WALLEYES FOREVER

E-NEWSLETTER

 

From www.WalleyesForever.com

 

No. 11:  5-14-07

 

 

 

A Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation helicopter

 makes a drop with Christmas trees lashed togehter with cable

 and weighted with cinder blocks to create a spawning reef

 for perch in Canyon Ferry Reservoir. It was the final stage

 in a 2007 effort by the Madison Gallatin WU Chapter to create

 more habitat in the lake. Read all about it in a Billings Gazette article.

 

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Fort Peck walleye spawn hits egg goal

despite a cold and windy spring

 

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

 

Longtime “fish squeezers” can’t remember when the Fort Peck Reservoir walleye spawn was as cold and windy as it was this year.

The annual spawn operation is conducted in Fort Peck’s Big Dry Arm and supplies all the walleye eggs to sustain recreational fisheries in Montana. This year’s egg-collection work started the week of April 2 and wrapped up the first week of May. The effort was characterized by frigid temperatures and wave-building winds that strafed the lake, says Heath Headley, the fisheries biologist who manages Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ Fort Peck Reservoir project.

“Our first big egg-take day wasn’t until April 21, when 87 female walleye were spawned, giving us nearly 13 million eggs,” Headley reported. “Even then, the traps that we had out were able to fish for a couple days longer because we ended up getting blown off the lake. From there on out we collected between 4 and 5 million eggs every day until the end of the spawn on May 1. We could tell that the end of the spawn was near when the number of green walleye started to diminish and other species such as catfish started to show up in greater numbers as a result of the warmer water temperatures.”

The spawn crew collected just over 82 million walleye eggs this spring. The Fort Peck Multi-Species Fish Hatchery, in its second year of production, is propagating 48 million of those eggs, and the remaining 34.2 million eggs went to FWP’s Miles City hatchery.

While the number of eggs collected is just shy of the 10-year average of about 85 million eggs, the number of fish that will be hatched and stocked back into Montana’s waters may be larger than normal, says Andrew Ollenburg, manager of the Fort Peck hatchery.

“Normally we expect an eye-up rate of about 50 percent,” he reported. “But this year our eye-up rate (or the percentage of fertilized eggs that actually produce a fish) is closer to 72 percent. That means that even though we have about three million fewer eggs, we should stock out about 3 million more fish than average.”

Headley, the Fort Peck fisheries biologist, stressed that the egg-collection effort could not be accomplished without a cadre of volunteers.

“We had dozens and dozens of folks who helped us every day,” he says. “There were days when it was so cold and windy that it was tough to be out on the lake as a paid employee, but I never heard anyone complain, not even the volunteers who were donating their time and talents. We couldn’t pull this off without folks like that.”

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Some issues targeted for 2008-2001 fishing regulations

 

 

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

 

Better fishing is the aim of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ effort to encourage anglers to comment early on a list of issues that could result in changes to the 2008-2011 fishing regulations.

"All anglers are invited to offer their thoughts on improving Montana’s fishing regulations," said Don Skaar, the new chief of FWP’s fisheries management bureau.

The early-stage comments will help FWP develop tentative regulations for the FWP Commission to consider in September and finally adopt in October.

"Anglers will have additional opportunities to participate later this summer and in the fall," Skaar said. "This opportunity helps to kick things off and, we hope, gets folks thinking about how to improve the fishing regs."  

Some general statewide issues anglers can consider include:

  • requiring unattended fishing devices--like setlines and fish traps--to have owner identification attached,
  • eliminating the requirement to leave a one-inch square patch of skin on fillets of all fish except trout and salmon,
  • reducing the daily mountain whitefish limit, which is currently 100 per day,
  • managing baitfish use to prevent the introduction of disease and invasive species,
  • reviewing ice-fishing shelter rules requiring shelter identification and daily removal, especially for Hauser and Lake Helena reservoirs.

Also on the list of possible changes are:

  • Change possession limits for walleye on Hauser and Holter reservoirs to twice the daily limit. No changes are proposed for the daily limits. This would result in a standardization of possession limits for Hauser, Holter and Canyon Ferry reservoirs at twice the daily limits for each water. This would allow the potential for more harvest of walleye on Hauser and Holter reservoirs.
  • Consider 24-hour fishing on Hauser, Holter, and Lake Helena reservoirs . Under current regulations, these waters are closed from midnight to 3 a.m.
  • Consider spearing of carp from the shore on Holter Reservoir

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Some tips for releasing paddlefish

 

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

The successful paddlefish fisherman can do several things to assist the fish and reduce the stress associated with being caught during catch-and-release fishing for the species.

Once the fish is near shore, lighten-up on the tension with the line. Slowly work your way to the fish to look-over your catch. Keep the fish in the water. When you handle the fish, be gentle. Use pliers to remove the hook and gently work the hook out. This process will cause less injury to the fish if you have flattened the barbs on the treble hook before you begin fishing.

