Stephanie John’s son has been wanting to catch a walleye for the past 3 years and last night he got his wish! Pulled up a 23 inch walleye on Shawano a little before 6 pm yesterday! The smile says it all!
This fish was tagged with tags purchased by WFT. It was caught on the south shore of Shawano Lake by a young man fishing with his family. The tag fell out and his father contacted me about returning the tag. ( George, This was caught on Bluegill hill. I know you will ask where for your next fishing trip here with your buddies.) Very cool info on this fish.
We are finding a much higher number of spawning walleyes traveling out of Shawano Lake through Washington Lake and then into Loon Lake to travel to the west end into a small creek that feeds Loon lake for spawning. We plan on walking this creek looking for the area that is being used for spawning. As always looking to improve the spawning area. When we find this we will build a 2026 budget and project plan.
So far we know about the Island and Rosenows point spawning beds on Shawano. It was thought that some walleyes spawned in a marsh area on the north end of Washington Lake. What one year’s data has shown is the fish by the marsh may be just staging there on the way up to Loon Creek.
The water level around the marsh is too deep to set antennas to see if the walleyes enter that area of the lake to spawn. The most traveled walleye that was tracked started in the Wolf River, Traveled through the channel to Shawano Lake. Traveled to Washington Lake and then to Loon Lake and Loon Creek.
I have not heard where she is spending the summer as all 3 lakes and Wolf river hold walleyes in summer. 800 Walleyes, 300 Northern pike and 40 muskie were tagged in this study. Funded by WFT, Figure 8 Musky cub and WI. DNR. The amount of information that was collected this spring is almost overwhelming to enter into study documents for the DNR. Good problem to have for the study, better than poor results.
It is planned to set the antennas again in the spring of 2025 and gather that year’s fish movement data.
Submitted by
Elliot Hoffman
Fisheries Technician – Advanced
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Attached are summaries of the Winnebago tagged fish as well as the Upper Fox/Puckaway tagged fish. The DNR just completed downloads for this season, though it will take a bit of time to get the newest data into this format as the work up can be fairly tedious. This project is ongoing and will likely continue for 3-5 additional years. The files attached here are somewhat preliminary and a more thorough analysis will be conducted at the conclusion of the study. We were able to access some interesting metrics, and I hope you enjoy the results thus far.
The WI DNR would like to acknowledge Walleyes for Tomorrow contribution to this project of paying out rewards for all sonic tagged fish in this study. Due to this reward payment, the DNR have been able to recover and redeploy 24 tags into fish with remaining battery life. They also have 12 more recently returned tags on my desk that will go out this fall. These tags have a price tag around $400 and this tag return system has been a large benefit to the project.
Attached are summaries of the Winnebago tagged fish as well as the Upper Fox/Puckaway tagged fish. The DNR just completed downloads for this season, though it will take a bit of time to get the newest data into this format as the work up can be fairly tedious. This project is ongoing and will likely continue for 3-5 additional years. The files attached here are somewhat preliminary and a more thorough analysis will be conducted at the conclusion of the study. We were able to access some interesting metrics, and I hope you enjoy the results thus far.
The WI DNR would like to acknowledge Walleyes for Tomorrow contribution to this project of paying out rewards for all sonic tagged fish in this study. Due to this reward payment, the DNR have been able to recover and redeploy 24 tags into fish with remaining battery life. They also have 12 more recently returned tags on my desk that will go out this fall. These tags have a price tag around $400 and this tag return system has been a large benefit to the project.
Dear Walleye for Tomorrow members:
On July 15, 2023, Oconto Wisconsin hosted a local fishing tournament named Escape Realty Walleye Invitational. This tournament also includes a Youth/Family Education Moment which was a collaboration between myself Captain Kevin Ellman and my son Captain Jason Ellman – owner of Northern Water Excursions. I conducted a session in which I shared and demonstrated boat and water safety, education on invasive species along with some fishing tips and insights to our young participants. This year we had 24 children engaged in our presentation and I have included a number of pictures to share the success of our day!
Due to the generosity of our sponsors like Walleyes for Tomorrow, we were able to both educate and provide fishing poles to a very excited and engaged group of young anglers!
I wanted to take a moment and thank the Walleyes for Tomorrow organization not only for providing outstanding products but also for their ongoing investment in our children and our future anglers of tomorrow. Your donations and sponsorship over the years have made a difference in the communities we live and fish in!
It is my intent to continue to bring the joy of fishing to our young anglers in the upcoming years and am hopeful that the Walleyes for Tomorrow organization will continue to support and contribute items to share in recognition of our commitment to our fishing future!
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Captain Kevin Ellman
This is a fishing platform the Winnebagoland Conservation Alliance started installing in Lakeside Park in FDL about 10 years ago. It has been copied in several locations around the state with good results and use. This one is on Big Green Lake. Just installed a week ago or so.
