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Location: Darboy USA | Here is an excerpt from Ron Bruch's state of the lake update in regards to walleyes and sturgeon. I found this very interesting:
Out of the estimated 1-2 million angler hours invested in the fishery on the Winnebago System each year, tournament angling accounts for about 70,000 to 80,000 angler hours.
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Location: Menasha, WI | Aaron, Do you have a link to the report?
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Location: Darboy USA | From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Sent: 6/17/2010 10:28:40 P.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Winnebago Sturgeon and Walleye Update June 2010
Dear Winnebago Sturgeon and Walleye Enthusiasts:
Our Upper Fox-Wolf-Winnebago fish crews are in full summer mode at the moment conducting flathead catfish surveys on the Wolf and upper Fox Rivers, monitoring walleye tournaments on Lake Winnebago, and starting our sweep of stream surveys throughout our counties. The flathead catfish are on the move up the rivers as part of their annual spawning run which provides a great opportunity for us to net and tag fish and collect valuable biological information.
Walleye News.......
Walleye Tournament Monitoring - Each June we monitor numerous walleye tournaments on Lake Winnebago where we collect tag return data on all fish brought in that allows us to develop our walleye population estimates; and length, weight, sex, maturity, and age data on the unreleasable fish brought in by the tournament anglers. All the big tournaments are catch and release, but walleye are actually fairly sensitive to handling and despite excellent efforts by local clubs such as Lighthouse Anglers and Otter Street Fishing Club we usually see about a 25 to 50% mortality rate - over the past two weekends working the MWC/Cabelas and Mercury National tournaments we handled over 2400 walleye, of which around 1400 were returned alive to the lake; and we were able to collect very valuable data on all the fish that could not be released. Mortality rates are influenced by water temperatures, wind, and the number of fish in live wells. After we collect our data on the unreleasable fish, local angling clubs clean the fish and donate the fillets to local food pantries. Out of the estimated 1-2 million angler hours invested in the fishery on the Winnebago System each year, tournament angling accounts for about 70,000 to 80,000 angler hours.
Winnebago Public Walleye Meetings - We have scheduled a series of public meetings around the Winnebago Region on July 13, and August 10, 11 and 12 to review and discuss our walleye assessments and management program on the Winnebago System. Attached is a flyer with details about the meeting objectives and locations. At each meeting we will be providing a summary of the status and trends of the Winnebago walleye population and gathering public input to help us update our Winnebago Walleye Management Plan. Put one (or more) of the meeting dates on your calendar. We will have tons of information to present, and hope to gather tons of good input for our walleye management plan update.
Sturgeon News...........
Our sturgeon are pretty much into their summer patterns now as well - 85% of the adults feeding heavily on lakefly larvae in Lake Winnebago, 13% in the Upriver Lakes, and 2% that never leave the rivers; juveniles primarily in the Upriver Lakes, although some are spread out throughout the entire system from Shawano to Winnebago, and this year's hatchlings should be about 3" long right now, living independently on sand and pea gravel bars 60 to 100 miles up the Wolf River, and 20-40 miles up the upper Fox River.
Our book People of the Sturgeon, Wisconsin's Love Affair with an Ancient Fish is doing quite well having won 6 regional or national awards! The people's stories are what brought this book to life, so I hope all sturgeon spearers and other Winnebago sturgeon enthusiasts can all feel some pride in how well the book is doing. The book is still available at major book stores, Amazon.com, and your local Sturgeon for Tomorrow Chapter.
Finally - an early reminder - if you are planning on applying for an Upriver lakes sturgeon spearing tag to get into the lottery in 2011, make sure you purchase your URL sturgeon lottery application for $3 before August 1. This will get you into the lottery and if you have enough preference points, put you in a good position to get authorized to buy an URL sturgeon spearing license for 2011. The lottery winners are drawn in August and notified that they have been authorized to purchase an URL license. All license sales for Winnebago and URL sturgeon spearing licenses end October 31. Licenses are $20 for residents and $65 for non-residents. All funds from sturgeon spearing license sales stay right here on the Winnebago System for our sturgeon program.
That's it for now - hope to see you at one of our walleye meetings...........
Ron |
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| 40-50% MORTALITY....YOU SHOULD BE SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER ABOUT THIS. STEWARDS OF THE RESOURCE.........BLAHHH BLAHHH BLAHHH
and don't even bother comparing to the average joe taking his limit every day. You won't grow until you let them GO! |
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| I agree, BLOOOOOOODDDDDYYYYY MURRRRRRRDDDDEEEERRRR!!!!!!!!!!!