Brad Schmitz, regional fisheries manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks at Miles City,  suggests, “If you take the fish out of the water, hold your breath and when you need to breathe so does the fish, so put it back into the water.” If you need to capture the moment with a photograph, gently lift the fish with both hands under the stomach. Don’t lift the fish by the paddle-like snout and avoid touching the gills. Keep the fish in a horizontal position, just as if it were swimming. Take the photograph over the water and get the fish back into the river as quickly as possible.

Jack Austin, Region 7 Warden Sergeant said, “ Play the fish short, get them into shallow water and release them as quickly as possible. Remember the fish are spawning so treat them as gently as possible.”

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Doug Green, from the Warmwater Coalition out of Kalispell,

helped Mike Rhodes, in background on truck, of the Miles City

State Fish Hatchery, to stock 500 8-to-10-inch tiger muskies

into Horseshoe Lake in the Thompson Chain of Lakes

of northwestern Montana recently.

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Big Wyoming grass carp hits the bank, not the record book

Wyoming Game and Fish

CHEYENNE - On April 15 Mike Laursen went 15 rounds with a heavyweight fish, possibly the biggest ever hooked in Wyoming outside of Flaming Gorge Reservoir and Jackson Lake. Due to his fishing savvy, after 60 minutes in the Sloan's Lake ring, Laursen won the match with the Asian opponent.

The thrill of victory was tempered later the next week, when Laursen was informed he was disqualified from being awarded the state record title on an inadvertent technicality.

Laursen won the match that morning with a grass carp, a sterile import with a voracious appetite for aquatic vegetation, weighing in that day at around 36 pounds. But he's not getting the state record for the species. He inadvertently snagged the fish, a detail the veteran Cheyenne angler readily volunteered about the feat.

"We commend Mike for his honesty about the fish being snagged or 'foul hooked,' but state record fish must be hooked in the mouth," said Mike Stone, fisheries chief for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. "We also recognize his fishing skill to be able to battle a huge fish like that with 4-pound test line for an hour and get it landed. That was an amazing accomplishment."  

Laursen, 62, was using a small Swedish Pimple, an elongated spoon equipped with just a No. 12 treble hook. "Whether the big fish brushed my line to make me think I had a strike or if I missed the strike of a trout or crappie and hooked the big fish that was laying nearby, I'll never know," Laursen said.

Prior to the battle, Laursen landed two pan-sized cutthroat trout and a largemouth bass he estimated at 1½ pounds. If a game fish, such as a trout, bass or walleye, is inadvertently snagged, it should be returned to the water immediately. It is unlawful to intentionally snag game fish.
The tiny treble hook was imbedded where the last of the grass carp's muscle meets the tail. That contributed to the physics enabling the fish to drag Laursen the length of the 29-acre lake's north shore. 

Laursen estimates the 42-inch grass carp ran out at least "a football field" of his line and the strain forced him to frequently shift the rod to his left hand to let his right arm to recover. "It was literally a whale by the tail," he mused of the fish sporting a 25-inch girth. "A big fish like that goes anywhere it wants to go."

On April 16, the career U.S. Air Force veteran brought the fish to the Game and Fish office where it officially weighed in at 34 pounds 6.5 ounces. That would have beat the old record by nearly 9 pounds. Biologists estimate it had lost at least a pound since caught.  

"No hard feelings about not getting the record," he said. "The rules are clear on that. I'm just happy to have had the opportunity to fight the fish. I've been fishing over 50 years and it's the biggest fishing thrill of my life."

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Join Walleyes Forever – get a free cap!

 

As part of your $25 annual membership in Walleyes Forever, each member will receive one, free WF logo cap.  The membership year runs from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31.

 

Your dues help us to help fund projects including kids fishing days.  You will also receive our four-page newsletter in the mail each month.

 

If you'd like to purchase additional WF logo caps, they'll be on sale for $8 each at club meetings or from WF Treasurer Linda Granholm.

 

To join Walleyes Forever, go to www.walleyesforever.com/membership/membership.html.

 

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And, finally……..

The broken mower

 
 When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting to me  that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first, the truck, the car, playing golf – always something more important to me.
 
 Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point. When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors. I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house.  I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again I handed her a toothbrush.
 
 I said, "When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway."
 
 The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.

 

Moral to this story: Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right, and the other is the husband.

 

Underwear is important!
 

Always wear clean underwear in public, especially when working under your vehicle.

 

From the Northwest Florida Daily News comes this story of a Crestview couple who drove their car to WalMart, only to have their car break down in the parking lot.


The man told his wife to carry on with the shopping while he fixed the car in the lot.  The wife returned later to see a small group of people near the car.


On closer inspection, she saw a pair of male legs protruding from under the chassis.  Although the man was in shorts, his lack of underpants turned private parts into glaringly public ones.

 

Unable to stand the embarrassment, she dutifully stepped forward, quickly put her hand UP his shorts, and sought to end the public spectacle.

 

On regaining her feet, she looked across the hood and found herself staring at her husband who was standing idly by.

 

The mechanic, however, had to have thirteen stitches in his forehead.

 

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