0:00

Hey folks welcome to the crepe Scares this

0:02

the pug has really talk to people for

0:04

and or from the mid west. I'm your

0:06

host Charlie Barons and we are powered by

0:08

ever Light solar. Hey

0:13

folks, how's it going? Welcome

0:16

On to another episode of

0:18

the Crepes cast today. My

0:20

guest is fisheries biologist Max

0:23

Walter. He works for the

0:25

Department of Natural Resources in

0:27

Wisconsin. And. We

0:30

are talking about fish and you are.

0:32

You folks know I'm came in environment

0:34

nerd and I'm really interested in what

0:36

is going on with the Wall Eyes

0:38

this year specifically because of what happened

0:40

with the ice over the winter or

0:42

really the lack of winter. There wasn't

0:44

a lot of ice due to climate

0:46

change and all that and how is

0:48

that impacting the fishing? We can expect

0:51

to see. For. The rest of

0:53

the year and how is is changing climate

0:55

serve affecting. Fish. Populations in

0:57

Wisconsin. Overall, Wisconsin is

1:00

home to some really

1:02

incredible species of trout,

1:04

musky. And. While I in

1:07

all these fish every species. Is.

1:10

Somewhat. Gonna

1:12

be somewhat change or drastically changed.

1:15

When it comes to climate change, so we're

1:17

target. when max about that were times where

1:19

you can do what you can be aware

1:21

of as whether you're conservationist, whether you're a

1:23

fisherman, Or. Fisher woman who

1:26

don't even know you're properly say that

1:28

fishing person who enjoys catching fish out

1:30

a body of water over he was

1:32

it. Ah, But yeah,

1:34

I was very very into this.

1:36

And of course we addressed the

1:38

elephants in rural in the room.

1:40

ladies and gentlemen, couple years ago

1:42

there were rumors of prostitution being

1:44

an issue in the ice fishing

1:46

community. We find out from Max

1:48

if that is true. In.

1:50

Wisconsin noggin spoil out for ya Siamese!

1:52

We're gonna get to my interview with

1:54

Max in his second Colleen. My fear

1:57

was so so. The cribs care she

1:59

is not. She's back home for

2:01

Easter. By the way, happy Easter to

2:04

everybody this week. I hope

2:06

you're enjoying your Good Friday, your

2:08

Holy Thursday. Okay, your Holy Saturday.

2:12

Geez Louise, Holy Saturday,

2:15

Good Friday. What's

2:17

this? No, Holy Thursday,

2:19

Good Friday. What is

2:21

the Saturday one? Anyways, I'm

2:23

a bad Catholic. And then Easter Sunday.

2:26

So there you have it. I hope everybody

2:29

is celebrating what their family's looking for some

2:31

Easter eggs and eating a

2:33

lot of jelly beans. At this point, I'd

2:35

like to do a special shout out for

2:37

all of those whose favorite jelly bean is

2:39

the black jelly bean. You

2:43

are an interesting group of people and my prayers are with you.

2:46

So anyways, no,

2:48

I'm kidding. I like a little licorice. But of all the

2:51

jelly beans, really, I won't go down

2:53

that road. I won't go down that road. I

2:55

would say the black jelly beans actually my second favorite jelly

2:57

bean. I'm just sitting here

2:59

talking to myself, folks. That's what

3:01

it's like when you're hosting a podcast by yourself.

3:03

So I'm gonna shorten the intro because you guys

3:05

don't need me to go down

3:07

a further rabbit hole about

3:10

jelly beans. Or should I

3:12

say a bunny hole? But

3:15

yeah, here we are. Hey, listen,

3:17

before we do get into

3:19

the podcast, I just want to say we

3:21

are continuing to raise money for Doctors Without

3:23

Borders. They are doing and

3:26

continue to do great work

3:28

in around the world, but

3:30

especially in the Middle East right now, you

3:32

can donate doctors without borders.org. We will link

3:34

it up in the show notes. And also,

3:37

folks, I do want to let you know

3:39

that we are taking the month of April

3:41

off. We are going to kind of

3:43

do a new thing with the Cripes guests where we're

3:45

going to take a month off a year. And that

3:47

helps us sort of get ahead of things. And,

3:50

you know, it's a crazy schedule with the

3:52

touring and doing the videos and all that.

3:54

So we're just trying to do a little

3:58

bit less, but a lot.

4:00

better. So we'll have some more

4:02

interviews. We have some very exciting interviews

4:04

coming up, including with Christian Yelich of

4:06

the Brewers and a bunch

4:09

of other folks. However,

4:12

the month of April we

4:14

are going to take off unless

4:16

something crazy happens and

4:18

we really want to get something out

4:20

immediately, which you know I guess

4:23

there's always the possibility of that. But we

4:26

will be back in full

4:28

force come May and yeah,

4:32

so you can look forward to that.

4:34

In the meantime you can go back

4:36

and relisten to some of your favorite

4:38

Cripes cast hits. Yeah,

4:41

so there you have it. I think that's it.

4:43

I think that's all we need to talk about

4:46

and without further ado ladies and gentlemen, here

4:48

is my guest fisheries biologist

4:51

for the Wisconsin DNR Max

4:53

Wolter. So

4:57

I am in a crazy crazy

5:00

winter we had for fishing in

5:03

the state and really across the country.

5:05

What are your thoughts on all that?

5:07

Yeah, that's the big thing we're dealing

5:09

with right now is a very unfamiliar

5:11

looking spring. It's super early

5:14

of course. It's very very dry. We

5:16

don't have that snow melt coming down

5:18

the rivers, so

5:20

we're still kind of taking stock of what

5:22

that's gonna mean for fish and how

5:25

they're all reacting, when

5:28

the spawn is gonna happen in a lot of these places.

5:30

So kind of uncharted waters

5:32

I guess literally in many

5:34

cases here. Have we ever had a

5:36

winter like this before? Not

5:39

in my time working for the DNR for sure. I

5:41

mean we had another early one in 2017 but

5:44

that still had a lot of snow and you

5:46

know we had good ice cover and then it

5:48

just melted really fast and it got warm. It's

5:50

weird to just have a winter like this or

5:52

we had basically no snow up north. I'm in

5:54

Hayward so the Berkey was doing all sorts of

5:57

heroic things to make snow that people

5:59

could ski on. And so

6:01

yeah, we're really dry. Water levels are low. I

6:06

guess one question is, is

6:09

what can obviously it's an El Nino

6:11

year, but what other factors have been

6:13

applied? Because we've had several El Nino

6:16

years and nothing has

6:18

ever been like this. Right.

6:20

Yeah. I mean, we did kind of know that that was

6:22

going to be the trend this winter was going to be

6:25

a little bit warmer, a little bit drier. But,

6:27

you know, all the predictions for climate change are

6:30

saying this is the type of thing we should

6:32

be expecting, which is

6:34

more variation in the types of winters

6:37

we're going to have. Some might be really, really

6:39

wet like last winter and then the next one

6:41

might be really, really dry, less

6:43

ice cover on the lakes, earlier springs.

