729, this is by guiding 15 years
from it.
They're really picky though,
the guy doesn't let you out of his
sight.
Where was this again?
I don't know.
That was a pretty affordable trip.
Yeah, six days for $5,000.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29,
30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 33
He went to the Yukon
three years ago and he's going
back this year.
But then you shoot
I think it was like...
Bye!
It is a small
one for up there.
Well, mine was only two years old,
and I didn't
bring the horns back because I
chopped one off.
Okay, okay, okay.
Jordan, because he's
the co-chair of that fishing club
with Jeff.
So Jordan and him are on that
fishing pub, so they'll help.
Well, I met with a one
last year.
They were working on
finding enough people to be
interested in the 40 days.
Yeah.
Well that's what I told Jeff too.
I said it's nice when you got
helpers but the thing is
you got to have the consistent
helpers that do it every
day so they know what the hell
they're doing.
We're going to have a commitment.
Yeah, they got to commit to it or...
You have to work though.
How many drinks have we done today?
500.
I woke up at four, it cost
me a turn, it was all four or five,
whatever.
I don't know why I do that.
It's like when I'm clearing it,
I just wake
up and it's in there, and I take the
phone and stuff, and it was like,
I don't know, 12-11.
50, another one,
we're going to go home.
This a few days, days
back out of here and then
pick up these.
They're very sinister, quite loose.
I see it dipping swaps,
but I later believe the chance is
increased.
And it's hot down there, and it's
burning.
It was warm.
I just wanted to see you guys work
out a little bit, so...
Alright, and Kyle and I told us to
do it.
I don't know.
I thought that was kind of a hard
way to just show you guys.
Even though we're all see if I can
figure it out
Grab that wrench, my dear.
Yes
With that?
With the apron.
So you iron it up?
Go over and make sure to tell me.
Like, like, I got it.
Like that.
There's some other species that
we'll see. We'll see like giant
otters, log perch.
Pretty good drop.
Yeah.
He's got a drum, one adult
trumpet.
172 Trout Perch,
1 Adult Troutperch,
9 Young and Young,
We're going to go around and check
it out.
Pro-Purchase to meet.
No. No.
We have 2467
Wallis.
That's about 149.
We will take her by the line back
here.
I hear you have a patch up this
year, so...
You wanna fight?
The more of these that we catch in
the fall survey, basically the
better the indication that the fish
had a successful spawn in
the previous spring.
Hold it tight out of the water and
I'll take it.
All right.
Is the hero.
Perfect.
And there's one more in there.
He did an op in four years
spent in Germany where he met his
wife.
Time to...
Channel care 22.9
walleye 11.2
Perch, 6-0.
Walleye 10-4
9-7
Perch 5.9
We got 130 trout
perch, 6 white bass,
1 yellow perch, 3
drum.
Love it.
Love it all night.
Yep.
86 trope perch, one
mature trope perch.
And then three crappie.
Yep.
I think this measure is deep in your
head so it's right near the back of
the water.
They'll be good.
Did you have
a 25 and a half for the first
one?
We had that really early spring
in 2024.
Yep.
And the walleye and sauger will have
a different number of those
appendages so they can verify and
make sure they're a walleye or
sauger.
35, 30
drop, 34.
Yeah, 13.1.
13-2
15-3,
Sauger 15-1.
Walleye 12.1
9-7.
Well, uh, 11.3,
perch, 9.8.
8-1
Five, nine.
Yeah.
Walleye at 9-1.
Hertz by a four.
Walleye 9.5
Perch, five, four.
Walleye 13-7
White bass, 12-8.
Five nine.
Alright, so for check weighing,
we're going to start counting out
piles of 200 trout we have a little
bucket.
We'll make three piles of 200.
All right.
For a fish you might,
maybe it's in on the back,
all right
there's 200
Alright, you got 200 mic?
Yeah.
Here you go, 200.
It's time.
4.64 and average.
Let's say 0.6 of that.
Yeah, 0.64.
Yeah, 2.44
pounds.
New white man.
Three crappies.
It's a 3.2, it's kind of hard to
reply to.
Three adult chokers.
Five, eight, three, two, one.
Got your beat.
I ain't three quarters.
It works good until you try to type
or you try to put a bank crawler on
it. Uh-huh.
You can't do either one of those
anymore.
You've got to modify your typing
profile when you've got short
fingers at the base of the hand.
I used to be able to type with three
fingers, now I'm down to one.
The other two don't reach no more.
One gallon bucket or something.
Two gallon bales, there's
it.
I wanted a scooper on it.
Yeah, well you need a dust fan.
All right.
I think it's
a little bit faster, it's like it's
exciting when you
3.04
Yeah, there's been no doubt on that
record.
276.
Ciao, folks.
12 cropping, one for
each,
one white bed.
Got a curtain?
3.12, Angelo.
Got it.
Another white badge.
How many white badges do you have?
I don't count.
Ten white bass.
Uh, is that, is it 14?
Is it high?