A new walleye sonic tagging study is underway on the upper Fox River to evaluate adult walleye movement and habitat use on the system including Lake Puckaway and Buffalo Lake. The upper Fox River walleye spawning run has become less predictable in recent years. Fishways have also been installed to improve fish passage including at Eureka in 1993 and more recently in Princeton and Montello. Many of the historical walleye spawning marshes are located downstream of Princeton on the upper Fox River, but walleye should now have access to upstream reaches with the recent Princeton and Montello fishways. Therefore, it is important to evaluate if walleye movement and habitat use has changed on the upper Fox River. The study will help guide management and habitat restoration efforts on the on the upper Fox River and will also compliment sonic tagging studies being conducted on the Lake Winnebago System.
Department staff and volunteers conducted electrofishing surveys on Lake Puckaway and the upstream river area on October 13th and 26th. There were 16 adult walleye tagged with internal sonic tags on Lake Puckaway that included 8 males ranging 14.7-19.0 inches and 8 females ranging 20.5-25.4 inches. As part of this study, the upper Fox River acoustic receiver network now covers from the mouth of the upper Fox River at Lake Butte des Morts upstream to Portage. Sonic tagged fish that swim by the acoustic receivers (about a ¼ mile read range or line of sight) will be detected with a fish ID, date, and time stamp. Sonic tagging efforts are planned to continue on the upper Fox River area in 2023. This study is currently being funded by the Department, the Natural Resource Damage Assessment, and Walleyes for Tomorrow. We hope to expand the project with more partners as the project continues.
All sonic tagged fish are also marked with an orange loop tag near the dorsal fin that reads, RESEARCH REWARD. Anglers that happen to catch a sonic tagged fish are asked to record the tag number information and approximate length, take a picture with the fish and close up of the both sides of loop tag showing the number, and report their catch. If the fish is released please leave the loop tag intact. If the fish is harvested please contact the DNR, the internal sonic tags have a 3 year battery life and may be able to be reused. Anglers that report the catch or harvest of a loop tagged fish and have proper confirmation (the physical loop tag or picture with fish and verifiable loop tag number) will receive a $100 reward (reward expires Dec. 31, 2025). To report tags and catch information, anglers can email the information to [email protected], call 920-303-5429, or mail to the Oshkosh DNR office (625 East County Road Y, Oshkosh WI 54901).
Attached is the report on the Big Eau Pleine walleye stocking assessment. We tested whether a set of YOYs captured in 2018 and a set of age-3s captured in 2021 came from the 2018 broodstock. There were 23.9% of the YOYs that came from those hatchery fish and none of the age-3s.
This is the study WFT paid for in 2018 to document the value of Sport Fishing on Green Bay. We did this in anticipation of the commercial fishing growth in Green Bay.
WFT representatives attended 2 meetings, one in Sturgeon Bay and one in Green Bay in 2018. Both meetings disturbed us greatly, thus the study.
The DNR has never really referenced the study. Meredith Penthorn at DNR and she said she would post it on the DNR website to make it a public document.
In an effort to better understand angling in the Bay of Green Bay watershed and how this identity impacts the state economy, the authors worked with Walleyes for Tomorrow and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR). Since the WDNR continually examines the catch of anglers through a long-standing creel survey design that is used to estimate fishing pressure and success, the data collection effort for this study piggy-backed upon this creel survey design by distributing a survey packet to recreational anglers intercepted at boat launches and shore fishing areas.
Nathan Jaksha1, Daniel Isermann2, & Daniel Dembkowski1
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point1, USGS-Wisconsin Cooperative Fishery Research Unit2
Describe diet composition of larval walleyes in northern Wisconsin lakes displaying two different recruitment histories: sustained natural recruitment (S-NR) and declining natural recruitment (D-NR).
| Diet Item | % Composition | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Daphnia spp. | 15.0 | 41 |
| Calanoid Copepods | 1.8 | 3 |
| Cyclopoid Copepods | 5.8 | 16 |
| Bosmina spp. | 0.5 | 3 |
| Larval Fish | 63.3 | 49 |
| Unidentifiable | 13.5 | 10 |
| Recruitment History: | S-NR Lakes | D-NR Lakes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diet Item | % Composition | Count | % Composition | Count |
| Daphnia spp. | 19.1 | 40 | 4.8 | 1 |
| Calanoid Copepods | 2.5 | 3 | 0.0 | 0 |
| Cyclopoid Copepods | 8.1 | 16 | 0.0 | 0 |
| Bosmina spp. | 0.7 | 3 | 0.0 | 0 |
| Larval Fish | 60.1 | 34 | 71.4 | 15 |
| Unidentifiable | 9.4 | 5 | 23.8 | 5 |