6:47

And that's a challenge for fish, especially if you

6:49

think about a fish like walleye, one of

6:51

the favorites in Wisconsin. They're

6:53

developing those eggs with the expectation that spawning

6:55

is going to happen at a certain time,

6:57

that the ice is going to go out

6:59

typically in mid April in northern Wisconsin. Eggs

7:01

will be ready to go. Ice goes out.

7:03

Eggs get laid. Boom, we're going to go.

7:07

The challenge now is, well, what if the

7:09

ice goes out significantly earlier than the walleye

7:11

are ready for and those eggs aren't fully

7:13

developed yet? What does that mean for hashing

7:15

success and their ability to actually create year

7:17

classes? And that can go in the other direction

7:19

too. What if we have a really, really late year and all the

7:21

spawning happens in kind of a rush? That can be

7:23

a problem as well. So inconsistency,

7:26

typically not good. And unfortunately with

7:29

the climate predictions, that's what

7:31

we're in for is a lot more inconsistency.

7:34

So, and what does that mean for, so

7:37

obviously climate change is the culprit here.

7:39

And what is, what does that mean

7:41

for people who like to fish walleye?

7:44

I mean, does that mean that it's

7:46

possible the walleye could go away or

7:48

would you not take it that far?

7:52

I wouldn't take it that far. Um, there's

7:54

going to be places to fish for walleye

7:56

in Wisconsin for a long, long time. There

7:58

are certainly water bodies that are going to

8:00

be very resilient to climate. climate change. We've

8:02

done a lot of modeling to show what

8:05

those are. It's bigger systems, it's flowing systems,

8:07

it's systems that are cooler or colder on

8:09

average. But people's opportunities are going to be

8:11

limited by losing

8:13

a lot of walleye populations in a lot of

8:15

these more like marginal lakes. It's

8:18

already a little bit warm, it's already kind

8:20

of on the edge. Climate change might push

8:22

it to the point where walleye aren't as

8:24

successful there as they used to be. And

8:26

we've already seen that happen in a lot

8:28

of places. There's many, many water bodies around

8:30

the state where walleye used to reproduce

8:32

successfully, conditions were good for them, and

8:35

the environment has shifted away from walleye,

8:38

their abundance is dropping, and

8:40

other species like largemouth bass,

8:42

panfish are kind of coming

8:44

in and filling that void. And now those

8:46

lakes are more suited for those particular species.

8:49

That's a big deal. Yeah,

8:51

I mean, it's almost like Wisconsin

8:53

is becoming somewhat, you

8:55

know, it's looking like kind of

8:57

a southern fishery a little bit where bass

9:00

sort of dominate, panfish dominate. Is

9:02

that accurate? That is, you

9:05

are right on the nose with that one. We

9:07

were always in Wisconsin kind of on

9:09

the southern edge of the walleye's native

9:11

range, right? Walleye were

9:13

here, they've been successful for a

9:16

long, long time, but you don't go a

9:18

whole lot farther south and still have good

9:20

walleye populations. So we're already kind of in

9:22

that like transition zone. And

9:25

now we're seeing species like

9:27

largemouth bass, panfish, even catfish

9:29

starting to do better in

9:31

Wisconsin, because the water

9:33

is warming and becoming a little more favorable

9:35

for them, like it is in the southern

9:37

and central United States. Now, I

9:39

was so excited to kind of jump

9:41

in and figure out what's going on

9:43

with the winter, because I didn't, I

9:45

ice fished one time. And that was

9:47

that was it. But I was

9:50

so excited to do that and jump in and figure

9:52

this all out, especially about the walleyes that I didn't

9:55

fully introduce you. So can you tell

9:57

people what it is that you do

9:59

with the the DNR, what your job

10:01

looks like, the ins and outs. Yeah,

10:04

I do have to say, I was taking

10:06

a little surprise there. I thought, wow, this

10:08

podcast, this is all business here. I wanted

10:10

to get right in, man. It was all

10:12

business. I kind of, I mean, did not

10:14

even get out for sturgeon season. It was

10:16

crazy, you know? So, but

10:19

anyway, before I jump back into that,

10:22

yeah, can you give everyone sort of an idea of what

10:25

you do with the DNR? Yeah, absolutely.

10:27

So my name is Max Wolter. I'm a senior

10:29

fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin DNR. I've been doing

10:31

that for a little over 10 years. I

10:34

have a variety of responsibilities. I'm the local biologist

10:36

for the Hayward area. So I cover some pretty

10:38

well-known lakes like Lac Courte Oreilles and the Chippewa

10:40

Flowage and do all things fish

10:42

there. You know, recommend when we need to stock

10:45

fish and help set fishing

10:47

regulations with all of our partner groups, fish

10:49

surveys, habitat work, all

10:51

that good stuff. And then

10:54

I work on some statewide teams related to

10:56

walleye. I've worked on pan fish. So

10:59

it's all things fish, you know? It's

11:01

understanding fish. It's telling people about fish,

11:04

fishing opportunities, protecting fish

11:06

habitat. Me

11:09

and, you know, my colleagues around the state were

11:13

the ones, were the front lines for anybody

11:15

who wants to make sure that fish are

11:17

protected long into the future here in Wisconsin.

11:21

That was kind of a big reason I wanted to

11:23

chat with you too, is every year I go to

11:25

the Tiger Musky Resort over there on

11:29

the Chippewa Flowage. And

11:34

fishing there is phenomenal. This past summer

11:36

when we were there, like, you know,

11:39

we were going out kayaking.

11:42

And then you kind of look around.

11:44

You're like, what is going on with

11:48

the sky? I mean, you basically had all this

11:51

smoke from the wildfires in Canada the

11:53

whole time. I mean, it was just,

11:56

have you guys seen a lot

11:58

of bat and play? Is that something? that people who

12:00

are kind of fishing up in northern

12:02

Wisconsin or frankly all of Wisconsin, can

12:04

we expect more of those sort of

12:07

wildfires coming in from Canada? I know

12:09

that's not your expertise, but just curious

12:11

if you have any thoughts on that

12:13

as well. Yeah,

12:15

I mean that's definitely a

12:17

concern at this moment in time. It is actually

12:19

a little bit my area of expertise because I'm

12:21

a public information officer for our wildfire team up

12:24

here in northern Wisconsin and my

12:26

colleagues are all listening to radio right now

12:28

listening for fire calls in March. We typically

12:30

have snow cover. We're not thinking about fires

12:32

in March. So yeah, we have a potential

12:34

for a long fire season here. People have

12:36

to be careful, you know, watch

12:38

those burn restrictions, be smart about all that,

12:41

because that's another climate impact

12:43

is more conditions that can

12:45

create extreme weather events, including conditions

12:47

for wildfires. So not that we're

12:50

going to talk about climate change the whole time here, but it's

12:52

a very real part of natural

12:54

resource management right now. Do

12:57

you find that folks,

12:59

you're kind of other

13:03

fishers out there, sportsmen, all

13:05

that sort of stuff, do

13:07

you find that there is still sort

13:09

of a hesitance to like believe that

13:11

climate change is causing this? Or

13:14

is that pretty much something of the

13:16

past from your perspective? That's

13:18

a great question. I don't think it's

13:20

completely a thing of the past. And I

13:23

think it's unfortunate that climate change has become

13:25

such a political thing for reasons

13:27

that have nothing to do with fish and fishing and

13:29

walleye or any of that kind of stuff. That's all

13:32

happening at a national level. But

13:35

you talk to pretty much anybody, regardless

13:38

of what their politics are, especially folks

13:40

that have been around for a while.

