2014 Lake Winnebago Bottom Trawling Assessment Report

The Lake Winnebago annual bottom trawling assessment provides critical information on year class strength, forage base
status, and general population trends that helps guide fisheries management on the Winnebago System. Since 1986 the same 46 GPS waypoints have been sampled annually during the first week of August, September, and October using identical methods. The bottom trawl does capture a fair amount of adult fish, but it is most effective at catching small fishes (young of year (YOY) and yearlings) so this report will primarily focus on YOY fish.

results at:
http://media.wix.com/ugd/d493f0_7e85112c19e946d28a3cd3c3839a3f08.pdf

I was very interested in seeing 2014 walleye yoy. Where I found them stacked up spawning in the wolf this year was very surprising. Survival rate I questioned as they spawned in colder water and the temps dropped a lot in the two weeks following

I wasn’t surprised by the YOY walleye data and the data on yearling walleye just confirmed what everybody has been seeing since January, tons of 8″ walleyes from the 2013 hatch. I was a little surprised by the low forage counts; given the way the eye bite died off late summer, I assumed there was abundant forage available but the trawls seem to indicate otherwise.

I couldn’t keep those 8″ walleye from biting my bigger baits last season I bet I caught 50+ of those in the times I was on bago!