be spawning in two
days, so it's likely going to be
next week when we're spawning.
Walleyes and so everything seems
to be about
a week behind but that can
really change very much in
the next month
or so.
I'm going to try to do it
the first week of May if we can.
Last year, I don't remember if it
was the 30th of April or the first
of May or something.
But I don't know where
it'll be this
year.
This was loaded with fish yesterday.
I wonder if new
fish didn't push in?
Right?
We do see that sometimes.
Now when you say spawn, do you
mean like, you guys are collecting
eggs? Yeah.
For...
Ball ice.
Wallets for tomorrow?
Nope.
No. Or you guys for other
systems?
Yes, so to follow
our genetics guidelines,
you know, we have the Lake Michigan
drainage for our walleye strain.
So wild rose hatchery
will actually be here spawning.
Menominee River walleyes,
let's see what's up on this flat.
And then we
also partner
with Mole
Lake, which is
a tribal hatchery.
They have their own hatchery and
they,
um, the majority of their
lakes are in the
Lake Michigan Greenage.
Sorry, I'm trying to
talk and drive and watch my
location, locator to see
fish and rocks.
So I'm, trying to watch what
Brandon's doing to make sure that
everything is good with him.
Come on, then.
There we go.
So.
But yeah, those two hatcheries
will be here collecting
eggs and spawning
walleyes.
So it's mostly Lake Michigan
fish
or wild rose raises.
That's mostly the basin that's,
you know, we're mostly in the
Lake Michigan drainage, so it's
almost all Lake Michigan
walleyed that get stocked.
One or so other
strains just where it's located like
close enough to the Wisconsin River.
Okay.
The day like today.
They'll be out this afternoon when
it warms up a little bit.
It was pretty chilly this morning.
They're starting to show up.
There's some over there.
When we had higher water earlier
last week, we
ran that rapid
and
we're able to shock up in
there and we just didn't catch much
yet.
Yeah, thanks for coming and helping.
There's definitely fish around.
Have you ever?
Yeah, but you wouldn't go up there
right now.
I was...
Comfortable enough getting, it's
fairly deep in between that riffle
and that railroad bridge,
but I could not get, I was not
comfortable with the amount of water
that was coming through that
railroad bridge to
get any farther upstream.
That looks like a tank to me.
I stepped off.
There's a few bigger females laying
down here yet.
That run was mostly males though.
And that's pretty nice and hot.
Little rock islands are,
were those natural or are those...
Yeah that's all that's natural.
That's kind of this whole island
complex through there that goes all
the way south yet.
Almost until you get to that
flagpole.
There's a name for that island
but I can't remember it off the
top of my head.
I did, one of the first trips
that we were up in, and there was
nothing along those.
There's a lot of sand and logs.
There's some rock areas, but a
lot of sand in logs.
Very good muskies that you can get.
Green 615
21566
Yep. What do you mean?
Green.
Whoa.
That one is hard to do.
Five eight seven.
HALT!
5-4-1
Now...
5.0, 5.35.
Alright, this is a recapture.
He's angry.
Six four five.
Tag number 21297.
21297, so that would have been one
that we tagged earlier this spring.
Nail, five to one.
5, 2, 1
Yes. OK.
I'm out!
5-4-2
Nail!
Five, three, five.
Yep, end of the rack.
6-8-0
21576
5-3-2.
Nail,
520.
Now what's this Jason?
That is nymphocystis
I believe like a
fungal type infection
that you get you see it on some of
their sides okay non-harmful
don't know that's the horror
knowledge I I haven't
heard it ever attributed to fish
kills
That was tag number 21579?
Yep. Last one?
Yes.
Five nine eight.
Come on.
507.
Green, five,
seven, eight.
Five one six.
540.
Ma'am?
486
What was that length?
I didn't catch it.
527.
527, all right.
Thank you. Tag number 21586.
Yep.
Ma'am,
514.
Male 468.
Nail, five five
two.
I'm doing the same.
Are we good? Yep, I'm rolling.
All right.
So I just wanted to add
about the reward tags.