13:42

And you start to ask them like, what's

13:44

changed in your lake over time? And they

13:47

know, like they've been documenting and clocking these

13:49

changes. There used to be a lot more

13:51

perch or, yeah, we used to see more

13:53

of this. And so whether

13:56

they're identifying that as a climate impact or

13:58

not, they're

14:00

aware that things are changing. And when you have a

14:02

winner like this, it's impossible to ignore it. And so

14:04

that kind of creates an opening to talk to people

14:06

too. And it's like, you know,

14:09

our objective is not anything political here, our

14:11

objective is to create great fishing opportunities for

14:13

people. And if we have

14:15

to, you know, have some conversations about climate,

14:17

you know, that's just part of the deal,

14:19

because it's it's on us to understand the

14:22

impacts of these things communicated to people, and

14:24

how it could affect them. And then

14:26

try to come up with the best possible solutions, right? If

14:28

we want to keep having a walleye lake

14:30

be a walleye lake, what do we need to do to

14:32

make that happen? And so given

14:34

that, let's say the

14:37

lack of ice and the

14:39

early spawn, and just

14:41

for those who don't know what spawning is, this is

14:44

the first time they're hearing that. Can

14:46

you just give them the birds and the bees

14:49

of the fish kind of talking? Yeah,

14:52

absolutely. We're going there. Um, yeah,

14:54

so spawning is kind of the

14:56

fish, the fisheries term for

14:58

mating, right, or reproducing.

15:02

And spawning happens

15:04

in a couple different ways. There

15:06

are what we call broadcast spawners. So

15:09

these are species that are going to go

15:11

to the spawning grounds, the males and

15:13

females are going to show up at

15:16

a specific time, it's usually queued by

15:18

environment, very environmental factors like temperature or

15:20

day length, and they're going

15:22

to pair up males and females. And

15:25

not to get too spicy here, but often

15:27

it's more than one male

15:29

for every one female, we're looking at walleye it's

15:31

like three or four males for female sturgeon,

15:33

that can be pretty high too. The females

15:36

are going to start releasing eggs when things are

15:38

feeling good. And then the males are going to

15:40

release their milk, which is the sperm, it's going

15:42

to fertilize them, then those eggs just settle to

15:44

the bottom of the lake or the river. And

15:47

they sit there and they develop as embryos until

15:49

they hatch, which is can be anywhere from like

15:51

five to 10 days later. And then those little

15:53

fry are totally on their own because the parents

15:55

are long gone, they drop those eggs and

15:58

they're out of there. So no care

16:00

given for a broadcast spawner. And

16:03

because of that, the strategy is you got to

16:05

put thousands and thousands of eggs out there if

16:07

you're a female and hope that a very very

16:09

small fraction of those are going to survive. You

16:11

know we're talking a fraction of 1% might

16:14

actually survive and make it to become the next

16:16

adult fish. There is another group

16:18

in Wisconsin that we call nest garters. This would

16:20

be your bass, your panfish, and a few other

16:22

species where they are going to provide some

16:24

care to those eggs. The male is going to build the

16:26

nest, he's going to sit on that nest, he's going to

16:29

try to you know entice a female to come over,

16:31

lay some eggs in his spot there, fertilize

16:33

them, and then he's going to protect those eggs. A

16:35

lot of people who fish have seen that where a

16:37

small mouth or a large mouth or a bluegill, they're

16:40

not going to leave that nest especially once they have

16:42

eggs on it because they're protecting them. And

16:44

then the fry hatch, they protect them for a

16:46

little while and then the fry kind of start

16:48

to disperse and swim off on their own. So

16:50

spawning is really interesting with fish. It happens, you

16:52

know it's very different than most other animals.

16:56

And people are fascinated by it because you know

16:59

that's where the next generation of fish comes from.

17:01

In a lot of cases you can see it,

17:03

you know the sturgeon spawn on the Winnebago system

17:05

is like a big event. Everybody

17:07

wants to come and see those things, those

17:09

big dinosaurs showing up and doing their thing.

17:11

So yeah that's the long

17:14

and short of spawning I think. You know

17:16

that's some prime entertainment. You see sturgeon go

17:18

after it, you know you can film that

17:20

stuff, put it on the internet, make some

17:22

good money I've heard. Yeah,

17:24

maybe we should think about that. It

17:27

might be a way to raise some more revenue for

17:29

the DNR, get some paywalls going or something. There you

17:31

have it, the first only fin site, you know. Beautiful.

17:35

Trademark that quickly. I know we got

17:37

to. Hey so yeah you could do

17:39

that. You could just get like the

17:41

little GoPro cam, you can have an

17:43

underwater cam, over water cam, because I'll

17:46

tell you this much, I remember walking

17:48

into the living room on my grandpa

17:50

Bob and you know what he was doing? He

17:53

was looking at some eagle cams

17:56

and he had like three eagle cams

17:59

up man. And he was, he

18:01

was, uh, he was like, Hey, come check

18:03

this one out. See this, this

18:06

is the female. She's about to kick the

18:08

young out the nest. I've been waiting all

18:10

day for it. And,

18:12

uh, so he's waiting for that big moment. Now

18:14

I'm not sure if that's even

18:16

the official way Eagles do it. Do

18:19

they do it? Do they like kick them out of

18:21

the nest like that? I don't know how long my

18:24

grandpa was sitting there watching that next floor, but I

18:26

know you're a fish guy, but yeah, I'm

18:28

a little out of my element there with

18:30

the Eagles, but Hey, kudos to your grandpa.

18:32

I mean, whatever he's, whatever he's into, entertainment

18:34

comes in all shapes and sizes. It does,

18:36

man. And who am I to kink shame?

18:39

You know, so, uh, well, thanks

18:41

for giving us the details on,

18:43

uh, the spawning. Let me ask you

18:45

this. If the, if it

18:48

doesn't go well for the

18:50

spawn this year, um, how

18:53

can you, uh, change

18:55

that with like the fish hatcheries and

18:57

how much influence should a

19:00

fish hatchery have on the natural

19:02

ecosystem? I know you guys are

19:04

always balancing that as well. Yeah.

19:07

Oh, that's a great question again. Um, so

19:10

a lot of fish species, I'll just start by,

19:12

by saying a lot of fish species are kind

19:14

of built to weather some bad years. Right. So even

19:17

in the best populations, like a walleye population,

19:19

I miss your classes

19:21

and the end of the world. So one bad year,

19:23

not a problem. Three, four, five in a row. Uh,

19:26

now it's looking a little bit more dire. Um,

19:28

something like sturgeon. I mean, a female

19:31

sturgeon can live to be over a hundred years. She might

19:33

get to spawn 70 times

19:35

or something. Um, so, you know,

19:37

missing a year here and there, not that big a

19:39

deal either. Um, what, what we're

19:41

seeing is, you know, in places where spawning

19:44

has been going poorly for quite a while, that's

19:46

where we want to step in and we want

19:49

to do some stocking to either supplement

19:51

the population, try to get the abundance up and

19:53

give anglers something to catch, or

19:55

ideally get that population back up on its

19:57

feet so that spawning will start happening again.

