Creel Surveys on Lipsett Lake

Following is a note from one of our Lake Association members to the Wisconsin DNR concerning the creel surveys on Lipsett Lake:  "Regarding creel surveys on Lipsett Lake, Burnett Co., is 12381 largemouth bass caught / 200 harvested, in 2009 on website report correct? Staffing the creel survey every 3 years all summer long often with almost no data to collect on most days seems like an expensive program. Couldn't limited collection using statistical sampling accomplish goal? As property owner and lake assoc. member I would like to learn what the benefits have been to Lipsett Lake. Thank you."


Below a response from Larry Damman, the DNR Fish Biologist at Spooner:  "Keep in mind that creels are still estimates but basically the huge bass catch and low harvest is correct. This is a trend we are seeing on many lakes in NW Wisconsin that was not the case in the past. Largemouth bass numbers keep increasing because of protective size limits (and catch and release) but few are reaching legal size or bigger because of declining growth rates. Lakes can not produce enough of the preferred forage types that bass need to grow well when there are so many mouths to feed. In a recent creel on nearby Big McKenzie Lake anglers kept about 25% of the total catch after the bass size limit had been removed.

Creel surveys are very expensive. We have to do them because we have to be able to estimate angler harvest across the ceded territory and because they are helpful in understanding fish populations and angler effectiveness etc. We are essentially doing exactly what you suggest by doing strategic statistical sampling to accomplish the goals. Most northern Wisconsin lakes are lucky to get a basic fish survey once every 10 to 15 years, A very small subsample of those get a creel survey and much smaller number of lakes like Lipsett have been designated as trend lakes that get a fish survey and creel every 3 years. Fish populations can be very dynamic and the short term influence of weather, regulation changes etc may be hard to get a handle on regionally when surveys are always far apart. So we do the repetitive sampling on Lipsett for the purpose of helping us manage all lakes better rather than to manage Lipsett specifically. Another thing to keep in mind with creels is that 0 is an important number. It's equally necessary and cost effective to sample the days when nothing happens as the days they are biting in order to come up with meaningful catch and harvest averages that are then used to project total catch for the season etc.

One specific thing I found that only came to light because of the more frequent surveys is that walleye fingerlings stocked by the tribe have better survival rates on Lipsett than walleye fingerlings from the state hatchery."