Meeting set for Feb. 17 on Green Bay muskellunge
Weekly News Article Published: February 2, 2010 by the Central Office
DNR seeks stakeholder input as they begin to re-write plan
GREEN BAY ? Anglers are invited to share their ideas at a Feb. 17 meeting on how best to manage the spotted musky fishery in Green Bay over the next decade. Stocking and protective regulations over the last 20 years have created a wildly popular trophy fishery but the muskellunge population is not yet self-sustaining.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m., Feb. 17, at the Green Bay Yacht Club, 100 Bay Beach Road in Green Bay.
50-inch spotted musky
Rachel Piacenza proudly displays the 50-inch spotted musky she caught Oct. 5, 2009, in Green Bay.
John Aschenbrenner Photo
?Musky fishing on Green Bay has become outstanding and draws regional and national attention because of the opportunity to catch a trophy muskellunge,? says David Rowe, the Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist leading the planning effort.
?We need to update the management plan to better manage the fishery and ensure continued opportunities to catch trophy musky in Green Bay,? he says. ?We?ll use input from the meeting to write the plan.?
Fishing effort directed at the spotted musky has increased from an estimated 10,000 hours of annual musky fishing to more than 35,000 hours in 2008. Some anglers are concerned that the increased fishing pressure is increasing both the harvest of fish and the number that die after they are caught and released.
Losing fish to such ?hooking mortality? or harvest is a concern because DNR fisheries crews are just starting to see natural reproduction occur in the stocked population, and because VHS fish disease has prevented DNR from collecting eggs from the Lower Fox River and halted stocking since 2007.
DNR crews conduct musky survey
DNR is seeking public input at a Feb. 17 meeting to guide management of spotted musky in the 21st century. Here, DNR fish crews look for a tag that helps them keep track of the muskies' movement and habits
WDNR Photo
The original management plan was written to re-establish a species of fish that had been eliminated in Green Bay and the Fox River because of water pollution, habitat destruction and overfishing. The last known catch of a native muskellunge was in the 1930s.
Passage and enforcement of the Clean Water Act starting in the early 1970s, followed by targeted clean up efforts in Green Bay, greatly improved water quality and set the stage for reintroducing spotted musky. DNR, with support from local fishing clubs, launched efforts to reintroduce the Great Lakes strain muskellunge into Green Bay in 1989 and later expanded that effort into the Winnebago system, which is in the same basin.
The original introduction plan called for re-establishing a naturally reproducing population of muskellunge that are genetically appropriate for Lake Michigan. This meant bringing in fish from Michigan to re-populate Green Bay. sized fish, 20 years later we are just beginning to see natural reproduction of these stocked fish.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: David Rowe (920) 662-5480
