Yeah, um, I didn't look
at Taylor's data sheets, so I didn't
see, like, I know she said they got
overloaded with pan
fish, but...
The notification that the radio tags
are out there or shit, but I don't
know if that's going to do us kind
of good.
Yeah.
Yeah, at this point, it might be a
little-
So, the way it's looking at
schedule-wise, I think,
step-take-level, it's also
technical, how steps are coming
to be used.
Great, beautiful piercings down.
Thank you.
Oh. Oh, yeah, OK.
Tell you where that is when we get
back in.
Most stuff we leave in the boat,
we have had people mess with stuff
in the past, but in general,
they're pretty good.
We don't get so many people down
here.
All right, sorry.
Thank you.
Alright, so we can...
Organize really quick
or dip nets,
boat hook, blanks board,
scale, buckets,
bubbler, boat
cushions,
I have scale envelopes, I feel like
I'm missing something but I think we
might be good.
Yeah
I'll walk it back here.
Alright, have fun, happy fishing.
Thank you.
Yeah, that's in
the books for this summer.
Before we get on camera, maybe just
to point out, we are not the most
well-funded organization
and or agency.
We do what we can with what we got.
You're coming from the feds, the
Fish and Wildlife Service, so that's
a different experience where they
got money for days,
or did, unfortunately.
We'll see what happens here.
Let's see, maybe it's up in the
face, that way, really.
Yeah, if you want to, we're going to
put a net in the center
so you can have it come in and
figure it out.
Yeah, so like if you think about
when we're pulling the net in I
guess yeah, depending on where you
want to put that Yeah, that big
hoops gonna come up front in that
the frame.
So yeah, maybe right where you're
sitting if that would work
I think some of what he's looking
for is just a bus moving.
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
Okay. Well, you can put it up there
and then we can we just we'll have
to probably pull it off before we
grab a net if that works.
What do I start doing now?
Are you going to keep going?
Let's wait until we get up there a
little bit.
And if you want, I guess, tell me
how fast or slow you need me to
drive here. Yeah, just just do your
thing and we're only going about 50
miles.
I don't want to win a bagel.
I was going to say, well, yeah, you
got a long ways to go out there,
but to get to the once we get out of
this bay to kind of get to the first
nets, we got to kind hop across the
lake. So we might we might pick up a
little speed here.
Okay.
The side button factor is on, and
the top one is off.
Yep, and then just the top button.
And when you guys came in before,
did you come out on the lake at all?
Or were you just inside kind of,
okay, just checking stuff out?
For me, we were just coming through
and I found
so far in this project that if
you're there to meet people,
you get a good sense of what to
produce, what to do, and if you
call, you meet people when they're
busy and you're like, I just need to
get you off the phone.
Yeah, yep.
It's that time of year,
unfortunately.
Yeah!
Yeah, we were through and I
find that you're fitting to stop it.
Yeah!
That is your command, and that is
your leave.
We need to get a set of machines
that we can use so I can tell Ethan.
Yes!
There's a little bit of what I think
we'll be doing.
Okay. He's always bugging me, like,
what do I have to prepare for?
Well, sure.
Yeah, well how big is the boat?
What can, yeah, what can I, yeah
absolutely.
Yeah
Okay, cool.
Cool, okay.
I'm just curious because I know
you've been traveling around and so
I'm just like yeah curious who all
you got a chance to actually go out
with. Sorry I'm touching the mic.
Every single place I go they're like
just talk to this person, talk to
that person. We all know each other,
you gotta realize.
Ugh, are you only doing two things
at a time?
All we are doing is I breathe faster
than all our friends.
We are open to suggestions, and open
to say don't give me more ideas.
No, I, yeah.
Characters interested in
People, projects, links.
Since it's a nice calm day,
what we'll probably do is kind of
switch some of this stuff to that
side if the camera and stuff
is going to stay there so that we
can pull all the nets on
the right.
Shift wherever.
Okay. The easiest way is probably
instead of asking us just tell us
like, okay, and then we'll adjust
to that. Okay, that's how it usually
works.
Okay, can I actually put this right
on the side next to you?
Yeah.
Oop! Not you, phone!
Aw, outboard.
