Walleyes for Tomorrow
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Walleyes for Tomorrow |
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Our chapter officially formed on February 1, 2006. We held our first banquet March 29, 2006 at the Rib River Ballroom located west of Wausau. We had 116 people attend and join as members. We have set our 2nd annual banquet date for Saturday, February 24, 2007 again at Rib River Ballroom. We are choosing to hold our banquet on a Saturday night to make it more convenient for those who live farther away. Our first banquet was a great success and we received good feedback from the attendees. Our goal is to increase attendance to 250 for 2007. One of the chapter’s projects we are currently working on is to get a walleye spawning reef constructed on Pike Lake, located in Marathon County. We are coordinating our efforts with the local Fisheries Manager, Tom Meronick and Water Regulations Manager, Keith Patrick. At this time, we are finishing up on the permits needed to construct the reef. Another project the chapter is looking at is to see what can be done to improve the Rib River. This is considered one of our long term projects. In spring we will be running a portable hatchery to stock fry into local lakes. Wish us luck. On July 22, 2006 we held a Kids Fishing Day at Sunnyvale Park from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. We had 14 kids for the day. We taught them how to cast and how to tie knots. Every kid got a fishing pole to take home and everyone caught at least one fish. We had a lunch at the park as well. We received many compliments from the kids, parents, and mentors that attended the event. On August 20th we helped out at the local DNR’s Youth Heritage Days. This event brought together local sportsman’s clubs to introduce kids to the skills needed to hunt, fish, and trap. This is a great event that gives kids a hands-on approach to the outdoors. The interactive events were shooting, BB gun, .22, shotgun, muzzle loader, casting, knot typing, fishing equipment, 3D archery shoot, and many other events. Since February we have learned a lot about running the chapter and putting on various events. It has seemed a bit overwhelming at times, but with the help of our board members and chapter members, we have accomplished many things and hope to carry this into our projects. Unfortunately, we have lost our Chapter Chairperson, Tim Pizzi. He has taken a new job in the Hudson area and will truly be missed. He will try to help finish our Pike Lake project, as he has been our point person working on this project from the beginning. We wish him well in his new job. Maybe, when he settles in, he can get a new chapter started in that area. I’m sure if there is interest in the area, he could get it going. Good luck, Tim. Central Wisconsin WFT Chapter Board of Directors: Chapter Chairperson, Dan Weith; Co-Chairperson, David Borski; Secretary, Kim Borski; Treasurer; Carl Foster; and Projects: Tim Pizzi, Steve Meyer, and Ray Harris. Door County Chapter by Dan Farah The 2007 Dave Pagel’s Memorial Ice Fishing Tournament in support of the Door County Walleyes for Tomorrow (WFT) chapter was held February 24, 2007 on the ice at Little Sturgeon Bay. A good bit supported the raffles and fund raising events to provide a great day for all attending. Northern Pike over 18 pounds, walleyes over 5 pounds, and perch over 1.5 pounds won the respective categories. In all over $2,100.00 in fish contest prizes were awarded and almost $20,000.00 was raised to support the local fishery. Thanks to all who participated and to our sponsors for making this a successful event. Fox Valley Chapter by Doug Sternhagen The Fox Valley Chapter held their annual fundraising banquet at the Darboy Club on February 22, 2007. The banquet was once again a sellout with over 584 attendees. As a result of the banquet attendees and sponsors generosity, we raised just over $35,000.00. This money will be used to fund walleye habitat projects slated for 2008. East Shore Chapter by Bob Krupp This year the Winnebago East Shore Chapter of Walleyes for Tomorrow (WFT) held their annual banquet at a new location, the Millhome Supper Club, Kiel, WI, which can accommodate 400 people. Top door prize this year was a fishing trip for four individuals to Lake Erie. Our next banquet is scheduled for Saturday, April 28, 2007. It was another successful year for our Sauger Stripping and Fertilization project at High Cliff State Park, which was due to the hard work of the Otter Street Fishing Club, Oshkosh Chapter of WFT, East Shore Chapter of WFT, Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and Bob Olynyk. The saugers are removed from the nets and separated into male and female holding tanks in the catch boat. The catch boat brings the separated saugers to shore for processing. The process begins with stripping the milk from the male fish. The netted fish are gathered by hand and the underside of the fish is patted dry with paper toweling to prevent water from entering the milk stripping process. The male fish is positioned over the milk collection bowl and the fish is massaged on the underside to release the milk. All the milk substances will flow into provided containers. All containers of milk are stored in a cooler to maintain the current outside temperature and cleanliness. All cups of milk must remain free of water. The next step is to strip the eggs from the female saugers into stainless steel collection pans. The female sauger is taken from the net and the underside is wiped down with paper toweling. A ripe female’s eggs will flow in a steady stream. The fertilization process begins with adding the stored milk to the egg mass. The milk is stirred into the egg mass with a goose feather