Excuse me.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, we went down and
uh, even up at the top.
No, six.
Six.
Are those all choppers?
Yeah, there's two in there.
That was a diverse pull.
Let me get a picture of that before
you sweep it off.
I want to get a bunch of young gear
in my photo.
Keep a couple walleye on the table
for the picture.
Actually, I'll just do it now.
Thank you.
Yeah, but that's like, way cool.
Way cool, yeah.
Yeah, it's got to be as good as
good.
Yeah, there were a lot there.
I'd say not quite as many as I
told yesterday, but well
over 10,000.
I think it was over 10 thousand.
What?
We're sure it was 10 thousand?
I'm guessing at least.
Jason you got one more check way
number for me, right?
He weighed one more picture,
I don't know where he went.
Michael, why are you-
Yeah, don't get in the way.
I could use a new LTA.
Ha ha ha ha!
Once it starts coming in, you can
creep up here a little bit.
Probably 10,000 troopers.
Shut up.
No Hollywood's fucking with it.
I've got half the guards up.
23.3
There's water on back of it.
Here, 25, too.
Oh, all right.
9-5
8-3
Ha ha ha ha!
Nine two.
9-6
Yes, I got one more.
To a white bass, white
bass dude, more white bass.
I'll see you all that week for the
end of the week.
This is just like the perfect storm.
George Clooney right there.
Is that a movie?
Yeah. Or they're sport fishing
and then the
board cap sign.
It kind of looks like George
Clooney.
A little bit.
34
44
Ah, I think you're going here.
60
41
9-3
It's 9.3.
Channel cat 16 six
600 drop birds, one sheep head.
405 Croucher.
Look at how many folks
you're taking.
If you come out and fish this
area next week, they should be
hungry. We've got nothing to eat
anymore now, because I'm sure we've
got shit on the line.
Not even close to a dent.
The entirety of the survey covers
138 acres and
a 46-acre dental applicant,
and that is 0.01%
of the Purple Lake area.
That being said, some of the visuals
are making, so...
We're going to do two more for sure,
then we might do that go
back up a little north of where we
got my garlic there.
I got to call the lady to let her
know.
We should know after, I'll talk to
Ryan.
Back folder 2 and 3.
Yeah, it might be early.
It's only 11.
And we'll be doing three more at
$100.
I mean, there's been years where
that $16,500 hole
we have is more than we got higher
than three months ago.
At 860.
Yeah, probably 50.
I'm going to say you're all 50.
Upper 40s, maybe 50.
50 maybe.
See how long it is.
That'll usually give you a pretty
good idea.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah, the last time I was on there,
I got into fishing and uh...
Gear 13.5.
All I-8-7.
Perks 5-3.
Bye, man.
Six, yellow, first.
Wall I-90 87
50
5-0.
Drum? 50 drum.
11 drum. Yellow perch.
Two more
I don't
97.
A lot of yearlings.
97.
Look at that.
Paid for.
Eight yellow birch.
Eight yellow Birch.
4-8, 5-3,
4- 8.
Got it.
Got it!
Six GCPed, and they're all in
this bucket.
There's five yellow birds.
I knew it.
Good job, Peach.
Nice white mass.
That been white mass!
How many travel birds do you think?
Bye, Perch.
Channel 10, 17, 2.
One perch.
Should we get two?
One more perch.
Ah, cute.
Those are like this.
Thank you very much.
That's what happens when you kick
your butt.
20.5 on a drone
Perch, 9-2
5-8
Huawei 10 One
13.
$20, $20.
$20?
$20 and $20
$20 $20 $20
Last one.
Walleye 97,
96,
63.
Head base 25, 2.
One yellow bird.
I'm on the yellow perch.
What the?
Where's all the curly locks?
Hey!
There you go.
It wasn't too much.
What if I got the deflection board?
Aim on one side so they only
fall out of the one.
Well, I'm keeping my best.
You're bleeding.
I'll start shoveling a little.
I will.
Okay, we're set.
All right, 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
you know exists out there where
we're able to trawl using
you know 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're 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 used 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 know,
how they're doing, how the
reproduction's going, what the
adult population's 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.
What we got today is not the only
survey, like you would 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 a,
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 sought
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 law of averages
and why we have forty six different
waypoints scattered all over the
lake. And then not only are we
hitting it 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 triplicate 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 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 2022.
You guys probably saw today the
biggest net pull of young of year
walleye, again, the young of year
indicating the year class strength
or how successful the spawn was.
I think we had like 35 in a net
pull. In 2022, we are
having net pulls well over 100,
you know, basically indicating that
they had a very, 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
way points 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 then 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 year 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, I mean
just the drum that we're pulled out
of, 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
like 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 like 25, 26 on some
exceptionally large individuals.
And you also pulled a few sturgeon,
and you scanned those.
Looks like one came across the
setting. 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 word for lake sturgeons
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, I guess, 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.
This year. 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
strong event.
You know, the 46 way points and
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 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
DNR people?
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,
you might 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.