Yeah, you've got a bigger camera
today.
Oh, then the last guy, this time?
Yeah.
What camera did he have?
A little smaller?
It was a little smaller, we had him
on the boat too.
They missed some nice
night work.
I saw the video, it looked cool
Yeah, we had good weather
for it, not always happens.
Alright, you can drive over
too if you'd like, or walk, we're
going to go too. We'll walk over
there. Okay.
I never thought I would make
it on national television,
man. Regional.
Oh, regional. Yeah, we're...
It's like PBS was...
It's still pretty big.
Yeah, no I think.
He he he he
Here we go, we'll get picked up, we
can go nationwide.
Yeah!
Alright, these waders might be...
Way too large or a little bit large
for you.
That's alright.
As long as they don't leak, that's
the best part.
Genevieve made me
go through something
much sizeable
before I was even born.
It looked like rock,
red, cold.
You're not too bad.
Alright, that one is
your lobby.
In that floating red
thing or something.
Oh, looks like we're going to get rained.
So this stuff is very powdery,
so we're going to want to spread it
close to the water.
So with your bucket,
when you're down there, you want to
get close to water.
And then you want
see which way the wind's blowing.
Once you start pouring it, you'll
see which the wind is blowing.
And you want try to face away from
the wind, so it doesn't
go in your face.
Got that, Jose?
It switches a lot.
Last time I had
trouble getting
up on the line.
Yep, that's why we start here,
it's the least...
Oh yeah, you're right, that stuff is
powerful.
So the wind is blowing in
what direction?
We'll call it North.
All right guys,
here you go, take your bucket down.
All right, guys.
Take your time walking down there.
If I fall over, I'm going to be in
trouble.
Cut that out.
Cut that. I got you.
You can start spreading there.
Let's just slowly putting it on and
then let's kind of walk in like a
zigzag so start straight across and
then start coming down and keep
going down towards the other end.
Going to like, get into
town like average.
That works.
Start pouring some and see how the
wind goes.
Kind of give it like a little shake
too.
There you go.
Just like that Jose.
Okay, can you sleep
before this?
Yep.
Just a little bit.
Yep, just like that.
Right, hold on.
This is their first time.
I like that I don't have to do it
every time.
So we're slowly filling the ponds.
We play to Mother Nature.
And she's been pretty good to us
this year, weather-wise.
Because the water that we add is
48 degrees, and
right now we got it up to about 70.
So with the black liner and
the sun, heats it up nice.
And then by this fall,
we'll be full all the way pretty
much to the top.
That's the funnest part is
getting the fish out in the end.
As far as timing on that, is that
still late September, early October?
I would say October for sure
unless something happens
and something always could happen.
It could be anything,
the minnow guys could run out of
minnows for us to feed them so we'll
have to get them out of the ponds.
But if we're able to keep feeding
them we'll go until the second
week in October.
Yeah, because right now I've got a
videographer booked the week of
October 6th
to 10th or 7th to 11th.
Does that sound like a good window?
Actually, it's pretty much right
when we did it last year, so
we'll shoot for that.
Alright, I will email you
and everyone involved just so
everyone can get,
not that our schedule dictates
yours, but...
Yeah
All things equal, if we can be here,
that's...
We can get at least one pond for
sure in those days,
because one pond takes a full day.
So it would be three days here for
us and then whatever they get across
the street, because we help with
theirs too.
Yes, what he said, you try and time
it so it's out of the same time for
clipping fins and all that.
And we have the stocking truck to
do it.
So can we actually see the middles
or are they all just scurrying away?
They are scurrying away.
Most of them will actually stay down
by the, we call it an apron.
It's a concrete apron that goes out.
And right in those, where the air
is too, that's where they hang out.
It was, uh...
I think it was last week we
actually ran a scene through here
and caught some turrent
for sure.
It definitely keeps out a lot,
but it's not 100 percent.
To keep an otter out.
Yeah, we'll keep an otter out, but
once an otters gets in, they're
really smart.
Once they figure out they can climb
over the flash and under a fence
somewhere, they'll go as
far as they can, but just try and
get there.
Alright, I'm gonna go talk to them.
Did you get to see Walleye outdoors
over there or?
Uh, well, we saw the pond.
We didn't see anything.
Okay, yeah.
Tyler thought it was a little too
light. They must have been in the
weeds.
So their ponds look a lot different
than these.
Yeah they're much different yeah
they do do water quality not
sure what parameters exactly but
Well, he mentioned trying to long
apply for a right of grant for
studying the plastic
lining versus the clay lining on
dimorphism to
see what
causes a higher percentage of
females to have a stocking process,
which sounds really interesting.
For sure.
It's another pretty easy one.
You know, you just check in the end
if they're females or males.
So I just kind of
lay out the setup here.
How long have you had the ponds
here?
So we've had,
these ponds have been here since
1995, but
we actually they were all
plastic-lined.
They were clay-lined for
until probably
six years ago.
So six years now we've had the
plastic-line ponds.
And how does that in fact success
versus the old Playline ones?
It's made it a lot easier,
for sure, on getting the
final product, like getting the fish
out.
It drains a lot better,
and you lose
way less fish.