20:00

conditions are right. And that's where

20:02

our DNR hatchery system comes into the picture.

20:05

We have incredible hatchery staff all around the

20:07

state that are the best in the world

20:09

at raising a whole bunch of different species.

20:12

The things DNR spends most

20:14

of our time raising are walleye. We raise a

20:16

lot of walleye muskies. We raise quite a few

20:18

of them. And then your cold

20:20

water species, your trout and your salmon. We

20:23

do some sturgeon as well. And

20:26

the idea here is that when we're raising

20:28

fish in a hatchery to stock out in the

20:30

wild, we're trying to help that population get around

20:32

some sort of a bottleneck early in life. Either

20:35

the eggs aren't surviving or the fry aren't surviving.

20:37

But if you put the fish out there at

20:39

what we call a fingerling size, which is kind

20:41

of a fun term, you picture a walleye like

20:43

the size of your finger, right? Then

20:46

they have a better chance of surviving because they're

20:48

past some of those early life connects. And

20:50

hopefully from there, they can take off and go. There

20:54

is a lot of really

20:56

interesting debate about where should

20:58

or shouldn't you stock. And we

21:00

work that into our decisions. We

21:03

try to use native genetics. So we're going

21:05

out and we're getting walleye from a wild

21:07

walleye population, getting those eggs, bringing them back

21:09

to our hatchery, raising them up and then

21:12

stocking them out. So what we're putting out

21:14

there matches what's out there in the wild

21:16

to the best extent possible. And

21:18

then having different genetic management units around

21:20

the state too. So we're not taking

21:22

fish from the St. Louis River and

21:25

far northern Wisconsin and putting them into

21:27

the Madison chain or something

21:29

like that. We're trying to get fish locally. Got

21:32

it. Got it. And is there

21:34

a downside to doing that? To

21:37

stocking or to moving fish around? Yeah.

21:41

Sure. I mean, one thing is stocking is expensive and

21:43

we have to factor that in. It's like we can

21:46

just use all these fish for free. So we have

21:48

to make decisions about how much we're

21:50

going to raise and how we're going to use kind

21:52

of that limited resource. And then

21:54

the other factors are, you know, you want to try to avoid

21:57

messing with the native genetics, which I just talked about a

21:59

little bit. little bit. You

22:01

want to try to avoid overstocking and having too

22:03

many fish in a water body where there's not

22:06

enough prey available for them that can lead to

22:08

poor growth and survival and things like that. So

22:10

yeah, there's a lot of considerations that go into

22:12

the picture of stocking and when you're going to

22:15

stock. One of the

22:17

challenges for us is for a lot of people,

22:19

stocking is like the most popular thing we can

22:21

do, right? Everybody loves the idea. They stocked it.

22:23

They stocked the lake. They want to see that truck

22:25

back up and dump fish in and believe

22:28

that that's the best thing that could possibly happen.

22:31

And it's a little more

22:33

nuanced than that because typically when we're stocking,

22:35

it's because something's broken population.

22:37

Something's not working right and that's why we have

22:39

to come in and stock fish. Ideally, they'd be

22:41

reproducing on their own. Everything would be healthy. Everything

22:43

be looking good and the fish would be doing

22:45

it the way they did for thousands and thousands

22:48

of years before we decided we wanted to get

22:50

involved. Well, what is so

22:52

broken that you guys are doing the

22:54

stocking to begin with? What are the

22:56

biggest factors? Yeah, it's

22:59

a number of things and it varies

23:01

by species and water body and things

23:03

like that. And sometimes it's the environment

23:05

has been degraded because the

23:07

habitat isn't in the same condition it was

23:10

before. And that can happen a

23:12

number of different ways. Sometimes it's

23:15

the climate stuff that we talked about and we're

23:18

seeing that a lot with walleye where they're just

23:20

not really producing, even in places where everything structurally

23:22

looks fine. The habitat looks fine, but maybe the

23:24

lake is warmer or maybe because

23:26

the ice isn't going out at the right times,

23:28

there's food available for the little

23:31

walleye fry when they need it. So those

23:33

are the type of situations that we are

23:35

trying to address with stocking while

23:37

also working on some of those other issues too. We

23:39

want to be able to restore spawning habitats when we

23:41

have the opportunity to do that and try to create

23:43

conditions where these fish can do it on their own

23:47

because that's how it should be. And obviously that's

23:49

more cost effective for us too, if we can get to

23:51

that point. So aside for

23:53

warming water, what other conditions are making

23:55

it difficult for the fish to

23:58

do this naturally? If you know musky would be a another

24:00

example here where they're fairly sensitive and one of

24:02

the things that we found in research is the

24:04

more developed a lake becomes with

24:07

people building cabins, taking

24:10

out trees along shorelines, building

24:14

boat ramps, whatever, the harder it is

24:16

for muskies to reproduce. So that's the

24:19

case where sometimes we're just

24:21

loving these lakes to death because we want to be

24:23

on them, we want to be right there where the

24:25

fish are and sometimes it's hard for

24:27

us to share that space

24:29

in a way where the fish can still have all

24:32

their healthy functions, ecosystem functions

24:35

as they did in the past. So

24:37

that would be one example. Another

24:40

example is dams, damming,

24:42

that can fragment populations

24:44

where maybe walleye or

24:48

like a cold water species like trout used to run up a

24:50

river and that's where they spawned. Well, if we

24:52

build a dam, maybe they can't get to the places they want

24:54

to go to anymore. So those are the types

24:56

of factors that we look at. Folks,

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a great way to support the show. And

26:55

with that, ladies and gentlemen, here is

26:57

the rest of my conversation with Max

26:59

Volter. What

27:03

about things like PFOS and microplastics and

27:08

all that sort of stuff that

27:10

we've heard so much about PFOS

27:12

and the exposure in Wisconsin. What

27:15

kind of impact does that have on

27:17

the fisheries or the people

27:19

who eat the fish? Great,

27:22

yeah, great question. Another big topic right

27:24

now. We've been

27:26

doing contaminant testing in Wisconsin for a long

27:28

time for some of the traditional things like

27:30

mercury. That's one that we've been monitoring for

27:32

a long time. Fish biologists like

27:34

me will go around to different lakes, we'll send in

27:36

samples to the labs. They'll test for

27:38

levels of contaminants. And

27:41

then we'll report that to people so that they

27:43

have that information and they can make decisions about

27:45

where they wanna eat, harvest fish

27:47

for them to eat. So the

27:49

first thing I would do is just

27:51

recommend anybody who's interested in that topic,

27:53

go on dnr.wi.gov, search fish consumption guidance.