I think they should keep 'em all, fillet 'em and have a fish fry afterwards. Last I recalled every angler is entitled to keep their daily limit, why is it that a person fishing a tourney isn't allowed to take their catch home?
MMMMMMMMMMMMMM NUMMIE!!! |
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Location: Menasha, WI | Guest - 6/22/2010 3:53 PM 40-50% MORTALITY....YOU SHOULD BE SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER ABOUT THIS. Why? how does 1200 fish out of a 1500000 make of bit difference in the population? Not to mention the extremely valuable information that is gathered for biological management.
Edited by Viking 6/22/2010 4:02 PM
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| it doesn't make a bit of difference but if you were true stewards you'd be trying to find ways to GIVE BACK, like CRR. Bass didn't get to where they are because their fish taste like crap either. |
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Location: Darboy USA | I agree that AIM's model of CRR is definitely the way to go. Is it feasible to do in every single tournament, at this point, no. But I do agree we need to find a way to try and get to that point. Just tough to do right now when you are talking about 300+ boats per tournament. |
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Location: Menasha, WI | Guest - 6/22/2010 4:06 PM it doesn't make a bit of difference but if you were true stewards you'd be trying to find ways to GIVE BACK, like CRR. Bass didn't get to where they are because their fish taste like crap either. That's just stupid. Tournament fishing is not hurting the resource. Tournament anglers give a lot back through various organizations and clubs. Using the resource wisely and protecting it for future generations sounds like true stewardship to me.
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Location: Badgerland | I am curious, maybe cuz it's in such high numbers, I know it's an estimate , but to say between 1 and 2 million angler hours, that sure covers alot of ground to say it is between this number and 100% more than this number. Kinda so wide of an estimate makes me wonder how close they even are or are they just throwing a pair of numbers out there with a wide span just to have something to compare Tournament angler hours to ? |
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| Their walleye estimated numbers are as genuine as the deer herd estimated numbers.
Larry
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| Guest - 6/22/2010 4:06 PM it doesn't make a bit of difference but if you were true stewards you'd be trying to find ways to GIVE BACK, like CRR. Bass didn't get to where they are because their fish taste like crap either. Incorrect. |
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| Let's look at how many fish some people seem to think is their bag limit and quit harping on the tournament anglers. I think it's b.s. that there a anglers who feel they have to feed their neighbors their cousins their neighbors cousins and their neighbors cousin's cousins. Feeding everyone else for the sake of being the bigshot fisherman in the neighborhood or at the local bar is having a much worse effect on the fishery then the twenty tournaments a year. Don't kid yourself there are as many of these kind of people out there as are tournament fishermen. Why not keep only your bag limit. Check out Green Bay these guys are finding it tough to catch fish on Bago so they run up to G.B. and are fishing in Bay Beach and keeping these fish. Makes me want to cry when we sit here and argue over small things and it just makes the chain weaker for the LIBERALS to break. |
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| if there was a fish shortage problem the dnr would slap a size limit on in a heartbeat. I can tell you one thing i certainly see my share of 14 foot boats throw their limit of 10 to 12 inch walleyes in their livewell. As a tournament fisherman myself, i keep maybe a total of 2 limits a year off of bago, and i know a lot of my friends do the same. So quit complaining about the tourney guy, there is no shortage of fish. |
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| big eyes I could not agree more the people who go out there 3,4 or even 5 days a week taking limits out of whatever body of water they are fishing hurts way worse than any tournaments. If people ask me for fish I tell them I will take you fishing when ever you want to go and you can keep a limit of the fish you catch. |
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Location: in the boat off the east shore somewhere | as someone who fishes baggo a bunch and as somone who has 1 frozen meal of walleyes in my freezer i say if you go out and spend 50 to 100 bucks a day to fish on bago with bait launch fuel and all the other crap i have no problem with a guy takeing fish home.. we all do know of a few meat hounds but that you will never stop. As for tournaments , it has been calculated a bazillion times that it helps the system.. 500 tournament boats a weekend all of june and its seems half the field catches there 5...(NOT TEN!) then half of the 5 go back to the lake and those 1000 guys go home with nothing!
