WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES CREEL SURVEY REPORT RANGE LINE LAKE FOREST COUNTY 2018 Treaty Fisheries Publication Compiled by Jeff Blonski & Jason Halverson Treaty Fisheries Technicians CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 GENERAL LAKE INFORMATION .................................................................................... 2 Location ........................................................................................................................... 2 Physical Characteristics ................................................................................................... 2 Seasons Surveyed ............................................................................................................. 2 Weather ............................................................................................................................ 2 Fishing Regulations ......................................................................................................... 2 SPECIES CATCH AND HARVEST INFORMATION .................................................... 2 CREEL SURVEY RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ......................................................... 3 Survey Logistics ............................................................................................................... 3 General Angler Information ............................................................................................. 3 RESULTS BY SPECIES .................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................... 4 SUMMARY TABLES Table 1. Sportfishing effort summary ............................................................................... 5 Table 2. Creel survey synopsis ......................................................................................... 6 SPECIES CATCH AND HARVEST FIGURES Gamefish Figure 1. Walleye ............................................................................................................. 7 Figure 2. Northern Pike .................................................................................................... 8 Figure 3. Largemouth Bass .............................................................................................. 9 Panfish Figure 4. Yellow Perch .................................................................................................... 10 Figure 5. Bluegill ............................................................................................................. 11 Figure 6. Black Crappie ................................................................................................... 12 Figure 7. Pumpkinseed ..................................................................................................... 13 Other Species Figure 8. Common Carp .................................................................................................. 14 Cover Art: Steve Hilt, Portland, OR Fish Graphics: Virgil Beck, Stevens Point, WI INTRODUCTION hours per week. The survey is conducted during the open season for gamefish from Fish populations can fluctuate due to the first Saturday in May through the first natural forces like weather, predation or Sunday in March. Creel surveys are not competition; management actions like conducted in November when fishing effort stocking, regulations or habitat is low and ice conditions are often unsafe. improvement; habitat loss and harvest The survey is run during daylight hours, and impacts. Wisconsin Department of Natural shift times change from month to month as Resources fisheries crews regularly conduct day length changes. fishery surveys on lakes and reservoirs to gather the information needed to monitor Creel survey clerks travel their lakes changes, identify concerns, evaluate past using a boat or snowmobile to count the management actions, and to prescribe number of anglers at predetermined times, fishery management strategies. Netting and and to interview anglers who have electrofishing surveys are used to gather data completed their fishing trip. Data is on the status of fish populations and collected on what species they fished for, communities, measuring such parameters as catch, harvest, lengths of fish harvested, species composition, population size, marks (fin clips or tags), and hours of reproductive success, size and age fishing effort. Collecting completed-trip distribution and growth rates. The other key data provides the most accurate assessment component of the fishery that we often need of angling activities, and it avoids the need to measure is harvest. to disturb anglers while they are fishing. On many lakes in the Ceded Territory of A computer program is used to estimate northern Wisconsin, harvest of fish is catch and harvest of each species, catch and divided between sport anglers and the six harvest rates, and fishing effort by month, as Chippewa tribes who harvest fish under well as for the year in total. Keep in mind rights granted by federal treaties. The tribes that these are estimates based on the best harvest fish mostly using a highly efficient information available, and not a complete method, spearing, during a relatively short accounting of effort, catch, and harvest. time period in the spring. Every fish in the Accurate estimates require that we sample a spear harvest is counted – a complete sufficient and representative portion of the “census” of the harvest. angling activity on a lake. The accuracy of creel survey results depends on good We also measure the sport angler harvest cooperation and truthful responses by to assess its impact on the fishery. However, anglers when a creel clerk interviews them. it would be highly impractical and very costly to conduct a complete census of every You may have encountered a DNR creel angler who fishes on a lake. Therefore, we survey clerk on a recent fishing trip. We conduct creel surveys. appreciate your cooperation during an interview. The survey only takes a few A creel survey is an assessment tool used minutes of your time, and it gives the to sample the fishing activities of anglers on Department valuable information needed for a body of water and make projections, or management of the fishery. estimates, of harvest and other fishery parameters. Creel survey clerks work on randomly-selected days and shifts, forty 1 This report provides estimates of: Fishing Regulations 1. Overall fishing effort (pressure) The following seasons, daily bag limits, 2. Fishing effort directed at each species and length limits were in place on Range 3. Numbers of fish caught and harvested Line Lake during the 2018-19 fishing 4. Catch and harvest rates season: Also included are a physical description Bag Min. of Range Line Lake; discussion of results of Species Season Limit Size the survey; and detailed summaries by Largemouth Bass 5/5-3/3 5 14" species of fishing effort, catch and harvest. Smallmouth Bass 5/5-6/15 Catch&Release 6/16-3/3 5 14" GENERAL LAKE Musky 5/26-11/30 1 40" Northern Pike 5/5-3/3 5 none INFORMATION Walleye 5/5-3/3 3 15" Range Line 20"-24" Protected Slot, 1>24" Lake Panfish year round 25 none Rock Bass year round none none SPECIES CATCH AND HARVEST INFORMATION Angling effort, catch, and harvest information is summarized for each species in Table 2 and Figures 1-8. Information presented about species whose fishing Location season extends beyond March 3 should be Range Line Lake is located in Forest considered minimum estimates. Each County near the town of Wabeno. species page has up to five graphs depicting the following: Physical Characteristics Range Line Lake is an 82-acre lake with 1. ESTIMATED FISHING EFFORT a maximum depth of 11 feet. Littoral Total calculated number of hours substrate consists primarily of muck, gravel, during each month that anglers spent rubble, with lesser amounts of boulders and fishing for a species. sand. Range Line Lake contains hard, slightly alkaline, clear water of low 2. ESTIMATED CATCH AND transparency. HARVEST Calculated number of fish of the Seasons Surveyed indicated species caught or harvested The period referred to in this report as by all anglers, regardless of targeted the 2018 fishing season ran from May 5, species. 2018 through October 31, 2018. This creel survey was only conducted during the open 3. ESTIMATED SPECIFIC CATCH water period due to expected low fishing AND HARVEST RATES pressure during winter months. Calculated number of hours it takes an angler to catch or harvest a fish of Weather the indicated species. Only Ice-out on Range Line Lake was around information from anglers who were May 2, 2018. specifically targeting that species is 2 reported. Total catch of Walleye was 327 fish, 4. LENGTH DISTRIBUTION OF with a harvest of 85. Highest catch (156 HARVESTED FISH fish) and harvest (55 fish) occurred in May. All fish of a species that were Anglers fished an average of 2.9 hours to measured by the clerk during the catch, and 11.1 hours to harvest, a Walleye entire creel survey season. during the survey. The mean length of harvested Walleye was 17.1 inches, and the 5. LARGEST AND AVERAGE largest measured was a 21.2-inch fish. LENGTH OF HARVESTED FISH Monthly largest and average length Northern Pike (Table 2, Figure 2) of harvested fish of a species. Only Fishing effort directed at Northern Pike fish measured by the creel survey was 190