WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES CREEL SURVEY REPORT MADELINE LAKE ONEIDA COUNTY 2017-18 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 synopses .............................................................................................. 6 SPECIES CATCH AND HARVEST FIGURES Gamefish Figure 1. Walleye ............................................................................................................. 7 Figure 2. Northern Pike ................................................................................................... 8 Figure 3. Smallmouth Bass .............................................................................................. 9 Figure 4. Largemouth Bass .............................................................................................. 10 Panfish Figure 5. Yellow Perch .................................................................................................... 11 Figure 6. Bluegill ............................................................................................................. 12 Figure 7. Black Crappie ................................................................................................... 13 Figure 8. Pumpkinseed..................................................................................................... 14 Cover Art: Steve Hilt, Portland, OR Fish Graphics: Virgil Beck, Stevens Point, WI INTRODUCTION shifts, forty hours per week. The survey is Fish populations can fluctuate due to conducted during the open season for natural forces like weather, predation or gamefish from the first Saturday in May competition; management actions like through the first Sunday in March. Creel stocking, regulations or habitat surveys are not conducted in November improvement; habitat loss and harvest when fishing effort is low and ice conditions impacts. Wisconsin Department of Natural are often unsafe. The survey is run during Resources fisheries crews regularly conduct daylight hours, and shift times change from fishery surveys on lakes and reservoirs to month to month as day length changes. gather the information needed to monitor changes, identify concerns, evaluate past Creel survey clerks travel their lakes management actions, and to prescribe using a boat or snowmobile to count the fishery management strategies. Netting and number of anglers at predetermined times, electrofishing surveys are used to gather and to interview anglers who have data on the status of fish populations and completed their fishing trip. Data is communities, measuring such parameters as collected on what species they fished for, species composition, population size, catch, harvest, lengths of fish harvested, reproductive success, size or age distribution marks (fin clips or tags), and hours of and growth rates. The other key component fishing effort. Collecting completed-trip of the fishery that we often need to measure data provides the most accurate assessment is harvest. of angling activities, and it avoids the need to disturb anglers while they are fishing. On many lakes in the Ceded Territory of northern Wisconsin, harvest of fish is A computer program is used to estimate divided between sport anglers and the six catch and harvest of each species, catch and Chippewa tribes who harvest fish under harvest rates, and fishing effort by month, as rights granted by federal treaties. The tribes well as for the year in total. Keep in mind harvest fish mostly using a highly efficient that these are estimates based on the best method, spearing, during a relatively short information available, and not a complete time period in the spring. Every fish in the accounting of effort, catch, and harvest. spear harvest is counted – a complete Accurate estimates require that we sample a “census” of the harvest. sufficient and representative portion of the angling activity on a lake. The accuracy of We also measure the sport angler harvest creel survey results depends on good to assess its impact on the fishery. cooperation and truthful responses by However, it would be highly impractical and anglers when a creel clerk interviews them. very costly to conduct a complete census of every angler who fishes on a lake. You may have encountered a DNR creel Therefore, we conduct creel surveys. survey clerk on a recent fishing trip. We appreciate your cooperation during an A creel survey is an assessment tool interview. The survey only takes a few used to sample the fishing activities of minutes of your time, and it gives the anglers on a body of water and make Department valuable information needed for projections, or estimates, of harvest and management of the fishery. other fishery parameters. Creel survey clerks work on randomly-selected days and 1 This report provides estimates of: April 9, 2017. Fishable ice formed on 1. Overall fishing effort (pressure) Madeline Lake in mid-December. 2. Fishing effort directed at each species 3. Numbers of fish caught and harvested Fishing Regulations 4. Catch and harvest rates The following seasons, daily bag limits, and length limits were in place on Madeline Also included are a physical description Lake during the 2017-18 fishing season: of Madeline Lake; discussion of results of Bag Min. the survey; and detailed summaries by Species Season Limit Size species of fishing effort, catch and harvest. Largemouth Bass 5/6-3/4 5 14" Smallmouth Bass 5/6-6/16 Catch&Release 6/17-3/4 5 14" GENERAL LAKE Musky 5/27-11/30 1 40" INFORMATION Northern Pike 5/6-3/4 5 none Walleye 5/6-3/4 3 15" Madeline 20"-24" Protected Slot, 1>24" Panfish year round 25 none Lake No more than 10 of any panfish species Rock Bass year round none none SPECIES CATCH AND HARVEST INFORMATION Angling effort, catch, and harvest information is summarized for each species Location in Table 2 and Figures 1-8. Table 2 also Madeline Lake is located in Oneida includes a comparison of these statistics County near the town of Woodruff. with the previous creel survey. Information presented about species whose fishing Physical Characteristics season extends beyond March 6 should be Madeline Lake is a 159-acre drainage considered minimum estimates. Each lake with a maximum depth of 17 feet. species page has up to five graphs depicting Littoral substrate consists primarily of sand, the following: with gravel, muck and some rubble. Madeline Lake contains medium hard, clear 1. ESTIMATED FISHING EFFORT water of moderate transparency. Total calculated number of hours during each month that anglers spent Seasons Surveyed fishing for a species. The period referred to in this report as the 2017-18 fishing season ran from May 6, 2. ESTIMATED CATCH AND 2017 through March 4, 2018. The open- HARVEST water creel survey ran from May 6 through Calculated number of fish of the October 31, 2017, and the ice fishing creel indicated species caught or harvested survey ran from December 1, 2017 through by all anglers, regardless of targeted March 4, 2018. species. Weather 3. ESTIMATED SPECIFIC CATCH Ice-out on Madeline Lake was around AND HARVEST RATES 2 Calculated number of hours it takes RESULTS BY SPECIES an angler to catch or harvest a fish of the indicated species. Only Walleye (Table 2, Figure 1) information from anglers who were Anglers spent 788 hours targeting specifically targeting that species is Walleye during the season. The greatest reported. fishing effort for Walleye was in January (763 hours). 4. LENGTH DISTRIBUTION OF HARVESTED FISH Total catch of Walleye was 9 fish, with a All fish of a species that were harvest of 2. Highest catch (7 fish) occurred measured by the clerk during the in June, and highest harvest (2 fish) entire creel survey season. occurred in January. Anglers fished an 5. LARGEST AND AVERAGE average of 344.8 hours