Sorry.
The battery on top.
Just following Pike.
Yep, yep.
Yeah, go ahead.
Their battery's all charged up, so
it should be.
It'll be good to go.
Definitely not.
No, yeah, you gotta put the clamps
on. Yeah, yeah.
I just put them up there so it
wasn't runnin' without any
water in there.
We're going to swing back around,
sneak in here.
Kelsey, if you need me to walk you
through anything, please don't be
afraid to ask. Yeah, I'll let you.
Okay.
You're doing a great job, but I
don't expect you to memorize
everything after one day.
My best friend has the most
questions in my head.
OK.
Okay, that was good.
I can help you sort if that works.
Is it that small or your a lot?
It's Molly.
God, I'm sorry.
Oh, and where's my stuff now?
Oh, it's a spider.
Aw, Pike.
I don't think you get that.
Good to go.
Yeah.
Here we go.
Ready to go?
Okay.
It almost as far as you can go
and keep that tension in there,
yeah.
So the walleye are done, but what's
still left is one.
The musky are still going right now,
so usually pike go first,
then walleye, then perch, so they're
all pretty much done.
Most of the perch we've been getting
out of here have been spawned out
for the last day or two.
So right now the musky is kind of
coming on. At first we were only
getting males, but now we
have some females, some bigger
females starting to move in, which
is fun to see.
And the bass are kind of getting
ready to go. They usually go once
the water temperatures get just
slightly warmer.
I guess I'm not sure what it was out
here this morning. Greg was checking
before we came out, but.
It's got to be kind of getting up to
the mid-50s, I would think.
So we're basically gonna, this net
was just like,
you need enough tension to kind of
keep it taut and open.
So yeah, so we're just gonna
actually just stretch completely
from the buoy and we'll see how long
we can get Kelsey to hold on up
there and not
fall overboard and
stretch that sucker back out.
Give me a yell when you feel the
anchor come up.
Is that going?
And then I think it came out.
Just a little more gas.
You can drop it.
I'm gonna find a good grip on it.
How do you hold it?
It's hard, I almost just
hold it like, not necessarily like
a football, but I kind of put my
hands underneath the bottom.
The biggest thing is yeah, just
don't hold on to the rope or you may
get rope burn.
Yeah, was she holding on to the
rope?
It out.
Oh yeah, she was letting it rub
through her hand. Yeah, those anchor
lines are pretty worn, which is
nice.
So they're not as prickly
and bad, but yeah.
Gloves are important for sure.
So we'll kind of see what we get
here.
Might be able to get a net or two
picked and then kind of work up fish
quick.
I'm telling you, he came at the
right time because it wasn't until
Sunday, maybe, that the sun
came out. Like, before that, it was
cloudy and
40s.
I'm just gonna get the outboard over
this rope before we grab this,
just so we don't pick anything up
here. Sorry, one sec.
There, go over it, you got it.
Ah, sorry.
I'm going to change spots, sorry.
That was good.
For holy tadpoles.
Okay, I don't think there's anything
we need in there.
I don't benefit from that.
Tadpoles.
Well, there were some bluegill in
there, but this
net has been a tadpole net
here for the last couple days.
I'll show you what it pulls.
It's like a big ball of
jello.
Just all tadpoles.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and that was just a white
sucker in there.
We're not really doing anything with
them.
That was pretty cool, Bob.
I think bullfrogs and green frogs,
maybe don't quote me on that, I'm
not a herpetologist but
we've kind of,
yeah it's just white suckers.
We had some of the naturalist folks,
because everybody asked about them,
I love them, they're super cool,
just these big fat tadpoles.
Ah, sucker rock mass, yeah.
You got one on the deck right behind
your boot.
Just not a big deal, but hey.
Yeah, we're good. We don't need
anything out there.
Yeah, sorry, we're good.
I'm so busy today.
Yeah, there are, man.
They might be getting close to
spawning here.
Yeah, suckers are monsters.
Oh, here's a little baby walleye.
Little guy.
I hope that's not all we get today!
Man, that was really full,
just doesn't have anything we
needed.
Yeah.
If you can see what's in there, feel
free to toss it.
I don't need to check it every time,
I trust you.