When we had just the clay ponds, you
would lose a lot of fish in the clay
when you're trying to drain them.
So it's definitely improved our
success rate.
And how many,
obviously these are eggs that we saw
you harvest from Nelakagan,
and then you hatched them here
or over at N8DS.
So we did nemocogin
for NADF.
So we collect eggs from nemocoggins
for them.
And then we were actually at
Upper St. Croix Lake this
year. So that's the walleye we
have in our ponds.
So we collected them at the lake,
and then we brought them to our
facility, and we hatched from there
into tanks.
And then from there, we brought him
up to here.
Okay, so these are destined for
St. Croix.
Yep, Upper St. Croix.
Where they come from is where they
go back
Yep, that's what we try to do every
year.
And how many
eggs do you think versus how many
fry versus what do you expect at the
end?
Yeah, so we, when we collect
eggs, we try to get at least
three liters,
maybe four, and it's roughly
90,000 to 110,000
per liter.
So from there, once they hatch,
we stock each pond with
roughly 80,000
fry at the time.
And then by the end, we're looking
at getting 15,000
total.
So It's not a
very good success rate, but it's
better than what they would do in
the lake.
In the lake it's less than one
percent and we're pushing,
you know, we're doing better than
that here.
So what impacts how the
walleye survives?
Obviously we're exposed to the
elements here.
So we check on them every
day, and then we
make sure they're being fed,
and we try to keep the predators
away, mainly the birds,
and there's
no other fish predators like
in the lake.
There's no big predators
eating the fish, the only predators
fish-wise is themselves.
Does that come into play by the end
of the season, some of the bigger
ones?
So it actually
starts right away.
While I am very cannibalistic,
they'll eat each other. So that's
why we're
adding the fertilizer also to keep
it turbid, keep the water darker
so it keeps down the cannibalism.
So you've got a couple of
interns here walk me through how
they came to to be here and what
they're doing
Yeah, I can do that.
So they're from the Bayfield School.
They applied.
We usually get two
to three interns from middle
school to high school every year.
And usually, so it's just for the
summer since they're in school
still.
They get to help with
all the natural resources.
So I get them just
once in a while.
And we like to put them to work and
do hands-on stuff.
And then, I mean,
they're only around for
about eight weeks, usually,
and we try to keep them busy.
What's it like for you to be able to
say all right? Here's what you gotta
do get in there and just do it,
right?
Yeah. Oh yeah.
It's great.
I mean, I've put in my time doing it
a lot and it's nice to see
some kids here from Red Cliff
actually interested in it and
actually doing the work.
And they've got a good attitude
about it, right?
Oh yeah, for sure.
I mean, you find out real
quick if you don't like it.
And so, what is it that they're
spreading here and what's the
purpose, how does that play into it?
So what they're spreading is alfalfa
meal.
So the purpose of alfelfa meal
is to get the bugs going
in the water and
also keep it turbid, like I said.
And so the walleye eat the bugs.
It's the easiest way to explain it.
And this is that, so while
I start out eating algae, are they
always going for bugs or what's that
food?
So they start out with algae too.
Walleye will pretty much eat
anything.
They can get their moths to fit
on.
We do get problems with
toads,
but the walleye aren't quite big
enough yet to be able to eat the
tadpoles.
But they'll eat anything they can
get their malls on pretty much.
And this does draw in enough bugs
that they can
Yeah, for sure.
With the black clay lines,
or black plastic line, we get
the water heated up pretty nice and
it gives a nice bloom.
And just what kind of
bugs, like everything imaginable?
Yeah.
Yeah pretty much anything you
see in a lake it's it's
getting in here we also get
the whatever comes from the lake off
the birds legs too we
also put in here and then
the wind i mean
hopefully they eat the wood ticks
too i'm hoping
Be nice, right?
Yeah
So as far as the
cycle for
the walleye, are we about halfway
or where are we in there?
Yeah, so it's
easiest to say we start in
the end of April and we're
done in
the second week of October,
so whatever that time frame is.
And not quite six months.
Yeah. Okay.
So we're easily two
months in.
Yeah, maybe a third of the way.
We're about a third of the way.
Alright,
um, looks like they need some more
Glass bowl?
Yup.
Take your time.
Then we're just going to want to
spread it.
Oh god.
Like this?
That's how the practice now is?
Yup.
Doing this?
That's good.
So this is our low water.
Oh my god, I accidentally poured way
too much.
Ah.
Oh my god.
Oh, this is fun.
That's raindrops?
Yeah, I think it's rain, that could
do a bunch on me.
Oh, okay.
Oh, Zach, you got a lot to learn,
man. Yeah, well, I could
call them bugs on screen.
They wouldn't know a difference.
You're not wrong.
It looks like a nice sunny day to
me. It does.
It was like that one little gray
cloud.
Passage.
I think we can sit on the belt right
now.
Ugh!
Right over there.
I'm going to blister 30 minutes
right off the full name on here.
Really?
Oh, sure.
You can see you have so much
regenerated white pine,
red pine, and oak.
Technically not your land, but it's
going to get killed anyway, so
you're not harming it.
I've been on my business for some
time. Really?
Yes.
There we go, win-win.