put those thousand guys out there on a june weekend and with no size limmit( working well by the way) they can take up to 5,000 fish home... do the math.. tournaments save lives!!!!!!! STOP CRYING ABOUT RELEASE PERCENTAGE! THESE TOURNAMENT SUPPORT CLUBS ARE NOT GOING TO LET A FISH GO THAT THEY FEAL IS QUESTIONABLE EVEN THOUGH ODDS ARE GOOD FOR SERVIVAL! THEY WILL KEEP IT AND DONATE IT TO THE FOOD PANTRY OR THE NEXT FUNDRAISOR BEFORE LETTING IT FLOAT FOR SOMEONE TO FIND AND USE AGAINST THEM! THE FOLKS CRYING ABOUT THIS NEED TO JOIN WALLEYES FOR TOMMOROW OR ANOTHER CLUB AND SEE WHAT KIND OF POSSITIVE IMPACT THESE TOURNAMENTS HAVE ON RAISING MONEY TO IMPROVE THE SYSTEM AND WALLEYE POPULATION. GO LOOK AT WHAT HAS BEEN DONE WITH WITH THE SPAWNING MARSHES! GO LOOK AT THE REASON FOR THE POPULATION BOOM! THERE IS A REASON THAT YOU CAN CATCH FISH ALL OVER THE BAGGO SYSTEM! BECAUSE EVEN A BAD SPAWN YEAR IS ABOVE AVERAGE COMPARED TO YEARS AGO! AS FOR GUYS TAKING LOTS OF FISH OUT OF THE SYSTEM . hey AS LONG AS THEY DONT GET TROWN AWAY ,... ITS FINE ... WISH SOME OF THEM WHO HAVE THE TIME TO GO FISHING THAT OFTEN WOULD SPEND MORE TIME WORKING WITH SOME OF THESE CLUBS TO IMPROVE THE SYSTEM! yet still MANY OF THESE OLDSCHOOL CHEST FREEZER FILLERS DO HELP IN CLUBS catch and realease is for MUSKY AND BASS! WALLEYES ARE FOR EATING DUMDUMS! unless its over 20 inches im putting it in my cooler! yum yum and i figure the little buggers still cost me 10 BUCKS A POUND MINIMUM TO CATCH! lets not talk about what a tournament day costs or when the fish arent takeing my worm.... or the entire ice fishing season!!! OMG! im thinking 100.00 a pound is more realistic~! lol anyway take some fish home and enjoy the day... BUY a TICKET when a raffle for the club comes around! Go to a banquet! these clubs supported by tournaments and fisherman work hard and well with our state DNR to come up with ways to improve things. they need our support and noumbers and funds to increase the possitive results and keep the support of the DNR when they come up with idias.. they also provide the manpower to protect the population at tournaments or durring the spawn, or the Sturgion spawn or whatever.... I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE ONE REDCOMENDATION... WE NEED TO GET THES CLUBS TO INVEST IN SOME FIRE HOSE ON A TRAILER AND BIG REAL! TAKE MILLERS BAY! 200 YARDS OF HOZE THAT RUNS INTO 7 FEET OF WATER IN THE LAKE ALL THE WAY TO THE TANKS ON SHORE AND A NICE PUMP WOULD SAVE 75% OF THESE FISH... OTTER STREET SHOULD HAVE ONE ... WALLEYES FOR TOMMOROW SHOULD HAVE A COUPLE. ON WHEELS AND PUMMPING COLD WATER HUNDREADS OF YARDS WOULD FIX A LOT OF PROBLEMS.... THERE HAS BEEN A COUPLE TIMES WHEN FISH IN MY LIVE WELLS HAD PROBLEMS DO TO MACHANICAL OR EXTREAM CONDITIONS. but most of the fish lost in tournaments seem to come on those hot days and from warm water , IN A WELL OR A HOLDING TANK! bigger pumps and cold water... Costs money though... time to help these clubs out and raise funds for what they need to help the tournament release rate improve. they already do a great job! we only hear about the tuff events! 1 hard weekend of bad conditions and the crying starts .... these guys could have a 100 % release rate the rest of the year and still get a bad rap! not fair at all in my eyes when you see what kind of possitive impact over the years that these tournament anglers, club members and volenteers have done to the system. |
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Location: in the boat off the east shore somewhere | <p>:) </p>
Edited by bradley894 6/25/2010 9:28 AM
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Location: in the boat off the east shore somewhere | a long post agian!! sorry! BUT im tired of seeing bags of ice sor EMPTY baggs of ice in holding tankes! big long hozes and a good pump dragged out from shore even 50 feet into the lake will fix a lot of problems. i dont know if this idia has been floated at the club level but i think in would be a good idia... maybe im off track... maybe its been tried... if so forgive me. These boats have incredible live wells these days. big and deeper pickups than ever for water. I remember a tournament a couple years ago... hot day massive mud bite! all my fish were happy as heck! i coulnt even catch the darn things to put them into the plastic tub for weigh in... i went to the first tank .. .then the second and the guy opens the lid to check the fish! All but one were belly up and he called 4 non realeasable!!!!!!!!!!!! was i angry as i saw empty plastic bags floating in the warm to the touch water in the tanks massive loss that day... hot hot outside yes! on the way home that night stopping at the gas station on the southwest shore the boys from the club were cleaning fish.... said they were there till almost midnight the saturdays catch last night but today was a bit better... plenty went to the food pantry that day... not the first time this has happend to me and my catch... This is not to rip on the clubs! WITHOUT THEM IT WOULD BE FAR WORSE! JUST TRYING TO FLOAT AN IDIA FOR A BETTER SYSTEM. keep the crybaby's about tournament mortality from finding amunition even though there argument has no teeth when it comes to the lakes fish population. |
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| Guest - 6/22/2010 3:53 PM
40-50% MORTALITY....YOU SHOULD BE SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER ABOUT THIS. STEWARDS OF THE RESOURCE.........BLAHHH BLAHHH BLAHHH
and don't even bother comparing to the average joe taking his limit every day. You won't grow until you let them GO!
