WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES CREEL SURVEY REPORT LAKE WISSOTA CHIPPEWA COUNTY 2019 Treaty Fisheries Publication March 2020 INTRODUCTION The information collected from anglers during the interview includes the species of The Wisconsin Department of Natural fish being targeted, catch and harvest, Resources regularly conducts fishery surveys lengths of harvested fish, and hours of of area lakes and reservoirs to gather fishing effort. Typically, only anglers that information on species composition, have completed their fishing trip are population size, reproductive success, interviewed because it provides the most size/age distribution, and growth rates. The accurate information and it avoids the need information from the netting and to disturb anglers while they are fishing. electrofishing surveys helps the WDNR determine the best management practices for You may have encountered one of the DNR that body of water. Another important aspect creel clerks on a recent fishing trip. The of a fishery is the amount of harvest that is survey only takes a moment of your time and occurring on the lake. This information is we appreciate your cooperation during an collected by creel census or creel survey. interview. The information collected gives the DNR valuable knowledge required for On lakes in the Ceded Territory of management of the fishery. Wisconsin, harvest of fish is divided between sport anglers and the six Chippewa The data collected during the survey is tribal bands. The six Chippewa tribal bands processed by a computer program and harvest fish under rights governed by federal summarized by month to calculate estimates treaties of 1837 and 1842. Most tribal fish of the total fishing pressure, fishing effort harvest is done by spearing during a short directed at each species, catch and harvest period of time in the spring. All speared fish rates, and the number of fish caught and are individually counted by tribal creel harvested. clerks, allowing for a complete “census” of the tribal fish harvest in the spring. This creel survey report will provide you with four types of estimated information for Information is also collected on the effects this body of water: of sport angler harvest on fish populations. Because it would be impractical and costly 1. Overall fishing pressure to conduct a complete “census” of the fish 2. Fishing effort directed at each species harvested by sport anglers on area lakes, a 3. Catch and harvest rates creel survey is conducted to estimate the 4. Numbers of fish caught and harvested. amount of fish harvested by sports anglers. Also included in this report are physical A creel survey is a sampling tool used to information about the lake, discussion of measure the fishing activities of the sport results of this survey and detailed summaries anglers and to estimate the amount of fish by species. harvested on a body of water. Creel surveys are designed to have a creel clerk on a lake, work random shifts, and forty hours each week throughout the fishing season. Each month these shifts cover a sample of all the daylight hours. Creel clerks travel their lakes using a boat, snowmobile or vehicle to count and to interview anglers. GENERAL LAKE single page for each species. If a page for a INFORMATION species is not present in this section, it is because no one reported fishing for that Location species and/or none were caught. Each Lake Wissota is in Chippewa County east of species page has up to five graphs covering Chippewa Falls. the following: Physical Characteristics FIGURE 1 Lake Wissota is a 6300-acre reservoir on the ESTIMATED DIRECTED Chippewa River with a maximum depth of FISHING EFFORT 72 feet. There are 7 boat landings around the Total calculated number of hours lake. The most popular landings are the Rod during each month that anglers spent and Gun Club on the west side, Township fishing for this species. landing on Little Lake Wissota, and Lake Wissota State Park in Moon Bay. FIGURE 2 ESTIMATED DIRECTED Seasons Surveyed ANGLER CATCH AND An open water creel survey was conducted HARVEST RATES from opening day of gamefish season on Calculated number of hours it takes May 4, 2019 and ran through the end of an angler to catch or harvest a fish of this species. Only information from October. anglers who were specifically Harvest Regulations targeting this species is reported The following seasons, daily bag limits, and here. length limits were in place on this lake in 