Program Notes from the Oct 21, 2008 Meeting of LKWA

October 21, 2008 at 6:00 pm

Milton Town Hall

Vice-chairman Susan Yates called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m. and welcomed everyone. There were 35 persons in attendance.

The minutes of the September 30, 2008 meeting were approved as Emailed and the treasurer’s report was discussed and approved.

Sightings around the lake: An adult and juvenile osprey were spotted around Haight’s Bay. Several small groups of loons have been seen. Relatively few ducks are moving through. The Ruddy ducks are just arriving. Waves of migrating sparrows have been seen – white-throated, white-crowned, field, and Lincoln’s sparrows. Also, spring peepers and tree frogs have been seen and heard, moving into their winter retreats. Many gulls are now using the lake, flying back and forth from the Janesville landfill. Penny noted that Dianne Moller, a local raptor rehabilitator, has received two severely burned red-tail hawks. The perch on the methane exhaust pipes at the landfill. The pipes are emitting an invisible flame and the birds set badly burned. She is working with the DNR air-quality people and the land-fill operators to find a way to prevent these injuries.

Old business:

  1. Penny reported on progress toward forming a Cooperative Weed Management Area (CWMA). An initial discussion meeting was called together by Tallgrass restoration and LKWA to form a partnership to apply for a National fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Pulling Together Initiative (PTI) program grant. LKWA was represented by Penny Shackelford and Susan Shultz. Attendees included representatives for The Prairie Enthusiasts, the Green-Rock Audubon Society, Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association, Kelly Kearns of WDNR Endangered Resources, and Anne Miller, Rock County Land Conservation Dept. . A CWMA is comprised of local organizations (not-for-profit and governmental) for the purpose of invasive plant management. The group is able to apply to many sources for funding, both to create a management structure and to do the on-the-ground work.

    The group agreed to move forward with the planning process. We tentatively decided to create an area that includes all of Rock, Green and Jefferson counties.

    We assembled a list of additional partners that included other organizations, land restoration businesses, representatives from Green and Jefferson counties, the FWS, the US Extension Service and Private Landowners.

    We will await future word from the PTI when they rewrite the RFP (request for proposal) for their grant program. That grant could be used for the planning and structuring of the CWMA. Meanwhile, Linda Yunker will develop a contact list of potential partners.

New business:

  1. The board will convene their annual meeting in the next few weeks. Three terms of board members are expiring and the board will be election or re-electing persons to fill these positions. Anyone who is interested in getting involved as a member of the board please notify one of the board members.
  2. Roger Martin reported that he had been contacted through our web site about an upcoming Koshkonong Creek Forum that is being planned by Joleen Henneman of the Rock River Coalition. We have been invited to participate in the planning and presentation. We will look for someone to represent us. (Note: Penny volunteered to do this.). Threats to Koshkonong Creek include loss of the flood plain forest related to year-round high water levels and increasing nutrient run-off caused by the rapid population growth of Sun Prairie. The sewage effluent from that city is dumped into Koshkonong Creek.

The meeting adjourned at 6:25 pm

Linn Duesterbeck introduced the speakers for the Program, “The Fishery of Lake Koshkonong and the Carp Control Program “. Don Bush has been the Fish Biologist (DNR) for the lake since 1980 and Tom Monsoor is the commercial rough fish contractor for the last 4-5 years.

Don Bush noted that LK is a “high profile” lake because of its large size (10,000 acres) and watershed (2500 sq. miles), its span over 3 counties, its proximity to Chicago and it’s large Lake District. Major problems experienced by LK are 1) it receives the effluent of 26 sewage treatment plants and a large area of agricultural lands that send a load of 1 million lbs. of phosphates into the lake promoting huge algal blooms. 2) carp and 3) flooding.

He outlined a series of myths that he has discovered about the lake:

  1. Rough fish can be eradicated. Wrong: Seining alone can help control, but not eradicate carp. A plan to chemically treat the whole river and lake was abandoned when experience at another lake showed that the proposed chemical killed all the other fish but not the carp!
  2. The only way to improve the fishery is to stock the lake. Wrong: studies of fish movement showed that the fish actively move in and out of the lake. Much success comes from improving breeding and growing areas for natural reproduction.
  3. The answer to the lake’s fish problems is through water control. Wrong: It is not possible to control the levels during much of the year (e.g. spring and summer 2008), there is much public controversy over what the levels should be, and the fate of the fish and other wildlife depends on many factors.

He then outlined the realities he has discovered:

  1. When carp are removed, there is “compensatory fecundity”. In other words, when the numbers are decreased, reproduction increases. To maintain carp numbers at “acceptable” levels it is necessary to remove 125 lbs of fish per acre per year. That adds up to 1.5 million lbs per year! One also needs to limit recruitment of new carp. Predation of small carp by other fish also is important to control. It turns out that panfish are the best consumers of the small carp fry and eggs, so encouraging the numbers of white bass, yellow bass, crappies and perch is important. In order to maintain a strong market for the carp removed from LK, it is important to keep a low level of contaminants (e.g. heavy metals) and to have young, healthy carp (such as occurs when the population is kept lower). He noted that even after the flooding, the levels of contaminants in LK fish is low and they pass the standards even of states like New York that have strict standards.

Don reported on the major programs undertaken by the DNR to manage the fishery of LK.