27:57

And there's a whole document on there that's got a lot

27:59

of this information. information. PFOS is kind of

28:01

the new one on the scene. It's the one we're looking

28:03

for, finding out where

28:05

it's at, finding out the impact

28:07

it's having, specifically on people and

28:09

consumption of fish. We're

28:12

finding that it behaves a little differently than

28:14

some of the other contaminants. So it's definitely

28:16

of interest and I'm not the ultimate spokesperson

28:18

for that, but again if people are interested

28:20

in that I definitely recommend going on the

28:22

website and reading up on some of the

28:25

information there. That sounds good and

28:27

just so people have a sense of it,

28:29

can you define what PFOS is and sort

28:31

of where it falls from? Oh

28:33

no. I was wondering if you're going

28:35

to try to make me say the

28:38

word that that acronym is for. It's

28:40

something big. Yeah, it's

28:43

poly something something. Yeah,

28:45

PFOS is an acronym,

28:47

PFAS, and it's a

28:50

group of compounds,

28:53

chemicals that are used in

28:56

a lot of different industrial applications and

28:58

when they get into the water they can also get

29:00

into fish and that can change

29:04

whether fish are healthy to eat or not from

29:06

that water body. So we're finding we're

29:08

doing a lot of testing for that around the state. That's a

29:10

big emphasis for the current

29:12

administration. It makes sure we understand

29:14

that and we can at least tell people and

29:16

then start to figure out how can we get

29:19

that stuff out of there and keep

29:23

these fish manipulations healthy for people to eat. Is

29:26

there any real issue, I

29:29

mean microplastics in the water? Is that something

29:31

that you guys study as well or is

29:34

that not necessarily your expertise? That

29:36

one's not quite my expertise. I know we have some

29:38

partners that have looked at that. There's been some interesting

29:41

work like out in the Apostle Islands and things like

29:43

that but that's not one that comes

29:45

into my work on a day-to-day basis as

29:48

much. Got you. For

29:50

fishers, people enjoy fishing.

29:52

What are some things that they can

29:54

do? They see what's going

29:56

on. They see that things are changing. They

29:59

see that it's... This is impacting

30:01

their fishing. They love fishing. What are some

30:03

things that people who are concerned about this

30:05

can do and kind of take into their

30:07

own hands? That's a great question Yeah,

30:11

a number of things first as you're traveling

30:13

around fishing be mindful of aquatic invasive species

30:16

Whether that's moving a boat around make sure

30:18

that boats clean drain dry all that stuff

30:22

Or even if you're just taking her bait bucket

30:24

around, you know, don't be introducing new Mental species

30:26

or species of fish into new water bodies. That's

30:29

a huge one I mean, there's so much time and

30:31

energy spent now on combating some Aquatic

30:33

invasive species and when they get into a

30:35

water body They can have a lot

30:38

of impacts that are very similar to some of the

30:40

other things we talked about They can change an ecosystem

30:42

very quickly So that's a

30:44

big one is just making sure everybody's doing their part to

30:46

try to make sure that we aren't spreading things around another

30:50

one would be for people, you know, if you Own

30:53

a lake place or something like that be

30:55

mindful of kind of your environmental practices

30:57

the things we want to see

30:59

happen Or having wild shorelines with

31:01

vegetation That creates habitat

31:04

for fish right along that shoreline The other

31:06

thing it does is it keeps nutrients from

31:08

flowing off of your property into the lake

31:11

which can speed up some of these processes

31:13

of Warming lakes

31:15

creating more demand for oxygen which can

31:17

create which can hurt egg survival things

31:19

like that So being good shoreline owners

31:21

is another really big one and

31:24

then for folks that are doing the

31:26

fishing themselves, you know making ethical choices

31:28

harvesting, you know, just the number of fish you

31:30

need Following

31:33

the rules following the limits things like that And

31:36

then there's a whole bunch of other stuff like, you know Be

31:39

ready when you catch that big fish have the tools

31:41

to be ready to release it if you're gonna release

31:43

a big musky Make sure you got the landing net

31:45

make sure you got the players make sure you got

31:47

a plan So you're not putting undue stress

31:49

upon that fish and you can get it back on its

31:51

way and release it in a way That's gonna live. Nobody

31:54

wants to have a fish die on them If

31:56

they weren't planning on harvesting it so that's something

31:58

we're really really pretty to people too is good

32:01

catch and release practices. Well, I'm glad you brought

32:03

that up, especially with muskies. A lot of times

32:05

you can catch a big musky, you can release

32:07

it, it swims away fine, but it's just basically

32:09

going away to die. What

32:11

is the best way to catch and

32:13

release a musky? Great question,

32:16

yeah, yeah. So this is a big one, right?

32:18

Because muskies at this point, it's 99 point

32:20

something percent catch and release, right? Very

32:22

few anglers are out there

32:24

planning to harvest the musky. Even if they catch

32:27

a legal size musky, if there's replica mounts now,

32:29

there's all sorts of options where you can take

32:31

a picture, you can let that fish go and

32:33

you can feel good about it. But when you

32:35

let that fish go, you're doing it with the

32:38

expectation that it's going to survive. And like you

32:40

said, there are cases, and it's more

32:42

common than some people think, where the fish

32:44

swims off and then it ends up dying because of the

32:46

stress of being caught. So here's some

32:48

things to consider. First

32:50

off, we know the different factors

32:53

that can contribute to stress when fish are caught.

32:55

One is warm water temperatures. When it's really hot

32:57

out, it's harder on fish. So that may be

32:59

a time to just give them a break, go

33:01

fish for bluegill or something else that isn't bothered

33:03

as much by the heat. Another

33:06

factor is catching fish from depth. And

33:08

this is true across not just muskies, but other

33:11

species. If you're pulling fish up from 30 feet

33:13

or deeper, pulling them up really quickly,

33:15

that can be pretty hard on certain species and

33:18

they can have a hard time swimming off after

33:20

that. The other factors are

33:22

handling time. So how long do you fight them? And

33:24

then how long do you have them in the net?

33:27

And even worse, how long do you have them out

33:29

of the net and in the air, right? Try

33:32

to keep them in the water, keep them wet, get

33:36

that hook out while it's in the net, have it all

33:38

ready to go, get it up, get your picture, get it

33:40

back in the water pretty quickly. That'll

33:43

give the fish the best chance. If you're trying to

33:45

take the hook off when it's in the boat and

33:47

it's flopping around and banging on things, I know people

33:49

are probably cringing just listening to that. That's

33:53

the scenario where it's gonna put a lot

33:55

of extra stress on a fish that shouldn't

33:57

be necessary if you're prepared for that scenario. Be

33:59

ready to catch that. that musky believe in yourself, really.