If it's really full and you need my
help, yeah, just throw it back here.
There you go. Okay.
Sorry.
I wasn't bumping that, was I?
Nope. Okay.
See that, the nub in the line,
the knot?
Yeah, can you pull that to the end?
Just cause it'll, if that gets
caught in a slip knot, it will be
like impossible to undo.
Thank you.
I can pull it too, it might help
from back here.
Oh, there it goes, perfect.
Yeah.
Because they're just like little
balls of intestines and fat.
I don't know um Greg has
told me that he thinks they're
like unpalatable.
They're something they're not like
poisonous but there's something
about their taste the fish don't
like and uh
I think he's got to
be right at least to some degree
because otherwise you'd think the
fish would really be hammering them.
Every once in a while a fish will
cough one up in a net but I think
it's just because if they're stuck
in a nut loaded with them they're
going to grab something at point.
But yeah, they don't seem to eat
them.
What are you saying?
Maybe, I don't know.
We'd have to, we got to find a
herpetologist and ask him.
Controls the frog. Yeah, exactly.
Like I'm super curious about them.
And maybe they're, like obviously
when they become adult frogs, stuff
eats them.
One night across the lake yesterday,
so we'll shoot for that really
quick.
The rest of the sets after that are
probably more musky-ish
type sets, but you never know.
We might get some.
Try not to hit you with it.
I've always known what you're doing.
I just can't have a random lake.
Where's the best fishing out here?
It depends on what you're going for.
A lot of the walleye, interestingly,
so like this main lake area
is kind of a big bowl.
I mean, there's some structure and
some different habitat
types around the edge.
But most of, kind of, a lot of
vegetation and grass is
kind of back behind the islands and
on the north side of the islands
there. So that's where a lot forage
fish hang out.
So that's where a lot of the game
fish kind of cruise.
So a lot of people like when they
come walleye fishing kind of
fish around the north side or
sometimes the backs of these
islands.
People will try to fish deeper for
them and certain times a year it
works pretty well but there's
some really good fishing for like
bluegill and other panfish out here
right now.
There's some nice size to them.
Sorry, this anchor's slipping a bit,
so hopefully.
If you just want to, like, uh, just
go back a little bit.
Oh, holy smokes.
They're coming.
Okay, good.
Good boy!
All right, finally, at least got a
couple.
Excuse me.
Hi.
Huh?
On the go bro?
Yeah. Cool.
Well that's nice.
Oh, sorry, yeah, yeah.
Nah, we don't need them.
Poor Rock Bass.
Nobody cares about them.
Who are they?
It's a little more like that.
Ah, we're good, sorry.
I think you're...
Oh, sorry.
FATTA!
That was a turn off.
It's crazy, I have one in my pocket,
so I have two bags for no reason.
That's it.
This anchor was slipping a little,
not like a ton.
I'm guessing though we're probably
just going to have to stretch it.
Well, you stick it in there and put
it on top of the pole.
Oh, I like this.
So maybe if you want to just kind of
do a loose like do a slip knot
further down the line like maybe
right where your hand is.
A lot of them are sort of in the 20
inch range 25 inches and
they're kind of small like that.
There are muskie in here and the
muskie I think are much more
dominant kind of out compete those
pike.
We have another lake kind of
connected pallet that
has pike in it they get good size
in there that's kind of a big
Like deeper, not big lake,
but it's smaller than that.
Yeah, we should probably too, before
you do a video of a Fiknet, make
sure it's like standing correctly
and set nicely.
Alright, let me know when it gets
tight up there when you feel the
anchor come up.
Oh, did the slipknot come off?
Shoot, sorry, we're gonna have to do
a quick repair here.
You know what, let's do this.
I'm gonna drive this anchor and we
can just drop this.
So we'll just let that net collapse.
Just so just throw that over and
we'll come out here and fix this
later.
We have one
No, you're good!
I, um...
I don't feel like you got a Russian
Aricot.
Well, we don't have a tongue going
on either.
But it'll just be easier.
I think you can rush and get us out
of here.
That thing will just collapse and we
can worry about it later.
So even if we tag it
and that we can write the
tag numbers on there.
So you've got obviously some
more walleye pike smallies.