40-50% mortality isn't a bad thing, as long as those fish are not wasted. The tourneys are erring on the side of caution, so any fish that might be questionable is not released to go belly up later. Those fish are then donated to local food pantrys, or VFW groups, or other needy organizations. I think this is being excellent stewards of the resource.
How many fish does average Joe waste out his his excessive over limits and over possession practice? What have you donated to a food pantry this year? Ever?
I thought so. |
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| Well look at it this way Shep.. 50% of 1200 is a heck of a lot better image than the 50% of 3000 last year don't ya think? Remember that discussion on tourney limits vs. state limits and all the bashing going on? They reduced the catch, probably eliminated some culling saved a lot more walleyes and with that one simple change was there even ONE valid complaint this year? So what if there wern't 50 pound bags to show off. I'd be tooting my horn that we saved over 1000 fish this year compared to last rather than feeding the hungry! There are much better cheaper ways to feed the homeless ya know.
Good Luck
Tyee |
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| Release rates at the Merc National was 71.2% for the two days. Dont know where you guys get your numbers from but you are way off on all the tournaments you are talking about. |
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| How does reducing culling by reducing the limits work? My bet is that there is more culling because they don't have as many fish to work with throuout the day. And why would culling be bad for the resource? And where did the 3000 number come from? 50 pound bag limits on Bago? Huh? Even Green Bay that would be a strecth. What cheaper way is there to help feed the needy, than donated fish? Cheaper for who? Those donated fish don't cost anyone any money but the time they donate cleaning them, and the little bit of gas they use to transport them, also donated and a tax deduction.
Was there one valid complaint last year? Or the year before that?
I have stated that I wouldn't care if it was a 100% kill tourney, as long as the fish weren't wasted. Still not even a drop in the bucket compared to what goes on throughout the year by Average Joe.
Edited by Shep 6/25/2010 1:39 PM
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| Guest - 6/25/2010 1:28 PM
Release rates at the Merc National was 71.2% for the two days. Dont know where you guys get your numbers from but you are way off on all the tournaments you are talking about.
I got it from above. Last I knew, 40-50% falls into the 25-50% range stated above by a credible source. Also, release rate does not always reflect mortality rate.
walleye are actually fairly sensitive to handling and despite excellent efforts by local clubs such as Lighthouse Anglers and Otter Street Fishing Club we usually see about a 25 to 50% mortality rate - over the past two weekends working the MWC/Cabelas and Mercury National tournaments we handled over 2400 walleye, of which around 1400 were returned alive to the lake |
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| Correct me if im wrong shep but wern't limits last year 5 per person (x600 people=3500 fish)...ok so 3000 was a bit high in my post. BUT GENERALLY SPEAKING THEY KILLED A LOT LESS FISH THIS YEAR.....maybe they didn't reduce the culling if it was a "posession" limit rather than a "weigh" limit. but less dead fish is a positive no matter how you spin it.
Good Luck
Tyee
and by the way you do know I fully agree and would support a kill only tourney with over 70 degree water temps. |
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| You're showing your lack of tournament knowledge again, Tyee. You actually think all 600 anglers caught 5 fish? hehehe BTW, 5 X 600 = 3000.
Where would these water temps be taken? 1 mile out, in the lagoon. surface water, down 5 or 10 feet. Not so simple is it?
Start looconsidering the real facts, and forget about your perceptions. |
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