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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | I had the privilage to be involved in the WI DNR Muskie Committee meeting Held in May. I was pleasantly suprised at how much thought/effort the DNR has done and wants to do to assure WI has the best muskie population it can have going forward. They definately are being active in trying to deterimine what is best for WI fishery.
There was a lot covered in the meeting from Genentic Stock evaluation study, current stocking policies, broodstock management guidelines, club stocking requests, to the last thing that I am going to cover and that is the study of the Leech Lake strain of muskie here in WI.
The study listed below has been approved but is not set in stone as of yet, this is my understanding. Below is the summary from a draft copy of the meeting minutes. Not a lot of details are listed here, but enough to give you a flavor for the extent at which WIDNR is going to look at the Leech Lake strain across the state. As Mr. Ramsell, et al. has pointed out the St. Croix basin is a great location to do this study for many reasons that have been covered in other posts extensively. Other lakes across the state were added to give geographical variation to the study. The NE was not added for several reasons, which all I can't remember but one is the drainage into either the WI river or the great lakes wanted to be avoided.
Scot Stewart and I brought up the Petenwell as well for a candidate. However, the shear size and the amount of fish that would need to be stocked to get the appropriate sampling back is extremely high. So last I heard the Pete was on the fence. However, it doesn't stop the pete from being stocked by clubs but that it probably will not be included in the study.
Here is the summary:
Proposed Strain Evaluation Project - Marty Jennings presented a proposal to compare the performance of Leech Lake fish with our production fish from Spooner (LCO-derived fish) within the St. Croix Basin. This proposal included 7 lakes that are fairly representative of musky waters within the basin. The proposal includes 2 class A waters (Deer Lake and Shell Lake or Yellow Lake), 4 class B waters (Big Moon, Matthews, Sand, and Twenty Six) and 1 class C water (Des Moines Lake). The committee also added 3 waters outside the native range that would follow the same protocol but would be surveyed by regional fisheries biologists (Delavan, Monona, and probably Round, Chippewa County). The lakes were selected because they were either seepage lakes or there was little chance of escape or straying of test fish. The proposal was approved as amended. Terry Margenau wanted to reiterate (via DRAFT memo) that during the coarse of this study, no new stocking permits should be issued for Leech Lake fish in the St. Croix Basin. This position should be revisited in 10 years. Marty needs to identify specific criteria and a timeline for the project.
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There is also a lot of work going around the genetic study, defining appropriate broad stocks, egg harvesting/stocking policy etc. that will greatly help WI move to optimize its fishery.
The evaluation of leech lake fish from this study, paired with the gentic work planned to identify the current "portfolio" of fish in WI goes a long way to getting at optimizing the WI fishery without blindly running after a simple solution.
I know there still will be people out there that will not be happy with what the DNR has planned. But I personally am excited to see the work that is being planned. Now all we have to do is figure out how to stop having the DNR's budget cut!!
Bottom line though....no matter how well the DNR optimizes the fishery, it doesn't matter if the fish are taken out of the system. Harvest is STILL one of, if not THE biggest detriment to the WI muskie trophy population, lets not loose sight of that.
Oh yeah...there are no big muskies in WI right now...
Cory
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | I find this interesting. People jump up and down screaming to do something with the WI fishery...put leechers in the state..specifically the St. Croix Basin...and now that the DNR has plans in place to move the state forward...there are no comments from folks.
What are peoples thoughts??? There is a whole spectrum of fisherman here from those that have the position we should just stock leechers in every lake in WI, to the other end of the spectrum where people don't want Leechers introduced into WI waters.
curious...
Cory
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I'm in complete support of the program as it's currently being handled; with care and study, and not in a 'fire control' mode. I think we need to raise that money and get Dr. Sloss's work funded as best as we can, and move forward. | |
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Location: The Yahara Chain | This is great news, it would be nice to see a lake or two in the Northeast added to the list. There have to be some landlocked lakes over there that they could put some LL's in, without having any adverse effects.
Is this starting next year?
What is happenning in the St. Croix river?
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Posts: 216
Location: Belleville, WI | I am very excited about this - I think it is the best way to proceed on this very complex situation. Plus I'll be able to tangle with some LL strain fish in the near future (God willing)! | |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | Not sure why Pete is not a study candidate, as surprisingly high numbers of muskies are sampled in test nets compared with total numbers of muskies suspected by experts to inhabit the flowage. I think it could be as good a candidate as any for study purposes with its vast forage base and potential. My main goal though, was to get permission to stock them into Pete. We as anglers, will get the chance to study results for ourselves...... Now, just need to gather the resources neccassary to buy the fish this fall. That said, can't wait to see how things evolve within the study group.
Edited by Reef Hawg 6/23/2005 8:35 PM
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WI DNR- Leech Lake stocking study- St. Croix basin