Posts: 714
Location: Rhinelander, WI | Some of my ramblings in responses to topics on a different site got me thinking.
Would the WDNR ever entertain the idea of attempting to restore a trophy population of fish in a system by taking eggs from that system rearing them on there own and restocking them back into that lake of origin? Even if the entire process was privately funded?
For example LCO is a perfect lake for this. It has a 50” limit, it has been stocked for years under the .5 fish per acre plan, and it still fails to be restored as the trophy musky fishery it once was. Why not try a 5 year private rehabilitation project, and dump a bunch of it’s own fish back into the system. Eggs are taken from LCO reared in their own ponds and then stocked back into LCO at a larger than normal density. Obviously .5 fish per acres has not cut it the last 15 to 10 years. Parts of Dr. Sloss’s plan could still be implemented as far as pairing, and with the use of pitt tags it could be ensured different females are pared with different males each year. It has the size, the forage and the protected limit to see if it can work. No cross drainage stocking is being asked for, no extra work by the WDNR is being asked for. It’s fish out fish in stocking, if a sound proposal is written, could it be looked at as a viable option? Lots of people have wanted to restore LCO for a long time.
If it works, other natural systems that need supplemental stocking could be helped in the same manor. For example lets say when they do the next population study of Pelican, they find natural reproduction is not keeping the numbers at the management goal, a fish out fish in stocking plan could be used to supplement the natural population without bringing in stock from different lakes. Maybe some lakes would only require this on a limited basis say once every 5 years or so. But when trophy fish are the goal, maybe it’s needed to give that extra boost some lakes are missing because of harvest, pressure and other factors contributing to early mortality. Lots of clubs and lake associations raise lots of money every year for stocking. In many cases they are not allowed to spend that money, because WDNR efforts have already reached the magic number of .5 fish stocked per acre, or there targets lakes have been placed on a no stock list. Heck Muskies Inc once stocked suckers into the Eagle River Chain because they couldn’t stock musky.
Of course I have no idea of the costs maybe they would be way out of line for private or public funding. Just an idea, any thoughts?
Nail A Pig!
Mike
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Trophy Musky Population Restoration. Fish out, Fish in!