If anglers do catch a reward
tag walleye that is valid, they do
need proof that they caught that
reward tag fish to get the
$100 reward for walleyes for
tomorrow.
And they can either provide picture
proofs so they can take a picture of
the tag, including the three digit
tag number. The red tags are all
three digits.
Tag numbers associated with them
the yellow tags are five digit
numbers So they can take a picture
of the tag including the three
digit number as well as the
angler holding the fish Or if
they keep the fish they can
mail the tag in or mail pictures
of the Tag after they filet it But
they do need to also provide proof
to get the hundred dollars from
walleyes for tomorrow
Just want to ask you here, how long
have you been doing this?
Uh, like as a biologist
or doing this tagging
for this year?
Working the tagging for the wall
light. Just in general.
So, we typically
start tagging in mid-March
or early March down on the Fox
River.
The Fox River is at far southern
Green Bay and so that tends to warm
up faster and get the earliest
walleye run.
So, in our last
tagging, we'll...
Because I know yesterday you were
out here, pretty miserable weather.
It was very cold and windy.
What keeps you coming out here in
like that weather year after year?
It's the desire to do a
good job at managing the walleye
fishery when the fish are here.
This is our best opportunity to get
our hands on large numbers of fish
to tag the numbers of fish that we
need to tag and so
as long as it's not a
safety concern like our boat started
to ice up throughout the day
yesterday so then we stop but as
long there's not safety hazard we
work in all kinds of weather to get
the job done so we need you
to do an effective job at
the fisheries that we're
tasked with managing.
A good answer for
you other than it's likely
or potentially
driven by changes in substrate
just below there's
some really shallow rapids
sections up there and
you know coarser cobble gravel which
is the type of substrate that
the walleyes are likely looking
for to spawn and there's deeper
holes that seem to be holding really
good numbers of fish right below
those cobble kind of
fractured bedrock areas.
But I think once we move farther
downstream, it tends to be more
softer, sandier, muckier
substrates.
And they don't seem
to be holding down
below the bridge like they are
up above the bridge.
So that's my only thought, but that
may be completely wrong.
I don't have a guaranteed answer
for you.
We'll have to fix that when we get
home.
Based on size of the stocking
and stocking locations.
You know, so that requires
recaptures of those fish
that were pit-tagging at the time of
stocking.
So, you know,
that would really,
really help us understand
or maximize the efficiency
of our stocking based on
how big do they need to get
to to maximize
survival and where should we be
stocking these things because if we
can't get enough natural
reproduction for muskies and
it's going to be a stocked fishery
moving forward,
then it's really maximizing
the efficiency of that stocking
success to create the best fishery.
So the recapture data is the big
one.
What? I think I stepped off.
Done.
Let me run off the generator.
Oh, just a little battery right
here.
Oh, the boat. Yeah, yeah, I got it.
Um, they, they run me, um,
yeah. Everything's off a generator
for the electricity and that they've
got, uh,
The red thing
there is what's pumping the
electricity up to the front there.
And prevent it from spreading out to
being area-on-line.
One of the last couple of...
Yeah, I gotcha.
How much longer do you have left in
this run?
Did you grab a rack of the reds?
I didn't grab one yet, I just put
them in there and just saw it.
Grab a rack of
each and do a little comparison of
what the tags themselves say
So these are
the red reward
tags that we're putting out and
on one side it
says reward $100
and it has a date that they're valid
until so the tags we're putting out
this spring are valid until March
31st 2026 it's approximately
one year we're trying to get the
annual exploitation rate so the
exploitation for basically a
year from when we're tagging them
And the other side, that's the
three-digit number that's associated
with this tag, so 376,
and that's email address to report
tag returns to.
So that's what the red tags
say on them.
The yellow tags that
are the non-reward tags, they say
Green Bay DNR office,
that's where my team is based out
of, is the Green Bay D&R office.
And it has the five-digits tag
number, and then it
has email address that
we're. That you can
report tags to so
we're gonna put out some
red reward tags this year We're
putting out or right now.