Does something like that work?
We just, okay.
Yeah,
I can kind of tell you where to, so
like the top ones,
what is this, pike?
So if there's five, it's
closed, we don't need it.
And we'll just write the length
under male, female, unknown and
add that to the length frequency
later.
And then braid something on this
too.
Um I'll tell you we won't worry
about it this is just a recap sheet
I'll let you know if we got a recap
this is the walleye sheet
or no this may be perched but anyway
oh is it okay so most of them are
closed out so we're probably not
going to need info
on any of these guys
Okay, so just write it
on these.
Yep, yeah, I'll walk you through it
as we go.
So we'll start with walleye and
we'll get these guys out of here.
So, FLY TAGS!
Any fish 15 inches
or more out here gets so each of
these, you may have seen these in
other places, but each tag has
kind of a unique number on it so
we can track fish over time.
And then we take agent structures,
we take scales and spines for age.
Tell me how much, like, you want me
or don't want me to talk about stuff
or explain stuff.
It's awkward.
We're not going to talk back to you
just because we need to get like
yeah, no you're
No, that's totally fine.
I didn't know if you just wanted me
to be silent or if you want me to
explain what I'm doing.
What I'm doing people is feel free
to narrate what you're doing.
You're doing such a good job.
I didn't have to give you those
I will try to narrate and explain.
Okay, so yeah, we'll do
all walleye first and then I'll
switch.
It's good you are explaining to her,
it's not like...
Oh yeah, yeah,
it comes full circle.
All right, let's see if we got one
that's taggable size in here really
quick.
Most of them are.
Here we go.
Okay so this
fish is over
15 inches so we're going to put a
foy tag in it.
So this fish actually has already
we caught it in our it already has
a fin clip on that upper
coddle.
So we got it in out electrofishing
run so we give different clips
depending on what gear we
we sample them in.
So it's 16.6 inches
I'll try to sex it ah it's
clearly a male.
Got it? Yep.
Okay. So this fish actually has
had a floy tag before, it just was
a tag loss. You can see it's already
missing a dorsal spine.
We're going to re-tag it just so
that we have the record again.
The tag number is 5544,
so that can go on the very bottom of
the slip in angler number somewhere
down there.
5544
I'm going to take some scales.
Just pinch it.
Yeah.
We're going to take a dorsal spine
for edge.
That goes in the envelope, too.
Now you're good. We got more stuff.
All kinds of stuff.
All right,
so basically we're going to give it
a bottom clip now, just a little
one, so that we know that we got it
in a FIKE net.
And that's pretty much it.
We would collect a weight on a
subset, but we don't need it for
that guy.
So we'll send him on his way.
The shorter we hang onto them,
the better off they do, so we try to
get them back in the water as quick
as we can.
Ready for the next one?
Okay. So this one's little.
It's a short.
It's not going to get a tag.
It's another male.
He is 12.6 inches.
So since this guy is mature,
he gets a bottom tail clip.
He is not gonna get a tag because
he's under 15 inches.
Scales and a spine.
So this guy is probably from last
year. He's probably a year old at
this point, so yeah,
bad 12 plus inches.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, maybe two, but this
guy definitely is from last year, a
little guy.
Um, so another short, this one's
an unknown.
9-4.
Give him a little clip.
I'll take some scales just to
confirm
He's most certainly probably a year
old.
Um, we'll take a little spine, this
poor guy. I want to take all your
spines, buddy.
There you go.
And we got one more in
here. So this guy is another short,
so won't get a tag.
So another unknown, so we're just
looking for either milk or eggs.
An immature fish actually,
this one is a recap.
So we're not gonna collect data
on it. We've already sampled it in
the flight nets this year.
I'm actually gonna give it an RV
clip because it got the wrong clip
the first go around.
So we just clip in half of
that right ventral fin off.
So on the next sheet under
there in that recap sheet.
This one.
So these go by date, so it'll be a
new date.
That's it.
And then you got species, so walleye
pike smallies.
And then there are length cutoffs,
that's why there's two bins.
So male, female, unknown.
So that would be an unknown and it's
under 15.
Okay, so yeah.
Yep, just a tally
there.