  1. Enhancing the population of game fish through hatching, stocking and enhancing habitat.
  2. Studying fish movements through tagging 1000s of fish. They found that fish move upstream from Fort Atkinson to Beaver Dam in 8-10 days and fish frequently move downstream for the lake to Oregon, IL.
  3. Studies of the species composition have documented 67 species on LK. This includes 9 species of game fish, 14 of pan fish, 13 of rough fish and 31 others in smaller numbers. Such studies are very challenging in LK because of the large size of the lake with areas of shallow water where it is difficult to sample fish and the effects of dams and floods.

Don emphasized the good features of LK. It is a large, diverse system with a lot of food and space. Because of the huge “bio-manipulation”, i.e. the removal of over 1 million pounds of carp annually, there is a great opportunity for other fish to increase. Studies of stocking in LK using oxytetracycline to mark the bones of fry show that the next fall, 70 % of the fingerlings were marked (30% were from wild reproduction). However, by the following spring the wild had outcompeted the stocked fish. Overall, stocking with fry or fingerlings adds about 20% to the fishery.

To summarize, the program is to: Take out the bad fish, add good fish and improve habitat.

Rough fish removal includes the sucker and carp families, i.e. redhorse, sheepshead, buffalo fish and carp. In general, these are fish that are undesirable because they have a deleterious effect on the habitat and the native fish populations. Buffalo fish are native and may not do any damage but they are rarely caught because they don’t take a line.

Having reliable contractors and a consistent commercial catch is better for marketing because it provides a reliable supply and good communications with the buyers. It is a challenge to get fresh fish to the markets. In recent years, they have harvested about 2 million lbs. of fish, with increasing amounts of buffalo fish. The catch has been about 1.25 million lbs carp and 0.75 million lbs buffalo. There are 2 contractors who pay the state for the right to do the removal; they have 5-year contracts. Tom covers from Hwy 26 in Fort Atkinson and downstream to Illinois (including LK). The other contractor covers upstream. In 2008 so far, there have been 35 seine hauls with a total of 1.6 million lbs. of rough fish removed. Don noted that Tom has done an excellent job. This year he not only has cleaned up any dead fish resulting form the seining, he also has removed a great deal of flood debris. He is excellent in communicating with landowners.

The lake has no young-of-the-year carp – they are upstream. It has been discovered that the small mill-ponds, many of which are now silted in, are sources for large numbers of young carp. When possible, these small dams are being removed to eliminate this source of carp. Other habitat improvements include the installation of a fish ladder at Jefferson, and plans to re-install the Mud Lake carp barrier in order to remove this area as a carp hatchery and to allow re-vegetation of the marsh.

It appears that the floods of 2008 have been beneficial for the fishery. The “year classes” of sauger, walleye, and pike are good. Also, there are good populations of panfish (bluegills, crappies and perch) and a big hatch of white and yellow bass. So far, there are no Asian Carp!!

In a recent survey of people buying fishing licenses in Wisconsin, LK and the Rock River system was the 8th most popular fishing site in the whole state!

Q. What is the impact on the fishery of cormorants and white pelicans?
A. The pelicans mostly feed on schooling fish, primarily carp. The cormorants fish individuals of any species, including large fish and thus may have a negative impact.

Q. How do you decide on the dam removal?
A. Usually dams are removed because they aren’t maintained (and thus may pose a hazard) and no one has or wants ownership.

Q. Why has there been a decrease in the number of ice fisherman in recent years?
A. The ice has not been as thick (and safe) because of global warming. Heavy snows last year impeded access. Changes in water levels – during low levels of the winter draw-down, fish move into the river. This year, the water will not be lowered as much. Overall, the annual fishing harvest is the same. If more fish are caught in the winter, fewer fish are there for the summer and vice versa.

Q. Why is there an increase in sheepshead?
A. They started coming up the river when the dam was repaired and the configuration of the top was changed. Flow over the old structure was more turbulent and seemed to prevent the upstream movement of sheepshead. Now the flow is smoother and they come over the dam.

Tom Monsoor discussed his work on the lake. He noted that the lake is in the best condition he has seen in 30 years. During the past four years, the water has been clearer and there are more “weeds” in the bays. He fishes hard for nine months of the year, usually getting onto the water by daylight and fishing until 4-5 pm. This year he removed a lot of flood debris which goes to the landfill. Some of the “catch” – piers, etc. was reunited with owners. He had to remove many hauls of debris in his nets before he could catch fish. He catches mostly buffalo fish in the river; in the lake sheepshead are 10% and carp 90% of the catch. He does see some muskie. He is very careful to remove game fish from the nets gently and without injury. He purchased a special new net (for $100,000) with a larger mesh so now he rarely catches game fish. He has 3-4 regular buyers. Live fish are trucked to New York where they are sold as “Koshkonong salmon”. Dead fish are shipped to Iowa to be sold as Gefilte fish for Jewish holiday meals. Another buyer is in Nebraska where the fish are sold in a group of restaurants. (secretary’s note: I found this site online - http://www.joetessplace.com/html/about_us.html). Tom noted that often as he begins a good haul in his nets, he calls New York so they can send a truck to be waiting for the fresh catch the next day.

Tom noted that the market is good – the prices have doubled in the past 10 years.

Q. Can we do anything to increase the number of carp removed? (Such as pheromones, or corn feeding).
A. (Don) These have not been tested in large lakes. We are operating at a very efficient capacity now and are able to satisfy the buyers. We are fearful of “rocking the boat” and losing our market.

Q. Do you see any bass in the lake?
A. Small mouth in the river and large mouth in the lake.

The fisherman were just getting warmed up to talking about their favorite fish, their favorite spots (which Tom would not reveal) and “the one that got away”, but we had to adjourn at 8:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Penny Shackelford, Secretary-Treasurer