The DNR fisheries department did there 5 year survey of our lake this summer between July 6, 2020 and July 10, 2020. During their work a group of us followed them around the lake and visited with them as they worked. I took a few photos and I will include them below. Normally the resulting report is issued next spring (April/May 2021) but we were provided with a draft of some of the fish counts and related results. I thought there might be some of you interested in what was pulled out of the lake, so I am sharing the results in this post. I will let you draw your own conclusions and we will share the final report when it is issued. The full report in pdf format can be seen here.

The DNR sets two types of nets at 12 locations each over four days, so they use 3 250′ gill nets (GN) and 3 trap nets (TN).

The gill nets are set each day and pulled the following day, this is repeated for 4 days and covers 12 unique predetermined locations. The nets when pulled have fish trapped in them and they place the net and fish in bins, they take the bins at the end of the day to their headquarters, remove the fish and count and measure them.

The trap nets are set 3 locations each day, which is along the shore and pulled the next day. The fish and turtles are removed when the net is pulled and counted and measured and returned to the lake, with some fish kept for further study. Turtles are also caught in these nets. They reset the nets in a total of 12 unique predetermined locations as well.

The catch number results for the Gill Nets are shown below:

The Trap Net results are shown here:

The following charts are historical comparisons to prior surveys for Walleye and then Northern Pike: