RHINELANDER, WI (WSAU-WXPR) — Walleye populations have shown signs of recovery on a couple of Forest and Florence County lakes.
The Wisconsin DNR attributes the recovery to a black bullhead removal project. Greg Matzke is a DNR Fisheries Biologist based in Florence and Forest Counties. He tells WXPR Radio the bullhead removal project was started in 2008 on Lake Metonga by the Sokaogon Chippewa Community fishery.
Mike Pruel started it by removing 32-thousand black bullheads from the lake. “So when we look at the differences for pre and post removal during the non stocked years where it’s all naturally reproduced fish. We went from just three per mile to an average of 45 per mile, more than double that benchmark I’ve been talking about.
“Our stocked year classes went from 13 per mile up to an average of almost 150 per mile. So we’re looking at major increases to natural reproduction and stock survival of walleye.”
Matzke says they repeated the success on three other lakes in the counties including Patton Lake. He says walleye are reproducing more in Patton Lake than just about any other lake in much of northern Wisconsin. Matzke was one of many speakers for Wisconsin’s Water Week which was in a virtual format this year.
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