I don't think I got anymore in here.
Thank you.
I can move this stuff too.
So that's it for walleye.
I'm going to go this side.
Can move that stuff.
So none of the other species in
Escanaba get anything.
So yeah, let's do pike.
There's probably four
or five in here if you want.
Is that that pike sheet on top?
Yep.
Okay. If we can't, let me grab the
scale.
You see I think a few of these we
still need weights, but
since we're free floating it can
be difficult to get this thing to
settle.
So we'll see what happens here.
Would you mind just turning that arm
from the triclob to the other side?
Come on.
There it goes.
Is that bucket up behind you
Kelsey?
Perfect, thank you.
Can you do me a favor on that sheet
right there? Can you just write
the bucket weight, which is
852?
And we're just gonna have to
subtract that from the weights on
the envelopes just because this
thing is, we're moving enough that
that's never gonna.
Cool, okay.
Sure I got my
snips and things ready to go here.
So we can get these guys.
This is a new fish.
It is an unknown so
we're probably going to need an anal
fin and weight.
Try not to cuss.
I have a microphone on.
There's that.
Okay, length 24,
2.
These guys get an RV clip.
It's upstage so I can't see it.
So we take an anal fin or anal
ray, essentially for aging
on these guys because they don't
have hard spines
on their other fins.
Take some scales if I can find
my forceps that got flipped into the
tub
Yeah, Pinch, thank you.
Yeah, I'm trying to get away from
here.
Come on.
2174.
2-1-7-4.
Yeah. Here we can slide this, too,
if you need a...
Stretch your legs out.
Okay this
might be a recap but okay so
yeah this fish we already sampled in
the fight nets this year so it's
already got a fin clip.
So this fish
is a male so on that
recap sheet
It'll be a male over
whatever the upper size category is.
Yeah, but like, yeah,
male over 12.
Yeah, perfect.
Another recap.
Male over 12.
Come here.
Oh, there's another little walleye
in there in my bathroom.
See him?
New fish.
Unknown.
It's probably a spent female, but
market is unknown on there.
22.8.
So the clip is a right ventral.
It has a nice tapeworm, you can get
that for the camera, people
will love to see that.
I'm sorry, it's on your finger.
You're almost free.
Just hold still for two more
seconds.
One eight five six.
I got this one little walleye I
missed and then it's all smallmouth
from there.
So walleye envelope, we'll get this
little guy out of here.
12-2.
So since this guy is immature and
under 15, he gets a right ventral
clip.
He's holding his spines up real nice
for us.
So thank you young lady.
Take some scales.
All right, good to go.
11-2
Let me get an RV clip.
You're gonna be soaked.
I got an extra pair of shoes.
Okay,
take some scales.
Didn't get in there.
It's kind of stirring you a little.
Take a spine.
Spines on these guys are a little
tougher to get because they're so
small.
We're so close.
We're being done, my friend.
Here we go.
Ah, on the board.
To get up.
Wait on me, come on.
Oh, yeah, probably.
Sorry, that's my bad.
Yeah.
Um okay next molly
male tiny
little trickle not ready to
go yet 15 6
Well, you are much more cooperative.
Thank you, sir.
We appreciate your
participation.
Okay, ended up where it was supposed
to go.
1-8-3-2.
Ready?
Next, Molly.
Unknown, relax.
16.9.
Ow, your spine's hurt.
I don't know.
I don't know now.
Just hold still so I don't cut
myself with scissors.
Can I start it?
Two seconds.
Do you mind putting that back on?
Come on, come on, there we go.
There, good lord.
This is this guy.
2172.
Okay, so I think we got one more
smallie in here and then that
largemouth.
Thankfully this guy's little.
We will not be as much of a hassle.
10-5.
These things have really horrible
spines, I'm just trying so hard not
to get my fingers ripped off.
Be all bleedy for the camera.
Yeah, it's getting feisty.
Yeah, the ones we had yesterday,
even that nice big one.
Hopefully we get another big one,
there's some nice smallies out here.
One zero seven zero.
And we don't have large mouth
envelopes, Kelsey, because there
isn't much of a large mouth
population out here.
Yeah, just cross it off, please.
And you can even just put L and B.
