From Justine

Hi Jeff,

Here is a summary of the netting and shocking efforts from Petenwell this past spring. The focus of this spring survey was to collect walleye for the evaluation of he current walleye slot regulation. However we do catch other species and I have a summary

We started by setting nets in the upper end of Petenwell on April 11th and continued with netting efforts until April 22nd. On April 25th we set 4 nets in the very lower end of Petenwell and we fished these nets only a couple of nights due to issues with wind and wave action. The total number of net nights sampling was 68.

We also did several day time shocking trips with our large electrofishing boat in the river directly below the Nekoosa dam, we shocked for a total of 17.6 hours.

Walleye:
From the netting efforts we captured 208 walleye.

SEX AVG L Low L High L #of Fish
Female 20.2 12.8 26.2 92
Male 13.8 11.1 17.4 66
Unknown 13.1 10 17.4 50
All Combined 16.5 10 26.2 208

From the shocking efforts we captured 315 walleye.

SEX AVG L Low L High L # of Fish
Female 20.9 13.2 28.3 96
Male 15.3 10.8 20.0 203
Unknown 13.1 7.1 15.6 16
All combined 16.9 7.1 28.3 315

Results combined from shocking and netting for a total of 523 walleye.

SEX AVG L Low L High L # of Fish
Female 20.6 12.8 28.3 188
Male 15.0 10.8 20.0 269
Unknown 13.1 7.1 15.6 66
All combined 16.7 7.1 28.3 523

The over all walleye catch was represented combined for all walleye as follows with regards to length distribution.

% under 15 38.6
% 15 to 19.9 42.8
% 20 to 27.9 18.4
% over 28 0.2

Muskellunge:

Musky were captured both in the netting and the shocking sampling. A total of 61 musky were captured during the netting efforts and 15 were captured shocking. They ranged in size from 29.1 to 48.7inches for females and 27.8 to 41.2 inches for males. The average size for females was 39.7 inches and for males was 36.6 inches. There were also two unknown sex musky captured both were 12.4 inches in length.

Northern Pike:

Northern pike were only captured in the netting sampling. A total of 58 northern pike were captured including two recaps. They ranged in size from 18.5 to 40.1 inches for females and 15.9 to 29 inches for males. The average size for females was 25.5 inches and for males was 22.3 inches.

Other Species:

Pan fish were measured but I have not yet entered that data, this will be done over the winter. The most abundant panfish were bluegill, black crappie, white crappie and yellow perch.

Other species collected during the sampling include in nor particular order:
Channel catfish
Carp
Sheepshead ( Freshwater drum)
Golden shiner
Buffalo
White sucker
Sturgeon
Dog fish
White bass

This is as much as I have had a chance to got through at the moment. We are working on evaluating the size limit on the walleye and comparing the different flowages along the river to new and historical data. The report summarizing all of that could be available by late March 2012. I also have not completed the full analysis of the 2010 data from other survey on Petenwell and will also be expecting the completion of that report around the same time. Once the reports are complete there will be more information about the age and growth of the fish which will help us determine how healthy the fishery is. The ageing of the fish will take place over the winter which is why it takes some time for the reports to be completed.

I do have the catfish data on paper sheets but this is yet to be entered onto the computer but he results will be included in the other reports that I will be writing over the winter. If you are interested in the catfish results before then, let me know and I will do a rough summary from the paper sheets.

I hope this gives you something to go on for a while. When you have questions shoot me an email.

ALL the information regarding the data in this email is considered draft and is not the final proofed version. The final proofed version of the data will be that which is published in the final reports. However this data is accurate at the time this email was written.

Justine