2019-2020: FIGURE 3 ESTIMATED TOTAL ANGLER CATCH AND HARVEST Calculated number of fish of this species caught or harvested by all Bag Min. anglers. This estimate also includes Species Season Limit Size incidental catch and harvest of fish Walleye 5/4-3/1 3 ** by anglers that were not specifically Largemouth Bass 5/4-3/1 5 14" targeting this species. Smallmouth Bass 5/4-3/1 5 14" Muskellunge 5/25-11/30 1 50" FIGURE 4 Northern Pike 5/4-3/1 5 none LENGTH DISTRIBUTION OF Panfish all year 25 none HARVESTED FISH MEASURED Catfish all year 10 none BY CLERK Lake Sturgeon* 9/7-9/30 1 60" All fish of this species measured by **No minimum, 14”-18” protected slot, only 1>18” the clerk during the entire creel *Sturgeon must be tagged and registered survey season. SPECIES CATCH AND FIGURE 5 HARVEST INFORMATION AVERAGE LENGTH AND LARGEST FISH HARVESTED Angling information is summarized on a Average length and the largest fish of this species harvested each month. Spooner, WI 54801 Only those fish measured by the Phone: (715)635-4164 creel clerk are reported here. Email: [email protected] Seasonal Angler Effort Summary The table provides a summary by month of the total angler hours and total angler hours per acre. Also, the table compares county average and ceded territory average to current survey results. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this survey was possible because of the efforts of the following Treaty Assessment Staff: Gene Hatzenbeler, Todd Brecka, Misty Rood, Bill Sobaski, and Gina Winther. We would especially like to recognize the efforts of our creel clerks Justin Parker and Youa Xiong who collected the angler interviews. The Department would like to thank John Sours and Delores Albert. They generously allowed the department to keep a boat at their property during this survey. We would also like to thank all the anglers who took the time to offer information about their fishing trip to the survey clerk. Without your cooperation this survey would not have been possible. Additional copies of this report and those covering other local lakes can be obtained from the Treaty Fisheries Biologist in Spooner or WDNR Webpage. Questions about the report can be directed to Gene Hatzenbeler WDNR Spooner Office 810 W. Maple Street WALLEYE FIGURE 1. ESTIMATED DIRECTED FISHING EFFORT 10000 8703 9000 8000 7393 7000 5863 6000 5000 4000 3256 ANGLING HOURS ANGLING 3000 2149 2000 1358 1000 0 MAY JUN. JUL. AUG. SEP. OCT. MONTH FIGURE 2. ESTIMATED DIRECTED ANGLER CATCH AND HARVEST RATES FIGURE 3. ESTIMATED TOTAL ANGLER CATCH AND HARVEST 20 18.8 8000 7508 18 7000 16 14.7 13.4 6000 14 12 5000 4525 10 4000 3610 3489 8 6.7 3000 5.1 2306 6 4.5 HOURS PERFISH HOURS 3.1 FISH OF NUMBER 2000 1503 1333 4 2.2 2.1 1143 1.2 1.3 2 0.6 1000 551 495 264 210 0 MAY JUN. JUL. AUG. SEP. OCT. 0 MAY JUN. JUL. AUG. SEP. OCT. MONTH MONTH CATCH HARVEST CATCH HARVEST FIGURE 4. LENGTH DISTRIBUTION OF FISH MEASURED BY CLERK FIGURE 5. AVERAGE LENGTH AND LARGEST FISH HARVESTED 50 30 42 40 38 35 25 22.0 30 20.0 19.3 20 18.5 18.5 20 INCHES 13 14.9 NUMBER OF FISHOF NUMBER 15 10 13.0 13.5 12.8 12.7 12.4 4 4 3 4 3 11.9 1 1 0 10 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 MAY JUN. JUL. AUG. SEP. OCT. MONTH INCHES AVERAGE LARGEST NORTHERN PIKE FIGURE 1. ESTIMATED DIRECTED FISHING EFFORT 1000 933 900 800 700 600 500 442 400 ANGLING HOURS ANGLING 300 200 128 100 0 MAY JUN. JUL. AUG. SEP. OCT. MONTH FIGURE 2. ESTIMATED DIRECTED ANGLER CATCH AND HARVEST RATES FIGURE 3. ESTIMATED TOTAL ANGLER CATCH AND HARVEST 14 700 630 12 11.5 600 10 500 8 400 367 6 300 272 3.9 4.0 NUMBER OF FISH OF NUMBER HOURS PER FISH PER HOURS 4 200 152 100 72 2 32 42 0 0 MAY JUN. JUL. AUG. SEP. OCT. MAY JUN. JUL. AUG. SEP. OCT. MONTH MONTH CATCH HARVEST CATCH HARVEST FIGURE 4. LENGTH DISTRIBUTION OF HARVESTED FISH MEASURED BY CLERK FIGURE 5. AVERAGE LENGTH AND LARGEST FISH HARVESTED 2 35 30 1 1 25 INCHES 23.0 23.0 NUMBER OF FISH OF NUMBER 20 0 15 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 MAY JUN. JUL. AUG. SEP. OCT. MONTH INCHES AVERAGE LARGEST MUSKELLUNGE FIGURE 1. ESTIMATED DIRECTED FISHING EFFORT 1600 1400 1337 1200 1004 1000 888 800 600 550 ANGLING HOURS ANGLING 409 352 400 200 0 MAY JUN. JUL. AUG. SEP. OCT. MONTH FIGURE 2. ESTIMATED DIRECTED ANGLER CATCH AND HARVEST RATES FIGURE 3. ESTIMATED TOTAL ANGLER CATCH AND HARVEST 70 180 62.9 159 160 60 140 50 120 120 40 92 100 85 30 80 16.4 60 44 46 20 FISH OF NUMBER HOURS PER FISHPER HOURS 11.3 11.8 8.8 40 10 20 9 0 0 MAY JUN.