You don't gotta write the whole
thing.
So.
Unknown.
12, hold still,
12.1.
One two eight six.
And that is it for now.
Oh, yeah.
Thank you.
Pages look like they've gotten wet a
few times.
That good old right in the rain
paper gets wet and dries out,
it's a hazard, hazard of the job.
Thankfully somebody figured it out
long before I started working in
fisheries.
That'd be great.
Okay, I'm going to pull you up a
little bit first.
Hey!
That's what you can kind of get.
Alright, ready?
Yep, I think we can just maybe stop
right there for a second.
If we can go back towards the shore
And let's just stop here for a
second.
Okay, then we can go back to the
shore.
Oh
She'll put her roommates in
the car and she'll have
to be out of her mind like I do.
I have to sleep two more in bed in
my room.
I'm so tired.
Oh
Now we have to do this one perfect
because it's going to be on camera.
Oh, I forgot to put my, hold on.
We're going to have to do this one
again. I forgot to put my PFD back
on. Oh, yeah.
You're really getting in trouble.
Yeah, let's tie it back up.
You probably don't need to tie it
like super tight.
I looked back to tie this on and I
was like, Oh, what is that?
Take three.
Yeah, I think as long as like that
net doesn't totally collapse,
so it looks like it's standing up
pretty good.
Good, okay.
No, we have a few different types
of boards, like half a turn inches,
some are in millimeters,
so it's kind of for different stuff.
Like we tend to use those big white
ones only in the
spring, just because we get bigger
walleye and for musky and stuff,
but we don't tend to like haul those
around all year.
So these like smaller wooden ones
are like just easier, like in a
shock boat that's all we have.
When we do falls back into the bay,
we do this, it's all in
millimeters, it just
kind of depends.
It's all like, yeah,
it's all old school.
And we kind of do both, like
whatever happens to be there.
But again, it was one of those
legacy things where like forever,
and like fish management still
records,
most of them still record in inches.
So like if you pull like
state data from the database it's
generally in inches and
that just kind of.
Yeah, I don't think I mentioned
that.
Yeah.
Frickin' spasms in the spines,
man.
Mmm.
There you go.
Yeah, these smallies are really
starting to come on.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, you gotta
get nuts in palette quick
Nice and big over here too.
Yeah, there's some nice ones in this
lake. There didn't used to be.
Like it's interesting if you look
back at the, I
don't know if you can see it in that
poster on the wall as much, but like
the way these fish populations
fluctuate.
Like there was not a good bluegill
fishery out here for.
Decades. I mean like there are some
harvested but from maybe like
the 60s to
now, like none.
And then in just the last like four
or five years they've been coming on
and there are some really
nice big ones out here.
It's kind of wild.
Like there used to be crappie out
here and those just like
disappeared.
They like got fished out and just
have never come back.
Yeah,
I love there's a black coffee
population out there.
Yeah, well there's plenty
of nearby lakes that have them,
just not here, yeah.
Do you have any of the surrounding
ones in there?
I'm
Like, the ones in this chain that
you guys are in charge of.
Um, no.
That's it.
Not crappy and
then restacked it and
they tried trout yeah
they tried trout and that
didn't work um
and they ended up then just
It basically is just small mouth and
perch.
And then pallet's a little more
diverse, although it's small mouth
dominated.
You pull it a little tighter if you
can.
There you go.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, it'd be good.
Your most graceful position you're
going to be like birthing legs
up in the stirrups.
I'm not sure what I'm supposed to
do.
Let me know when you feel the
anchor.
OK, a little more gas.
Oh, you didn't let it go.
Did it come loose up there?
Thumpin', thumpin' loose.
Ha ha ha
ha, something broke.
Yeah, I'm gonna pull it.
Did it come loose up there?
I felt something go.
We heard the snaps.
Yeah, those are all
Portage route?
Yep, yeah, that goes up to Lost
Canoe, which is not part of
the five research lakes, but it's
kind of just, yeah on the north side
there.
So this is all part of a canoe
route. Like, I don't know if you've
ever looked at the maps up here, but
they have a pretty nice
kind of connectivity with portages
set up for the different, connecting
a bunch of different lakes up here.