34:02

So in other words, you catch

34:04

the musky, you get it in the net, and

34:08

then your recommendation is keep it in the

34:10

net while you remove the

34:12

hook, which sometimes, I mean,

34:14

that's difficult because it's flailing

34:16

around and all that. Do

34:19

you have any tips to sort of calm the

34:22

musky? I mean, I know that's like, hey, how do

34:24

you calm a shark down? Yeah,

34:27

positive affirmations, I don't know. The

34:30

good news, I guess, in that scenario is if you

34:32

have a fish that's still that feisty, that

34:34

means it's in good shape, right? If it's

34:36

still exerting all that energy and fighting against

34:38

you, it's still in pretty good shape. It

34:40

means you've gotten to that point without overexerting

34:42

the fish. Give it a second

34:45

to calm down, try to get in a comfortable position,

34:47

use the tools that are available. And

34:49

if the hooks are deep or they're just really difficult

34:51

to get out, cut the hooks, let it go, buy

34:53

a new treble hook. That

34:55

might sound counterintuitive to some people to leave a

34:57

piece of metal in that fish, but

35:00

there's a lot of research that shows that that can lead to

35:02

better outcomes for the fish. They can survive that in

35:05

most instances, especially

35:07

if the alternative is ripping in there and maybe

35:09

catching a gill or something like that, that

35:12

can be really bad. So if you're not able

35:14

to get the hooks out quickly, leave

35:16

them with the fish, they'll take care of it. It's pretty amazing.

35:19

Okay, so yeah, I do remember hearing that

35:21

as a kid. Like if the hooks in

35:23

there deep, just cut the hook, the hook

35:25

will rust away. Is that

35:27

true? Yeah, that's effectively

35:29

how it works. They

35:31

have the ability to kind of metabolize

35:35

and deal with those hooks. And this

35:37

is kind of like a whole category of research

35:40

that we do on like our impacts on

35:42

fish when we're fishing. And

35:45

the research is pretty clear that, yeah, cutting

35:47

the line on a deep hook fish is better than trying

35:49

to wrench that hook back out of there. Yeah,

35:53

interesting, very interesting. So

35:56

when it comes to, are

35:59

you dealing with this? dealing with trout

36:01

as well in your, and

36:04

so we have some of the best trout fishing

36:06

in Wisconsin

36:08

in the driftless part of

36:10

the state. And the driftless part of a lot of

36:12

these are spring fed rivers. How,

36:15

and at the same time, the driftless, if

36:17

I'm not mistaken, is one of the areas

36:19

of Wisconsin that might be most affected by

36:22

climate change. Can

36:24

you let us know why that is A and

36:27

also B, how that would affect the

36:29

trout fishing if it would have a

36:31

big impact or if the impact would be

36:34

minimal because these are spring fed rivers and

36:36

they are sort of naturally cooled. Yeah,

36:39

right. Yeah, trout are awesome.

36:41

Wisconsin has really one native species of

36:43

inland trout and that's the brook trout,

36:46

but we also have introduced brown trout

36:48

all over the place. Brown

36:51

trout come from Europe like

36:53

some of our other species. Both

36:57

trout species, but especially brook trout, are

36:59

very, very reliant on cold water. They

37:01

cannot survive in water that warms to

37:03

kind of like normal summer temperatures that

37:05

lakes are going to get to. So

37:08

the places where trout do best are

37:10

places that have really strong groundwater or

37:12

spring water inputs. Out

37:14

west, that also includes places where there's glacial

37:17

meltwater up in the mountains. We

37:19

don't have that here. So

37:21

we're completely reliant on water

37:23

infiltrating down through the soil,

37:25

becoming groundwater, cooling, and then coming

37:27

out into the trout streams at

37:29

a fairly consistent, roughly 50 degrees

37:32

Fahrenheit. That's perfect for brook trout.

37:34

They love that. So the challenge

37:36

is first, making sure that that

37:38

water becomes groundwater and not runoff

37:40

water. Because if it's running off

37:43

a parking lot at the grocery store and going straight into

37:45

the trout stream, well, not only is it carrying

37:47

all the stuff from the parking lot at the grocery store, it's

37:51

also warm because it's just on

37:53

blacktop. It's rainwater in the summer. It's going

37:55

to be whatever, 75, 80 degrees. It's going

37:57

to warm that stream right up. So that's

37:59

why... a big emphasis in a lot

38:01

of watersheds is minimizing those impervious surfaces so

38:03

that water can become groundwater, which is literally

38:05

the lifeblood of those trout. But

38:09

then the other challenge is, yeah, how

38:11

does a warming climate impact trout? And

38:14

just like the walleye that we were talking about earlier, a lot

38:16

of the marginal trout streams where the temperature's

38:19

already kind of like borderline, those

38:21

are ones that might get pushed beyond their limit and trout

38:23

may not be able to exist there anymore. And

38:25

the places where trout are going to hang on

38:27

and do best are the ones that have the

38:30

strongest groundwater input, where it's just pumping out that

38:32

50-degree water and we expect it will continue to

38:34

do that. So trout

38:36

are definitely another one that's going to be very much

38:38

impacted by climate change. Got

38:41

it. And are there things that

38:43

we're kind of doing, like you mentioned,

38:45

the blacktop, are there things that we

38:47

have in society, kind of in mass,

38:50

that you think there's an alternative way

38:52

we could do it that might be

38:54

worth looking into, like if there was

38:56

sort of like a permeable blacktop, for

38:58

instance, or some other material

39:00

that would allow the water to

39:02

be filtered more naturally than just

39:04

have runoff? Yeah. Yeah,

39:07

that's a great question. I would love to see something

39:09

like that get developed. I guess I'm not aware of

39:11

anything along those

39:14

specific lines, but we're always

39:16

making recommendations to people about

39:18

rainwater, stormwater, diversions. Protecting

39:20

wetlands is really big because wetlands are

39:23

a place where stormwater and

39:25

excess surface water, floodwater, all

39:27

that can become trapped

39:30

basically and allowed to kind of settle. So

39:33

wetlands are a really important part of the picture

39:35

and maintaining them. Minimizing

39:37

impervious surfaces, especially in important watersheds, those

39:39

are the things that we have to

39:41

do. And then another

39:44

one with trout is maintaining connectivity.

39:46

So so many trout streams flow

39:49

through culverts, right? There's tens of thousands of

39:51

culverts around the state. And

39:55

if trout can't pass through a culvert because it's not set at

39:57

the right level, maybe there's a little lip between the bottom and

39:59

the bottom. of the culvert in the stream and the water

40:01

pours down, but they can't jump up. That

40:04

could be a big problem because maybe there's good cold

40:06

water upstream from there, but if the trout can't pass

40:08

through a culvert, that's an

40:10

issue. So that's been a big area of

40:12

emphasis too, is finding those culverts, working with

40:14

local townships to replace them, bringing some funding

40:16

to the table and trying to make it

40:19

so trout can get to colder areas at certain times of

40:21

the year. We're

40:23

coming up on spring and this is

40:26

obviously the time of the year where

40:28

people will, you know, fertilize,

40:30

pesticide, all that sort of stuff. What

40:32

kind of an impact does that stuff

40:34

have that we use for our lawn

40:36

to try to make our lawn look

40:38

whatever? What does

40:40

that impact have on the fisheries? Yeah.

40:44

I mentioned earlier, especially on lakeshores, we

40:47

really want to minimize the amount of nutrients getting

40:49

into lakes. And this is true for streams and

40:51

rivers as well. We do a lot of work

40:53

with farmers and farmers are actually

40:55

really great about this. And there's some incredible

40:57

success stories from the driftless area of farmers

41:00

really being the ones leading the way to

41:02

minimize erosion, minimize nutrient inputs to streams. If

41:04

you're a farmer, you don't want to lose

41:06

those nutrients. You want to keep them, right?