We're pulling out a total of 400
150 for the Fox River
110 for the Menominee
River 50 for the
Ocana River 50 for Peshtigo
River and 40 for Sturgeon
Bay So we're putting them out
in all the different locations that
we're tagging
25
That's $2,500.
Yep and we'll put out all
25 of them.
We've got 50 out so far on the
Menominee River. We try to spread
them out as we're tagging.
You know we tag reward, tag fish
kind of at the same progression as
the rest of our fish so.
That's it?
Yep. Green.
663
That's 3, 7, 6.
376.
Five, two, four.
Green.
Six four five.
5-4-3
Five to five.
That would be $3.80.
524.
Nail,
5-3-3.
Nail,
$4.97.
Five, eight, six.
Give me one second, I'll roll it up
and check it out.
Go for it.
Should be three or four.
Yep. Perfect.
Mail!
495.
Five seven zero.
5-3-2.
538
Green.
644.
Green.
It's 5.83.
5-2-2.
505
Nail, five
one seven.
What happened?
It was really fast, it just seemed
like a downpour.
I heard it was one of those fish
that was floating around a little
bit.
Nail, five to zero.
5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25,
0554
He's just a little guy.
It's an immature, we will
put a reward tag on the
immatures.
I got a tag gun here if you...
Let's go.
Here we go.
No,
we do exploitation based
on sex and we don't get enough
unknown fish to
get a good
return rate and things so we
typically don't put the reward tags
in the immature fish.
What was it?
The length?
21626? Yes, length of
407.
L-563
That's 398.
Do you need the red one?
Yes. OK.
Done it.
Thank you very much.
Now the one in Turtle Lake
is not.
Run.
Our goal this
year was 1700 for the Fox,
650 for the Oconto, 650
for the Peshtigo,
1500 for
the Menominee River,
and 500 for the Sturgeon Bay
area.
All right, are you guys ready?
All right, you guys are on and
you're shocking.
It's a good question.
We don't have population estimates.
It's just such a big system.
We'd have to do likely a mark
recapture where we mark
enough fish and we get enough
recaptures to get a population
estimate, but we've
had handled 180
some fish so
far today and we've and
do recaptures.
And that's it, so we just don't see
enough recaptures to get
a good population estimate.
I don't know how many fish we'd have
to handle and tag to get
enough recapture, so
lots.
I mean, it's estimated that anglers
harvest
75,000 to 150,000
walleyes a year out of the
system now.
Our estimated exploitation
rate from last year
For the last season, the
tags that we tagged last spring,
for basically the full year up
until now is
just under 5%.
So if they're harvesting
75,000
to 130,000, 140,000
fish, then that's 5% to 10% of the
population.
Lots and lots of fish in
the system.
Cool!
Just throw the sucker in there Tim,
we'll get it out.
That's just the water bottle.
Do you find this work to be
rewarding?
It is, I really
enjoy it, it feels
good to feel like you're
making a difference managing our
natural resources ensuring
a high quality and a sustainable
fishery into the future so
a lot of people get into this field
because they like to do this
kind of work field work you
know handle lots of fish but I
actually enjoy talking
to anglers more now than doing
this kind of work.
Hearing about kids first experiences
catching fish or somebody that
caught a fish of a lifetime,
a 30 plus inch walleye or
a 55 inch musky, something like
that.
So it is quite rewarding
to feel like we're making a
difference in managing the resources
for the
good of everyone, so for the future
so that kids and and kids can enjoy
these as well.
Do you fish in your free time?
I do.
I fish.
Sometimes I'll go walleye fishing.
I don't have a boat, so I do a lot
of shore fishing.
But I'll fish for trout and
salmon and Great Lake streams.
And I will fish shore
walleye runs like this on occasion.
But yeah, I do enjoy fishing in
the outdoors myself.
Do you have a picture of a walleye
that is as big as any of these ones?
The biggest walleye I've ever caught
with hook and line was 28 inches.
So, a nice fish.
I was back in Minnesota,
where I grew up.
Where am I going forward here?
This is your biggest, biggest...
Biggest walleye is not.
Correct.