And there's campsites along a lot of
them, so you can kind of
Hmm.
Make things interesting.
Don't yell at me, Mr. Wheeler!
Get out of there!
I've got a bike room on me.
A little musky.
I'll probably throw him in there.
It's just those things are worse
than the pike.
Just let him go where he's going to
go. We'll deal with that later.
Yeah, we're good.
Oh, sorry.
That's right in front of my face.
Oh yeah, a little bullhead.
Yeah, nah.
I'll pass you out.
Chinese mystery snail and
a lot of these nearby lakes.
Gosh, what else?
I'm sure there's
some Eurasian water milfoil around.
I'm not really sure how prevalent it
is kind of right around here, but.
I'm sure there's some spots that
have zebra mussels too.
Now that I think about it, all these
ones are popping into my head.
Like man, there's actually a lot of
different evasives around here.
The DNR also has some good programs.
You guys may have read most of what
we have tagged so far is less than
40 inches.
So yeah, that guy might be a toss
up, we'll see.
If it helps too, sometimes, oh,
got it, never mind.
I was gonna say, if something gets
really stuck, put that ring on
the deck and just put your foot on
it and just yank that
tag end. Yeah, you're not gonna hurt
anything.
Okay, just a little more gas.
Oh, there it comes.
Alright, that's good.
Once you get it up on the boat, if
you can see there's something really
good in there, let us know, will
you?
Yeah, and I think the other ones
were smaller, so
they probably won't get tagged.
So this fish obviously
already has kind of the yellow tag
on it. So it's been sampled in
previous years, just not this
year yet.
So tag number.
I'm gonna get full of algae.
Tire number 4870.
Is an unknown.
We can look up the sex later.
It's 17-7.
I didn't really fumble in fish
today.
So since we've already sampled this
fish in the past, it's already had
dorsal spines taken, it's all ready
had genetic samples taken.
We take scales every year
just because.
What does the scale tell you?
Age.
So it's kind of a
easy, non-lethal way to
get at age determination.
We could show you some scales
inside, kind of what they look like.
You press them on to
acetate.
Yeah, I'll do it, see if something
works out.
Yeah, it was 17-7.
Thank you.
Yeah.
And then.
Yeah, you can write the tag number
just on the bottom.
OK.
Okay.
All right.
Unknown.
21 five
I'm not gonna take a weight on it,
you good? Okay.
A lot of these are just spawned
out males and females.
We basically already have enough age
structures.
So unless it's probably a really
small pike, I'm not gonna worry
about for the unknowns taking
anything.
They're females.
That'll just save us time.
They really just need to get
clipped. Another unknown,
21, two.
Male pike.
This poor guy, isn't
that gaudy?
20.5.
I'm assuming for mail we probably
don't need that.
Ooh, I can feel a lot of fish
in your stomach squirming around,
buddy. Go digest.
This little guy, oh this is recap,
recap male,
the bigger length, then over 12.
You can just tally it on that
sheet.
Unknown.
21.2.
Okay,
that's a nice key.
Suck it up.
Twenty-two one.
Is that crossed out,
male, 22-1?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
OK.
I think there's like one more in
here to
recap. Yay.
Pike recap unknown over
12 or whatever the cutoff
is.
Now I can find my walleye.
So this next one, if we want to, we
could do that walleye...
It's gonna get a tag, if I can
find the right one.
Here it is.
So I'll do all the work up, I'll
drop it in and then.
So, Tiger Walleye,
it's a male,
17'2".
This is a brand new fish.
Tug number five five
four five.
Did you want to do that one now?
Ideally, we can see all the walleye
debris that just went up there.
Okay, so put them all back in here?
Okay, unknown.
Oh, this is actually a recap.
So this is an unknown
under because the cutoff
is 15 inches, right?
Yeah, so...
Okay now they're
short.
Sorry, didn't switch on
you. Another unknown.
7-8.
Okay, I think that's it for walleye.
And now we got some smallmouth in
that muskie which is going to have
to come back with us.
But you should at some point here,
the more I got to do this with Coco
too, because she's been on your lap,
but I think you guys support that a
little bit.
I'm uh, trying to do
That's nice of you to give that in.
