April 6, 2017 at 1:50 p.m.
Walleye population crash in Lac Vieux Desert concern brings forward spring hearings question
Walleye population crash in Lac Vieux Desert concern brings forward spring hearings question
One question on the spring hearings questionnaire, question 22, is in regards to managing walleye populations and includes Lac Vieux Desert (LVD) in Vilas County. It asks if respondents would be in favor of increasing the minimum size limit on that body of water for walleye from 15 inches to 18 inches. The bag limit would also be reduced from five fish to three. Not only would the hook and line angler bag limit change, but there would be no tribal spearing or netting by the Lac Vieux Desert or Mole Lake Tribes from 2018 to 2022. The Lac Vieux Desert Tribe has only allowed spearing on LVD once in recent years, that being in 2012. There are also no tribal plans to spear LVD in 2017.
Should this regulation change pass, Michigan would enact the same length and bag limits for LVD as Wisconsin. The two DNR agencies, then, would work together to study any effects these changes might have and what else might be done to return the walleye populations back to their glory years in the fishery.
The reason for this change has to do with several failed year classes. The current adult walleye per acre found in the latest DNR survey was less than 0.5 per acre. In the late 80s and early 90s, a press release stated, the abundance of age-0 walleye (those not yet a year old) was 30 per mile of shoreline. That number surged to 80 walleye per mile of shoreline by the 90s. In a 2016 assessment, zero age-0 walleye were found. The cause remains unclear at this time. Management action is needed in order to conserve the dwindling numbers of walleye in Lac Vieux Desert and to help restore natural reproduction. This spring hearings question poses but one part of the possible solution, limiting harvest.
The DNR has initiated a fall fingerling stocking program on the lake in an attempt to help the walleye population rebound. DNR fisheries supervisor Steve Gilbert held two public informational meetings this week: Tuesday in Land O' Lakes and Thursday in Phelps. These meetings were meant to discuss the current situation on Lac Vieux Desert and what might be done to address the problems.
"The problem with it is there is no simple smoking gun," Gilbert said. "There is not one thing I can point to and say this is the cause. It is really complex and there is a lot going on."
Problem with walleye recruitment
Stakeholders from various groups including The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Council (GLIFWC), tribal representatives, the Michigan DNR, the LVD lake association and other stakeholders and property owners on the lake attended the meeting in Land O' Lakes on Tuesday night. All agreed there was a problem with walleye recruitment in the lake and were very interested in learning what could potentially be done about it.
Gilbert explained to the group gathered in the Land O' Lakes Elementary School library that there were several factors the Department and others were looking at that could be contributing to the crash in the walleye population. Potential causes, he said, included things such as weather events, ice off and how quickly the water warms. Changes in fish communities are another factor.
"Sometimes our fisheries around here kind of flip between being a bluegill, crappie, largemouth bass - then they flip back the other way toward more of a walleye, perch, smallmouth fishery. And they go back and forth in a 30 year cycle sometimes."
This was brought up again in the question and answer portion of the meeting, with an attendee asking if one of the other fish in the system could be eating the walleye, leading to their demise. Gilbert said much of that information out there was erroneous and cautioned that correlation does not equal causation. Simply because another species is doing better than others does not necessarily mean that species is praying on the "losing" species, in this case, walleye. He said those thoughts had been proven to be wrong, but certain habitat conditions did certainly favor some fish species over others, making it easier for those other species, such as largemouth, to thrive in a fishery where walleyes suddenly start faring poorly.
Changes in habitat, such as a lake becoming more weedy and nutrient-rich, would favor species such as bass, where a lack of vegetation is more suitable to a fish such as walleye. He pointed to changes made in lakes by rusty crayfish. Rusties are voracious consumers of vegetation and can participate change in an underwater environment fairly quickly. Once the rusty crayfish population falls, however, as is prone to happening once predator fish realize this invasive species is a good food source, vegetation will come back. At that point, the ecosystem flips again and can become more conducive to the bluegill, crappie and largemouth species again.
Making a difference
Another factor that is important, he said, is water level during the spawn. Data seemed to show at least some correlation to the water level shortly after ice out. In years where that level stayed the same or rose only slightly, it seemed walleye recruitment was better. In years where the water level rose drastically or fell during the walleye spawn, the fish did not fair as well, he said. He applauded the Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company for working with the department to keep those water levels steady for at least 21 days after ice out by controlling water levels via the dam on LVD. He said contractually, they did not have to agree to this, but they had been in an effort to help the struggling walleye population in the fishery. Water level, he said, seemed to be one key factor the Department is looking into.
A continued stocking effort, it is hoped, along with the change in regulation, may help reboot the walleye population. Ongoing surveys and study will be done in an effort to determine if these two pieces of the puzzle fit to help create a better picture of what is happening to the walleye population in the lake.
It is hoped the new regulations will pass the spring hearings next Monday and will start to make a difference. Studies will be done on LVD by both the Wisconsin DNR and the Michigan DNR. MDNR would be looking to do a population estimate and a creel survey in 2018, with WDNR doing the same in 2022. Yearly surveys and intensive study of the lake would also continue and would be a cooperative effort between MDNR, WDNR, GLIFWC and the tribes themselves.
Ongoing stocking would continue under the proposed plan. Last year, one third of the fish from the hatchery in Woodruff went in to LVD, and more fish were stocked into the lake than into lakes in the rest of the state combined prior to the Walleye Initiative, Gilbert said. Because LVD is the largest lake in Vilas County, and is also important to tribal members, it will continue to get a good deal of attention, he said. The stocking effort has been intense, but it has become clear that alone will not bring about the needed change.
Gilbert talked about the "toolbox" available to the fisheries department when looking for tools to help walleye populations recover. He said people were not at all receptive to a closure of the fishery, such as what is currently in place on the Minocqua Chain. The next option, he said was a bag limit of one fish over 28 inches, which would essentially be a closure as well. The next tool in the tool box is the three fish over 18 inches regulation. This regulation, he said, would allow the fish currently being stocked to reach adulthood and to become spawners themselves. The hope is that there would then be natural recruitment.
"In 2022, we might have to make some hard decisions," Gilbert said. "We will have to decide if what we are doing is working. Are we getting the results that we're looking for? And how do we move on from here?" He said that would be an ongoing process with electrofishing surveys continuing as well as other efforts by various stakeholder groups.
The question on the spring hearings questionnaire also includes other lakes in the state. This question will be posed to attendees across the state. However, Gilbert said, if the proposed rule change should fail across the entire state, results by county are also tallied, and Vilas County, and/or surrounding counties, could be looked at by alone to help determine if local populations agreed with the proposed rule change. If that was the case, it could still be moved on through the process.
At the end of the meeting in Land O' Lakes, Gilbert took an informal vote regarding who in attendance would vote "yes" to the spring hearings question that offered up an 18-inch length limit with a bag limit of three fish on LVD. Those in attendance unanimously agreed that this was a good step toward moving the walleye populations in the fishery back to their pre-2006 levels.
The Spring Hearings will be held at 7 p.m. in each county. In Vilas County, the meeting will be held at the St. Germain Community Center. In Oneida County, the meeting will be held at the James Williams Middle School in Rhinelander. The Iron County meeting will be held at the Mercer Community Center. Outdoorsmen and women are encouraged to attend and to make their voices heard in conservation matters. Residency in a county is not mandatory to vote yes or no on spring hearings questions. Residency is needed, however, to vote for Conservation Congress delegates, which will also be done at the spring hearings meetings in each county.
Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].
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