41:08

Because that's what's going to grow your crops.

41:12

And so they've kind of led the way and we've

41:14

learned a lot and now it's just a matter of

41:16

applying those practices and getting people bought in.

41:18

So when it comes to people's personal lawns, especially

41:20

at their cabin or if they live near a

41:22

stream, we do

41:24

not want those extra nutrients that are going

41:26

on a lawn winding up in that water

41:28

body. That's going to lead

41:30

to some nasty things like algal growth. It

41:33

can increase the odds of fish kills

41:35

because those nutrients have an oxygen demand

41:37

associated with them. So

41:40

the keys there are, one,

41:42

maybe don't fertilize. Maybe consider not doing that

41:44

in some cases if you can get away

41:47

with it. And then

41:49

if you are going to fertilize, making sure that that

41:51

stuff's not getting into water bodies. So

41:54

that includes having a vegetated buffer

41:56

between your lawn and the lake

41:59

that's going to prevent that material from running straight

42:01

into the water body. And so that's a big

42:03

area of emphasis. And when I go talk to

42:05

lake associations, the thing I tell them is try

42:08

to trick the fish into thinking nobody lives there,

42:10

right? If the fish are looking up from the

42:12

water and they're seeing a wild shoreline with trees

42:14

and shrubs and undergrowth and all that, that's

42:16

great. That's great. That's what we want to

42:18

see. But if they're looking up and they're seeing a lawn,

42:21

that's not as fish friendly. Right. The

42:25

sort of other thing I wanted to bring up

42:27

is obviously we are, as I said, approaching spring.

42:30

But and I don't know

42:32

if it'll happen this year. Historically,

42:34

though, there's sort of our second

42:36

winner, third winner, whatever, again, probably

42:38

unlikely this year. But in the case

42:41

that that does happen, the

42:43

first thing that's going to come out

42:45

is the salt. What impact does salt

42:47

have on walleye and other native

42:49

fish? I don't know if that's been well

42:51

studied enough for me to really make

42:54

a lot of strong conclusions about that. It's

42:57

definitely something of interest. And I think we have

42:59

some research partners looking into it. But I'm

43:02

not sure. We use

43:04

a fair amount of salt on our roads in

43:07

the winter and there's obviously a tradeoff there. We

43:09

want to have public safety. We don't need people

43:11

skittering around and getting into accidents. But yeah, it's

43:13

worth thinking about the impact that might have on

43:15

the environment. This

43:19

is also a very important question.

43:21

A few years ago, there was

43:23

a mayor in Ohio who was

43:26

talking about the dangers of

43:29

prostitution while ice fishing. So

43:32

I am I am curious, you

43:34

know, you're the man out there,

43:36

you're seeing the ice fishers. What

43:39

is the real impact that prostitution

43:42

has on ice fishing? Where

43:46

do we even start with this one? I

43:48

believe the ice shanny is where we start

43:51

with it. Or that's where it finishes. Yeah.

43:55

I think I became aware of this because of because

43:57

of a clip that you did. And I was just.

44:00

I was probably as flabbergasted as you

44:02

were about what was going on there.

44:04

I think we have to

44:06

look at fishing culture, ice shanty

44:08

culture as a net positive,

44:10

and I don't think we should focus on,

44:13

you know, maybe a few bad apples that

44:15

might be doing whatever out there.

44:19

I've never had any experiences like

44:21

that on the ice. I think it's

44:23

a few bad eggplants is what we're

44:26

really talking about here. Those

44:28

are the best eggplants in the winter. They're

44:32

a little smaller, that cold out.

44:35

I will say this, how about this?

44:37

This is a semi-serious answer to your

44:40

completely serious question, I know. I

44:44

don't see nearly as many permanent ice shacks

44:46

as there used to be because the pop-up

44:48

shacks have gotten so good. So

44:51

there aren't a lot of cases on the lakes by

44:53

me, at least, anymore where people are leaving the shack

44:55

up for the whole winter. It's more, come out, pop

44:57

the shack up where you want it for the day.

45:00

Not that, you know, something couldn't happen during the course

45:02

of that day, but then they're

45:04

taking the shacks off with them. Not as

45:06

many permanent ice shanties with a new technology.

45:09

A lot of people pitch in permanent ice

45:12

shanties out there. I think if it's permanent, aren't

45:14

you supposed to go talk to your doctor? I

45:16

think if your ice shanty is

45:18

standing for more than four hours,

45:20

you must consult a medical professional.

45:23

Thank you for reminding me of me for

45:25

that PSA. Yeah,

45:29

okay. Well, I'm glad that we were

45:31

able to check that one off the

45:33

box. Before we

45:35

wrap up here, I just want to see

45:37

if there's anything sort

45:41

of with wildlife related, either fishing or

45:43

hunting or anything that kind of I

45:46

missed out on or that you think would

45:48

be important for people to know. Yeah,

45:51

well, you know, one of the things we're talking about with

45:54

this early spring is just opportunities that

45:57

it provides to people. You

45:59

know, we've kind of... looked at some of the issues

46:01

associated with climate change, but you know, let's take

46:04

a glass half full approach here. And we

46:06

are opening up a lot of fishing opportunities for

46:08

this early spring season so people can get out

46:11

and enjoy this. When we have early ice out,

46:13

we now have a catch and release bath season

46:15

in March and April where people can go out

46:17

and start fishing for bass earlier than they used

46:19

to be able to pan fish is open year

46:21

round. We have more early season catch and release

46:23

opportunities for trout. So I guess I would

46:26

just say, you know, yeah, there's

46:28

some weird stuff going on right out there right now with

46:30

the weather, but make the most of it. Get

46:32

out there, buy that new fishing

46:34

license that kicks in on April

46:37

one. We'd appreciate it. Um, that helps

46:39

us keep stocking fisher and they

46:41

need to be stocked. Keep doing habitat work. Um,

46:45

stay out on the water, doing surveys,

46:47

letting people know where the good fishing opportunities

46:49

are. Um, if you're curious about, you

46:51

know, where to go fishing and where to get started, go on

46:53

the DNR website. We got a lot of great stuff from, you

46:56

know, family shore fishing spots to,

46:58

um, some really awesome,

47:00

like interactive viewers where you can look at,

47:02

you know, trout data and figure out cool

47:04

stretches of trout streams where there's public access

47:06

and stuff like that. Um,

47:09

there's so much out there. I mean, I like you, I'm

47:11

a kid who grew up fishing. That's how you become a

47:13

fish biologist. You, you know, you started as a kid on

47:15

a bike with a fishing pole and then you can just

47:17

work your way up. So,

47:20

you know, I, I want to see more

47:22

kids doing that. And that's been a big emphasis

47:25

for me lately is, is kind of trying to

47:27

create those opportunities, let people know what's out

47:29

there, get that next generation fishing, cause that's

47:31

a concern, right? Is that maybe kids aren't as

47:33

interested in this type of thing anymore. Um,

47:37

I like to think it created a generation of

47:39

fairly well adjusted adults with us and

47:41

hopefully it can do the same for the next generation if

47:43

they find fishing and enjoy it. Yeah. And

47:45

I mean, I know that there are some out there

47:47

that see fishing is like, Oh, why would you do

47:50

that to this fish or whatever? But I do think

47:52

that people getting out and experiencing

47:54

the outdoors and fishing and hunting is the

47:57

big driver of what protects the

47:59

environment. for everybody else. As

48:02

long as there's an economic incentive

48:05

and people, that is what

48:07

fishing is. It's an economic, people want to go

48:09

vacation, they want to buy the stuff and all

48:11

that. And then that keeps these

48:13

populations, this wild area protected from some

48:16

real estate developer being like, you know

48:18

what, let's get rid of all these

48:20

trees and make whatever. So very important.