Those are the best.
They are.
Yeah, I've never
done this before because I didn't
like it when it was dead.
Yeah, I've done it like in three
different jobs and I'm so glad they
made me repeat it because like
we learn different stuff at
different times of the week.
I was just trying to figure out what
I was going to do and I saw
it was actually like a volunteer
position with U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska
and I was like, that's what I'm
doing in Alaska.
So... So you do Alaska first before
you're... Off the deck for a second?
Yeah. That's just how you're
gonna...
I might need you guys to just like
stand in the middle for just for a
second.
There we go. Just had to get it off
that sand.
I think, too, probably once all the
students and the grad students
really start showing up at Trout
Lake, you're going to have,
it should be coming up probably like
end of May, June.
I think that place gets rocking.
I was too old by the time I moved up
here to hang out with the little
kids, but you're
still in school so you can pull that
off.
Yeah, right.
I'm a little past that point, but
every once in a while,
you know,
sure about two, four, five
more than usual.
Ha ha ha
They got a
Wisconsin AFS,
me and Quinn put some money down
on Google so I'm going to have to
get it back for them.
Nah, I gotcha, gotcha.
So we're going to do kind of because
the wind's picking up and blowing us
across we're just going to kind of
sort of get up here and drift
across.
So probably we're gonna pull it on
this side again so we might need
you to adjust just a little so we
can get it in.
Pulling
Yeah.
That's the last one, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, that was it.
Yep. Sorry.
Just going a little crazy back here.
Nothing to worry about.
Nothing to work about.
That's a big one.
Yeah, yeah, I kind of that's already
that's a recap, but I thought if you
wanted to try that'd be a bigger
nice And it's already tagged and
stuff. So There's
also a nice little tiger musky in
there, which I'm pretty sure
is a recap We got to check it,
but that would be a cool one
probably to get underwater
video of swimming away those are
I'm gonna just, yeah, buzz out here
again, so we'll
still have to take that muskie in,
but...
There's no bar up here.
Um no i don't
don't try to think maybe in some of
the rivers yeah um
you haven't seen it anyway no no no
yeah not in these lakes um
I'm trying to yeah I'm trying to
think like if I've even,
we might be a little too far north
or they might just be more like
riverine up here.
Yeah, but that's a
good question. I actually hadn't
really thought about that since I
moved up here because yeah of course
like in Florida right there
everywhere.
Car videos.
Pretty quick here i'll
do this little walleye and getting
back in um
do you want more of like the pike
and bass like do you want me to just
put them all back in here once i
work them up
And then, yeah, definitely a little
wider,
and then, yeah.
OK.
Those guys will be taken back
probably for radio tags,
but we should be able to do that
pretty quick and get them back out.
Okay, so a little walleye first.
It's an unknown.
11.5.
I was thinking about it.
What? The DSP.
Okay.
Oh, sorry, you're still doing stuff.
Like
Unknown 22
even sorry
22 zero
And there's one smallie
in here.
Yeah, just one, I think.
Ready?
15.7.
He's angry and wants to spine me.
Out in here.
I'm trying to get a weight but
that bucket's buried.
All right, so that should be it.
Let me try to get a weight on this
guy.
1046 and we're good on smallies.
Okay, that's it.
Have a good day.
I think.
Okay, yeah.
50 to 55.
Maybe a little higher.
All we've gotten is males so far
though. That one we got yesterday
might have been a female.
I was really just trying to get her
off the board and she already had a
tag so I just recorded the tag
number instead of squeezing her but
so I looked that one up.
But I was hoping to get some big
females coming in and use
up those radio tags on them but I'm
afraid if I wait too long and we
never get them, that's
wasting those tags, so.
We'll definitely put radio tags in
these. I only have one acoustic tag
left, but maybe it would be good
to put in that little tiger.
I would think so.
Just because they, yeah, they're
sort of a question on whether they
might use Habitat a little
differently than the purebred
muskies or not.
Kelsey, if you've got free hands,
can you help me grab some stuff?
Get a grab.
Oh, yeah. Do you want everything to
start in there? No, that's for sure.
All right, let's be all bold today.
Yep, good luck. I'll see you when we
get back.