Okay.
Male 542
It could have been 21675, right?
Nail 508.
Mayo 464.
Male 500.
Nail five one six.
Male 502.
Okay, Jack, is it
21680?
What happened?
Oh...
And he thinks that he's got an old
recapture of when you were going
through the pool, or something like
that.
Oh, wow.
Woo-hoo. That's a big one.
644
Is this the old recap?
Yes.
1-8-9-4-1
oh right five
seven three
That was pretty good.
Go, go, go.
Green.
Five nine four.
I see.
I see, I see
male 490
Lots of nails left.
Yeah.
Mayo 497
Great female.
Five, nine, eight.
Look at the spanked female on the
knee.
I don't see any of it this year,
600.
2-1-6-8-L-I-S-3-1
Mayo, 527.
Mayo 553.
Mail 577
That was nine degrees.
Well, don't worry.
I guess.
9.4
That is the tag in the fish.
Male 493
green 574
male 530.
Male, four, seven, one.
Nail 4, 6, 7.
It should be 21700,
right?
Let's put it in the end of that
thunder lot.
It should take it on 21701.
How are we looking at it?
Um, probably...
Yeah
Male, 517.
701
Mayo 537.
548
Nail four nine one.
Hey, Moogler.
Alright, wrap up the day for
us, where do we end up with,
how do you feel about how it went?
So we're out electrofishing
walleyes on the Menominee River
today and tagging
walleyess as part of our large
reward tag study.
We tagged about 220,
230 walleyest
today so Overall, I thought it was a
really good day.
We're still on the front end
of the spawn.
We did get a couple of females that
were releasing eggs today, but the
vast majority of them were hard.
But all in all, I though it was
really nice day.
So, keep plugging away, getting more
tags out there for anglers to
catch tagged walleyes and report
them so we can get the signs to
better manage the fishery.
So what's it like for you when
you're out there and there's boats
all over and you see all the
fishermen lined up on the shore and
you're just bringing in all these
massive fish.
It's really good to see the anglers
out there, taking advantage of
the resource, getting out
in the outdoors.
We provide a really unique fishing
opportunity, especially for shore
anglers. So it's really to see
anglers out and enjoying the
resource.
What do you think people from the
rest of the state would think about
when they see the size of the fish
that are in this river that are
available before most of the rest of
the inland lakes are open?
Yeah, it's an incredible fishery.
We have a year-round fishery on the
Green Bay system, which there's only
a couple of other fisheries in the
state that offer year-around
fisheries.
Lots of people in the State know how
good the fishing can be.
Green Bay is known for both numbers
of fish and high-quality fish.
We handled several fish over 28
inches today. I don't think we got
any over 30, but definitely some
over 28, 29
inches.
But people come from all over the
state and all over the Midwest to
fish the spring walleye runs around
the Green Bay system.
So it's quite well known for the
quality of the fishery.
So for you, when you're
doing this, is it just enjoyable
to be outside, or does this get you
excited for the rest of the season,
or is this part of the job?
All of the above.
It's great to be outside.
It is good to interact with anglers.
We talked to a couple of anglers
along shore today just about what we
were doing.
You know, and it is good get the
data that we need to do
a good job of managing the Green Bay
walleye fisheries.
How important is it for anglers to
have the experience of seeing
you out here versus only a
law enforcement type engagement,
whether it's simply checking license
or creel surveys versus someone
doing the science that
makes it more available?
Yeah, I think it's great for us to
interact with the public.
They don't necessarily get to see
electrofishing boats out on the
water very often or see what we do.
And we're the ones who
are working behind the scenes to
crunch all the numbers and do all
the science.
So we can oftentimes answer
questions that law enforcement might
not be able to about the science
behind it. So it's good to interact
the public, it's good to hear
their questions, hear what
they're happy about the fishery,
hear their concerns.
So overall, it's really good to
interact from a fisheries
management side of things.
Alright, I think that's all we need
from you today.
My hope is that you'll
give me a call or email when
the next video comes out.
Oh, you're not letting him by.
Thank you.
And then what store are we in?