48:24

Last question I forgot to ask earlier. I

48:28

read an article recently, just a headline,

48:30

didn't actually read the article, that mercury

48:33

levels, I believe in Lake

48:35

Erie are, and I double

48:38

check me on the lake if anyone's listening,

48:40

but I believe they were talking about mercury

48:42

levels being as high as they were in

48:44

the 70s. Is

48:46

that your experience? And

48:49

I hear in Wisconsin, what are mercury

48:51

levels like now? That's something we always

48:53

hear with fishing. Where does the mercury

48:56

come from? How have we gotten rid

48:58

of it? And is it still a

49:00

concern if you're eating the fish? Sure.

49:03

Yeah. So for mercury and other

49:06

contaminants, you know, there's

49:08

a couple of ways of looking at it. Mercury

49:11

can exist naturally in

49:13

the environment. So there are some lakes that just naturally

49:16

have higher levels of mercury and it's not related to

49:18

anything that people did. But there's

49:20

other cases where, yeah, some type of

49:22

contaminant, mercury or others is related

49:25

to industry. And a lot of bad environmental

49:27

industrial practices in the past and that Lake

49:29

Erie area, I mean, that was the hotbed

49:31

for it, right? That was all the big

49:33

examples of burning rivers and things like that.

49:35

I think we are

49:37

on the right track. We're

49:40

cleaning up a lot of those things. We're seeing a

49:42

lot of systems getting a lot better. The Wisconsin River

49:44

is an awesome success story. You know, you talked

49:46

to people that grew up on that decades ago

49:48

and what it was

49:50

like. And now, you know, it's

49:53

doing worlds better. So I think we are trending

49:55

in the right direction with most of these. There

49:58

are going to be some populations. or some

50:00

fisheries that are just going to have high

50:02

mercury levels. And we want to make people

50:04

aware of that so they can make choices. So again, you know,

50:07

go to that website and you can read about where

50:09

you may want to, might want to know more

50:11

about mercury. But yeah, I think generally, you know,

50:13

in Wisconsin, I think we're doing pretty well. And

50:17

we have great people working on it, both

50:19

in the fisheries program and in other parts

50:21

of the DNR that keep tabs

50:23

on the people of Wisconsin's natural

50:25

resources. That's our job. It's, we don't manage

50:27

them for ourselves. We manage them for everybody

50:30

and, and, um, want

50:32

to have healthy, great functioning ecosystems, because

50:34

it's important to our livelihood and our

50:36

culture here in Wisconsin. Right. Absolutely.

50:38

Absolutely. As last,

50:41

last question, someone

50:43

wants to get out, say on Lake

50:45

Winnebago right now, catch some walleye. Um,

50:49

well, first of

50:51

all, when can they start going out

50:53

catching walleye? And when is

50:55

it catching release? When can you keep them?

50:58

And, uh, what bait would you use? Ooh,

51:02

boy, you know, not being a Winnebago biologist, I'm going to be

51:04

a little careful here and make sure I don't park out of

51:06

turn, but, um, most of our,

51:08

our large river systems are a continuous year

51:10

round season. So like the Wisconsin, the Mississippi,

51:12

I believe the Wolf, um, you can go

51:14

out and start fishing, um, this time of

51:16

year. I would recommend, you know, hang out,

51:18

hang out for a little bit, maybe catch

51:20

some crappies and bluegill for a while and

51:22

come up, enjoy the Chippewa foliage. I'm fishing

51:24

opener weekend up in my area. Um,

51:26

but if you are going to fish down there, um,

51:29

yeah, you know, it's hard to beat a jig in a

51:31

minnow. That's a classic for a reason. Um,

51:34

don't overcomplicate things. They make a lot

51:36

of fancy smelling plastics and things like

51:38

that. Jig in a

51:41

minnow is still going to get it done.

51:43

The fish are still pretty keyed in on,

51:45

on, on that type of thing. So that's

51:47

my advice. Don't overthink it. Don't don't fall

51:49

for, you know, the latest, greatest, uh, packaging

51:51

and, and, and,

51:54

uh, marketing campaigns, keep

51:56

it simple, keep it simple. You

51:58

can, you can get too cute with it. sometimes keep

52:00

it simple. Yeah. Well, thanks so

52:03

much, man, for coming

52:05

on and giving us a little insight

52:07

on the fishing this year. That was

52:09

awesome. Yeah, this was a treat.

52:11

And thanks to everybody for tuning in and get

52:13

out there and enjoy some Wisconsin fishing. It's awesome.

52:17

Cool. And apologies to all those

52:19

aspiring ice fishing prostitutes out there.

52:22

There's not as much of a

52:24

market as some Ohio mayors

52:26

may believe there is. So what

52:29

can you do? What can you do? Thanks,

52:33

man. This was great. I appreciate it. You bet.

52:35

Thanks very much, Charlie. Yeah, you bet. We'll have

52:37

a good rest of your day and we'll circle

52:39

back when this is going to be released probably

52:41

in a week or two. A week or

52:44

two? Awesome. Sounds good. All right. Enjoy

52:46

the day. Thanks you too. We'll talk soon. All

52:48

right. Bye. Bye. All

52:53

right, folks, that is all the time we have for

52:55

today. Special thanks to Max for coming on the Cripscast

52:57

and giving us those insider tips on best

53:00

places to fish. The best thing you can

53:02

do for the environment to keep these fisheries

53:04

sound. Make sure you follow what

53:07

the DNR is doing. Follow them

53:09

on social media. And if you have

53:11

any questions or you want to get

53:14

involved in your community, go to DNR.wisconsin.gov.

53:16

And you can also follow the

53:19

Cripscast anywhere you get your

53:21

podcasts. It's just search

53:23

the Cripscast or if you're looking on

53:25

social media, it's at Cripscast. Simple enough,

53:27

ladies and gents. Thank you

53:29

for listening. Thanks to Colleen Maraca. Even though

53:31

she's not here, thanks to Hannah Milos, who

53:33

actually is here, staying next to me, for

53:38

producing and editing respectively.

53:40

And last but not least, thanks

53:42

to all of you. We'll see you guys

53:44

next week. Okay. Happy Easter and watch

53:46

out for deer. You

54:02

know sometimes when you're in a position you put your

54:05

foot in the wall, you hold the wall and go

54:07

in the other side of the shuttle and you think

54:09

you're not normal. You gotta keep moving.