and lake water is added. Once the water touches the egg/milk mass, we have three minutes before the little opening in the egg closes up. A bentonite (clay) mixture is added to prevent the eggs from sticking together and washed off. After this procedure the eggs are transported to the hatchery. We were able to fertilize 1.3 million sauger eggs, of which 80% were returned to the waters of Lake Winnebago. Since the start of our sauger project at High Cliff, we have fertilized approximately 8,439,705 eggs, of which 3,717,219 were hatched. We wish to thank the Kiel Fish & Game Club and Fishermen’s Road Fishing Club for their generous contributions to our sauger project. The East Shore Chapter of WFT assisted in catch and release of 70% of the walleye caught in fishing tournaments, which were returned to Lake Winnebago. We are in the process of selling tickets for our annual Big Bucks Raffle for the East Shore Chapter of WFT. First prize is $10,000 cash with many other cash prizes. Only 200 tickets are sold for $100 each. The drawing is scheduled for Saturday, December 2, 2006, at the Chilton Eagles Club at 8:00 p.m. For tickets contact Randy Pingel at W2175 Debra Ct., Chilton, WI, phone 920-849-1105 or Al Lackershire at 920-286-1858. Green Bay Chapter by Dan Farah Lake Country Chapter by Bill Lodi Special thanks goes out to everyone that volunteered, donated, and helped out at our banquet that was held in February. We could not have pulled it off without the generous donations that our sponsors contributed. A sincere “Thank You” to all of you. The Okauchee Lake fish stocking will take place sometime in October 2007. Information will be sent in the mail. We are looking at stocking 8,000 extended growth walleyes in Okauchee Lake to complete our two year stocking program on Okauchee. The 2007 Banquet is set for Thursday, February 22, 2007. If you have any questions, please contact Bill Lodi, Chapter Chairman at 414-801-4767 Lake Puckaway Chapter by Jeff Bennett The Walleye Wagon on Lake Puckaway raised 1.5 million walleye fry and we held them for 1 to 2 days in the holding tanks. Then they were released in the lake in shallow bays that already held some new vegetation. We also received 1 million walleye fry from the Lake Mills hatchery and also 1.7 million walleye fry from the Wild Rose hatchery. Hats off to the guys at these hatcheries. We are also looking into some rock projects on the dredge bank and are submitting a capital project proposal for funds for this project. The rock we are looking at for the project are 6” to 8” rocks and when these can be placed in the area will depend on ice conditions. Milwaukee River Basin Chapter by Rich Heuss The Milwaukee River Basin Chapter went through some changes this year. I (Richard Heuss) became chapter chairman late last year and appointed John Kubeck as my co-chairman and due to heart problems he was experiencing, Howard Blohm agreed to co-chair. We had a successful banquet in March, thanks to all of our members working together and in attendance. We learned a lot this year and hope to have a better banquet this coming year. Our group at the meetings is small but willing to work hard. Dave Coles ran the river clean ups this year and did a good job without any problems. Thanks, Dave! Thor Stolen and I had an outing with his class of inner city kids. We took the kids out and did a river clean up and some fishing. Everyone had a good time and hopefully the kids learned something. Our chapter is also trying to put together a program to teach kids how to fish and about fish. There are eight from our chapter preparing to become certified by the DNR as instructors. Thor is also trying to put together a winter fishing contest in the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan. Our release of walleyes went into the river in October. There were 9,100 healthy walleyes planted. The spawning reef in the Milwaukee River was put in this year. According to the DNR, the donation from Walleyes for Tomorrow made this reef possible. Our chapter will be sending out two newsletters a year to our chapter members. Our chapter is trying to become active and we could use more people at our meetings. Your ideas and opinions are always welcome. New London Wolf River Chapter by Tom King Volunteers from Walleyes for Tomorrow—New London Wolf River Chapter and the New London Parks and Rec Department presented a beginner program on fishing for 16 kids and their parents at Riverside Park in new London. Each participant received a WFT t-shirt and their own tackle box. After instructions the kids had a snack and practiced what they learned by catching and releasing fish caught from the Wolf River. This program is Fish Camp 2006 and was held June 3, 2006. Hopefully we will run another program next year. New London Wolf River Chapter’s 2007 Banquet will be held May 21, 2007 at Crystal Falls, New London. Manitowoc Chapter by John Breivogel The 14th annual banquet for the Manitowoc Chapter was held on March 17, 2007. The event was a sellout (400 people) for the first time in chapter history, and was a huge success. The sellout crowd won over 200 door prizes along with hundreds of raffle prizes. The Manitowoc Chapter would like to thank all of the sponsors, donors and banquet attendees for continued support of Walleyes For Tomorrow and their effort to improve walleye habitat and stocking projects in the state of Wisconsin. Thank you also needs to be given to all of the hard work the volunteers gave to organizing the annual event to make it a big success.Continuing efforts by the Manitowoc Chapter over the past 14 years have benefited countless state as well as local projects. The local projects over the past year include the following.
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