So I want to talk a little bit more about you and your family because you obviously talked about your fishing experiences as a child you've got a couple of boys right yep so for you personally like it's how much how important is fishing in your personal life or do you get enough fish in your job that it's like you don't like you go home you're like I don't I really don't want to go touch the fish again.
I think it's probably the same old story for most of us as fisheries professionals but I'd love to fish I always have that was fishing in sports if it was my summer time coming up and I was five, six, seven, eight years old I was on a bike and I always had a fishing pole or go to the baseball field stuff like that so
fortunately grew up in Stevens Point where those opportunities to get to do that and my dad was an angler his friends were anglers I get to go along with them and so it just kind of became an identity at that point and as it continued on through school and that passion it's
it would it be to work with fish and understand everything I could about fish and that just kind of led through the schooling progression for me to be in the position that I'm in now where fish are my life as far as work
you know as far as fishing itself yeah it's still my passion I would say that there's just times where I don't like to fish as hard I put it that way
where I still I always want to go fishing I'll go fishing at every opportunity I get there's just sometimes I don't want to work as hard at it and just kind of go out there and enjoy it especially in the spring time like this we're out on the water every single day we're working with hundreds of fish every day
and a lot of people go gosh it'd be the last time on earth I want to do is go fishing and play with more fish so I always enjoy it like I said sometimes I don't want to work as hard at it
so when your boys were little or like were they do you see the same thing or that's like they followed you around and so fishing became part of their lives
yeah I mean I think that's basically how it works in a lot of cases and so they've been out in the boat with me since you know they were wearing their water wings and with their Snoopy rods and everything like that and you know with kids you start them you start that progression it's catch rates first right it's making sure that there's action they're not going to sit for eight hours a day
you know jigging a jig in minnow and not catching a fish or a walleye all day long so you know it's I think it's that starting it's getting that engagement there of catch rates and then now you know as they progress they love to fish they love to ice fish too it's hey dad what are we doing on the weekend we want to go ice fishing yeah let's go this way what do you want to do you want to jig or do you want to go tip up fishing I just want to watch tip ups today
it becomes just like for so many other people their friends start coming along and we start taking their friends with and it's awesome to watch kids run around chasing tip ups and they're at age where they're tackling each other on the way and stuff so it becomes social
it also becomes a part of their identities and now they're hitting a stage two where they're starting to buy specialized gear I want a bass rod because a small mouth time is coming up I need an ultralight because a crappie time is coming up and so it's fun they learn about that whole progression just kind of through osmosis and so it's fun
they learn about that whole progression just kind of through osmosis and the interest that I have and taking that out they're also really fortunate too with the agency like they come to work with me sometimes they've been out picking fight nets
and they're working up fish and they're hand in hand with the students and technicians that we work with and getting that so whether they become fisheries professionals or not is not a big deal to me I want them to be happy and to do what they want
they decide that this is a career path that they want to do that's fantastic as well but that's part of why we're doing this story it's like you talk about your grandfather all the way down through the line like this is a cultural thing that is transmitted generation and generation
and there's so many benefits to fishing and it's not just you know harvest opportunity but there's been many studies about this of all the different reasons that people go fishing and it can be just because I want to spend time with family and friends and that's something that they enjoy
it can be it's just really relaxing to be on the water and to be out on a beautiful lake you know trees and wildlife and everything like that and then also the other end of the spectrum is like I'm going on on the water
and I want to catch as many fish as I possibly can because I'm really driven by that utility or that satisfaction that angling gives me
even for myself there's times like just it's a stress reliever I'll go fishing sometimes just because work's been hard a lot along the hours I don't care if I catch anything
casting is therapeutic to me I'm just going to go cast and if I catch a fish that's a bonus so there's all those things that come into play it's not just harvest and
and catch rates there's a lot of therapeutic relaxing good qualities that go along with fishing
how does fishing play into relationships especially with spouses or partners or boyfriends or girlfriends that kind of thing
because obviously there's a lot of jokes about you know married to the boat or you've got your fishing license for your marriage license
yeah I think it all works in all different ways I mean I know there's certainly relationships where I know many women anglers that are as hardcore or hardcore than any male angler that I could ever tell you and certainly very passionate about it
again there's other situations where it's time spent together right and so if your partner really really enjoys fishing and you enjoy fishing a little bit too but it's really nice to read a book and sit in the back of the boat or dip your feet in the water
you know however that might work that's good too so again it's an activity that brings people together and when it comes to relationships like that I think it can work in all different ways too
it might be that someone's never angled before and your partner really likes angling so it becomes a new experience maybe you like it maybe you don't but I think it brings people it brings people together
so one more question on the research that I'm meaning to ask is I'm trying to get an estimate of how many studies on walleye are active at any point in time and I know you're one component because there's UW-Stevens point in there
the Aquaculture Center and I think obviously UW-lanology and I'm trying to get an idea of how many studies are going on how much money is devoted to this and if there is there any other species of animal in Wisconsin that has this much
funding and number of studies looking at it you know I could figure out ballpark figures for the amount of funding the number of studies for all the groups that you just mentioned but you've hit on a lot of the key ones
so you know DNR, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, several of our universities within the state of Wisconsin, our federal co-op unit at Stevens Point engaged in a lot of walleye research, climate adaptation science centers
that we work with our USGS folks and it's not just Wisconsin but it's broader regionally too and sometimes with our collaborators in Canada too so you know I would just say from Wisconsin's perspective I know this that most of our studies are devoted towards walleye right now because
these natural recruitment declines the popularity of the recreational fishery and the importance of the joint and the tribal subsistence fishery we certainly are studying all kinds of different things too but there's a lot of attention being paid to walleye right now
and you know to translate that over to wildlife you know maybe deer would be you know we we invest a lot of research into deer it's probably
especially CWD maybe CWD but it's kind of the wildlife of Wisconsin right deer kind of king walleye can be our kind of king for the fish side of things
and those I mean those yeah those make the largest group of people there spending the most amount of money up paying the most attention to how many they see or catch and yeah
I mean another way to look at it too is it's you know probably the sport fish in Wisconsin that's being most challenged right now
it could be very different if musky were showing similar patterns or trout populations and we do a lot of trout research too and they're going to be challenged by climate change
and brook trout reserves now and some of our scientists have done a lot of work there but there's a lot of attention on walleye because of the patterns we've seen over time and the importance of the fishery
just imagine if you're driving on the highway and then walleye jumped out and hit your car yeah that'd be nice right yeah walleye's falling out of the sky
yeah alright anything else that you want to add I know we covered a lot of territory here anything else that you think we're missing
I mean that's pretty wide ranging so alright can I get you to say and spell your name and give your title so I have a correct answer
Sure Greg G sass G-R-E-G G-period S-A-S-S and Fisheries Research Team Leader in the Office of Applied Science with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Great thank you so much I really appreciate that I know that was a long time but hopefully it covered things that were interesting to you too
No I mean I enjoy the conversations and you know if this comes together I think