Lake Winnibigoshish 2004 Fish Population Outlook

Lake Winnibigoshish 2004 Fish Population Outlook - Courtesy of DNR Regional Fisheries, Grand Rapids, Minnesota Here is some preliminary summary information from last summers test netting on Lake Winnie. As expected, there are a lot of small fish and quite a few fish larger than 19 inches (this was stated as a goal of the special slot limit regulation). For year class strength, a rating of 100 is considered average, anything over 150 or so is considered strong. 2001 year class is off the charts! Remember this netting was done in late June early-mid July. Those 11 inch fish are now 13 inches and some 14s. You can see the dip in the length frequency distribution for mid range fish, compared to the average. This is due to a very weak 2000 year class, but 2001 year class filled the gap big time. You can see from looking at the Year class graph how these large natural walleye lakes are driven by strong year classes, and vary a lot year to year. You can also see that the late 1990's were pretty good over all. Lake Winnie should be in good shape for Walleye fishing in 2004.

Lake Winnibigoshish Population Assessment Summary, 2003

Walleye catch per near-shore gill net exceeded the third quartile for the first time in five years. Catch rate of 1.6 walleye larger than 19 inches per gill net reaches experimental regulation goal for the first time. Cisco catch per net remained at low levels for both near-shore and mid-lake nets. Percent of yellow perch larger than 9 inches increased to 45.9% for mid lake sets, near-shore sets were similar to 2002 at 26.2 %. Trawl catch rate for YOY yellow perch was the highest recorded. Northern pike catch rates were high with relatively low mean weight (year class driven).

Lake Winnibigoshish 2004 Walleye Population Outlook