Local Column River Currents 3-31-08

This past weekend, I decided to take a drive up and down the Wisconsin River checking on the accessibility of the boat landings and also to see if there were many anglers out fishing the Wisconsin River for walleyes and saugers. I drove up Highway 12 to Wisconsin Dells, from there I drove Highway 13 north thru Adams, and then continued north again on Highway Z to Highway 72 and into Nekoosa.

Nekoosa had almost as many anglers walleye fishing as Wisconsin Dells. There were 50 to 60 boats in the parking lot and unlike the Prairie du Sac Dam, where most fishermen fish directly below the dam, boats were scattered up and down the river for a few miles. The Nekoosa area also has a considerable amount of shoreline that is accessible to waders and bank anglers.

Castle Rock and the Petenwell Dam areas had boats below the dam and down-river fishing. But, the number of boats was not near as many as Nekoosa. Most boats and shore anglers were concentrated near the Highway 21 Bridge below the river’s dam. Both the Castle Rock and Petenwell Flowages were still frozen solid with only a little open-water near the creeks that flow into the flowages.

The Killbourne Dam at Wisconsin Dells was the only dam that I saw where the gates of the main dam were open with water flowing at a strong rate. There were boats fishing below the dam and some shore anglers, but most of the fishermen were down-river near the Rivers Edge Resort. There are considerable more areas to fish below the Dells Dam much like the Nekoosa Dam area. These locations allow anglers to fish more water than the smaller and shallower locations on the Wisconsin River at Prairie du Sac and Sauk City.

The main thing that I found out was that anglers are fishing the Wisconsin River from the Prairie du Sac Dam to Nekoosa which is over 100 miles by truck. Fishermen are having limited success mainly due to the late spring and the cold water which is still in the mid 30’s. The fish are biting on jigs/minnows and jigs/plastics, but most of the active fish are young male walleyes and saugers in the 12 to 16 inch range. The female fish are still hard with eggs and spawning is still a ways away. Walleyes spawn when the water is in the 42 to 45 degree range.

What is needed for fishing to improve is some warm weather and a warm rain to raise the water temperature into the 40’s. Locally, anglers are catching some legal saugers in the 15 to 17 inch range and a few larger walleyes. Wading fishermen are catching some fish just before dark and into the evening. It’s raining today, but what is needed is a warm rain. The forecast for tomorrow is for a chance of snow which won’t help the fishing situation.

Northern pike are the first fish to spawn at about 39 degrees, but the DNR people that I talked to today said that they are trying to net pike for their eggs. Most of the few females netted are still hard and not ready to spawn as of last weekend.

The “hot’ news last week was the DNR press release that confirmed the existence of zebra mussels in Lake Wisconsin. Susan Graham, the DNR’s lake management coordinator for the states South Central Region, said, “the zebra mussels found recently by Alliant Energy at the Prairie du Sac Dam and by local citizen monitors indicate that there is an established, reproducing population in Lake Wisconsin.”

Zebra mussels were first introduced into the Great Lakes in 1988 and have spread since then to many lakes and rivers. These invasives came from the ballast water of ships coming from the Caspian Sea in Eastern Europe. These ocean-going vessels “dump” their ballast water when they reach the St. Lawrence Seaway and then the Great Lakes.

Zebra mussels will disrupt the ecosystems and food chain in the waters that they infest. They will kill the native mussels by out-competing them for food. Initially, they will clean water and lessen pollution. They are a voracious filter feeding organism which removes particles from the water column while increasing water clarity and pollution.

Besides affecting the food chain, zebra mussels will clog water treatment plants, pipelines, and power plants by attaching themselves to anything that is hard. Rocks, wood, and anything else in the waters substrate is used by the zebras to cling to and eventually multiply their numbers. Tim Larson, the local DNR fisheries biologist, told me that they also deplete oxygen and since they are organic they excrete waste which can also affect fish populations.

What the fishermen and boaters must now do is to make sure that their boats are cleaned well when taken out of the water. Zebra mussels are spread by humans who transport them to other bodies of water. We must be careful because we are the ones who spread this invasive to other waters. It may take time to see its affects, but this is not a good addition to our lakes and rivers. We must try to keep this invasive from entering other local waters like Crystal, Fish, and Devils Lake. This is another reason why the Great Lakes Compact should be signed to finally stop our waters from becoming dumping grounds for every invasive species in Eastern Europe. Now, it’s up to you to prevent the expansion and growth of the zebra mussel in local waters.

Another piece of news from the DNR, anglers can now use the same and left-over minnows purchased from a licensed Wisconsin bait dealer home and use them the next day on the same waterbody, or use them on a different one if the minnows haven’t been exposed to any water from the lake or river fished. This is a new and revised rule to help prevent the spread of a fish virus, VHS. Again, good angler participation is necessary to make this rule work, just like anglers making sure their boats are clean of weeds and zebra mussels.

The animal seen in southern Wisconsin near Milton has been confirmed as a North American cougar. The closest population of cougars is South Dakota and they’ve been gone from Wisconsin since the early 1900’s.

It’s a great time to see and view birds passing through Wisconsin on their migrations. This past weekend, I got some photos of sandhill cranes, owls, turkeys, and geese on my journey up the Wisconsin River. Get out and bring your camera, but the price of gas is killing me on my roadtrips! Check out the gas price at this closed gas station that I passed on my travels.