Wisconsin Outdoor Report as of November 8, 2007

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GENERAL | Northern Region | Northeast Region | Southeast Region | South Central Region | West Central Region | VHS Update

Winter arrived to the most northern parts of Wisconsin this week, with up to 7 inches of snow falling along the border with the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The snow was melting rapidly though, since the ground has not yet frozen. Ponds and some lakes are starting to get a thin skim of ice over them in the mornings and some days lasting throughout the day.

Autumn foliage is well past peak across the entire state and strong winds in the last week knocked down much of the remaining leaf cover, through most oaks are still holding onto their brown leaves.

White-tailed deer are now in full rut. Archery hunters are finding bucks responding to rattling and grunt calls. Bucks are very active even during daylight hours. Use caution when approaching deer near roadways. Bucks are moving frequently following does and may seem unaware of the presence of vehicles.

With the opening of Wisconsin’s nine-day regular gun deer hunting season now just over a week away, hunters should be making last minute checks over all hunting equipment. The season opens Saturday, Nov. 17 and runs through the 25th. The DNR has announced it will expand testing for Chronic Wasting Disease in the CWD management zones. The agency will now sample for free any adult deer harvested anywhere within the CWD management zones for the remainder of the deer hunting seasons. So far this year, fewer deer have been submitted for testing than the department originally projected, so the opportunity for having adult deer tested is being expanded to hunters throughout the Herd Reduction Zone. Hunters will need to bring their deer to an existing sampling station to get their deer tested. More information on CWD testing can be found on DNR Web site.

Water temperatures have dropped to the mid to low 40s and a few anglers have been fishing on rivers and lakes, but most pulled and stored their boats after this past weekend. There have still been some anglers out after musky, with most now dragging large suckers around in hopes of hooking into that 50-inch fish-of-a-lifetime. Musky anglers need to pay attention to new emergency rules to prevent the spread of VHS fish disease, and should only purchase as much live bait as they plan on using for each outing on a given lake. Action has only been fair with no reports of any exceptionally large musky. Walleye action has been picking up on the Wolf River with the dropping water temperatures.

Along Lake Michigan, the salmon run has slowed considerably. Shore anglers have been catching a few coho and brown trout at Port Washington. In Milwaukee, perch anglers have been catching good numbers near the Summerfest grounds and brown trout have been caught by shore anglers.

The Mississippi River is dropping rapidly. The river crested last week at about 11.3 feet but as of Monday Nov. 5, it was down to 9.1 feet. Crappies were biting pretty good in many areas. Walleye and sauger action was good in deeper sloughs and back waters. Many anglers caught limits of sauger at the Genoa dam over the weekend.

Waterfowl hunting continues to be good. Good numbers of diving ducks are being reported along Green Bay. Successful hunters along the Mississippi report a mixed bag of teal, mallards, canvasback, bufflehead, pintail, widgeon, shoveler and gadwall. There were more than 100,000 canvasback ducks reported just upstream from the Lynxville dam on Pool 9. Sizable numbers of tundra swans are also starting to arrive on the Mississippi River, but they have not yet reached peak numbers.

Cedar waxwings have been moving through the state and robins are flocking up.

This is the time of year when many young spiders go ballooning, and on almost any warm and calm day they can be seen sailing through the air. The spiders spin several threads, which catch the air currents and carry them aloft.

NORTHERN REGION

Superior DNR Service Center area

Brule River State Forest - The Bois Brule River is flow is coming down to an average flow for this time of year after the October rains. As of Nov. 7, the river was flowing at 157 cubic feet per second (cfs), the 61 year average 151 cfs. Shorter days, cooler temperatures, fallen leaves, and changes in animal patterns are a sure sign that fall is here and winter is just around the corner. Ponds and some lakes are starting to get a thin skim of ice over them in the mornings and some days lasting throughout the day. Animals that do not hibernate are active trying to build up their winter fat supplies and/or build up their food cache. Snow flurries have been observed recently but no accumulation has been reported. Deer are now in the full rut. They are also feeding along the roadsides causing an increase of car/deer collisions. Motorists need to be extra aware when traveling, especially during dawn and dusk when the deer "blend in" with the brown vegetation along the roadsides. The fall season brings many different recreational activities together into the outdoors. Keep in mind that the Brule River State Forest is a multi-use area bringing anglers, canoeists/kayakers, hunters, wildlife watchers, hikers, horse back riders, and campers to come out and enjoy the various recreational opportunities. Many of these activities require people to share space in the woods and on the water…respect for other visitors and their choices of recreation is always appreciated.

Park Falls DNR Service Center area

Cold temperatures and some snow have arrived in the Park Falls area. Many outdoor activities are in full swing and it’s a great time to be enjoying the outdoors. A few anglers have still been fishing on area rivers and lakes though most pulled and stored their boats after this past weekend. Whitetail bucks are very active during daylight hours as the rut is underway. Use caution when approaching deer near roadways. Bucks are moving frequently following does and may seem unaware of the presence of vehicles. Archery hunters are finding bucks responding to rattling and grunt calls. Beaver and Otter season opened and trappers have been working in the wetlands. A few bobcat have been trapped and registered in the Park Falls area. Grouse hunters are finding some grouse in areas that were clear cut in the last few years and have heavy aspen regeneration.

Upper Chippewa Basin fisheries report (Price, Rusk, Sawyer Taylor and inland Ashland and Iron counties) - With the deer rut going full force, bow hunting has pretty much been the main form of outdoor recreation for the past week (along with fair numbers of grouse hunters as well) . There has still been some fishing activity and musky have been the main species of interest. This is generally known as trophy time for musky and most anglers are now dragging large suckers around in hopes of hooking into that 50-inch fish-of-a-lifetime. Recently, action has only been fair with no reports of any exceptionally large musky and just a few catches of fish in the low 40-inch size. A few walleye anglers have still been trying their luck and found action to be on the slow side. Most of the walleye have been in the 12- to 15-inch size and the most productive bait has been a large fathead minnow fished with a slower presentation--either under a slip bobber or on a bare hook dragged slowly along the bottom in 8 to 14 feet of water. Water temperatures have dropped to the mid to low 40s and ice cover is still several weeks away for most lakes in the Northwoods.

NORTHEAST REGION

Peshtigo DNR Service Center area

Marinette County - Strong winds throughout the area have knocked down most of the remaining leaf cover. Cold temperatures may take a break for the weekend and warm slightly. Deer activity is increasing along roadways with decreasing daylight hours. Archers can get one more weekend hunt in before the gun season begins. Be sure to run a safety check over all your hunting equipment including tree harnesses when archery hunting. Several Deer Management Units in the area have bonus tags available yet such as 41, 49B and 50. Fall turkey will close Nov. 15, now may be a good time to bag the Thanksgiving bird. Fishing activity is low on the Menominee River due to cold temperatures.

Oconto County - Musky fishing has been good on Boot and Archibald lakes. There are many signs that bucks are in the rut. Hunters are having great success, with the bow kill registration being higher this year in northern Oconto County than the last two years. Perch have been biting the shallows along the bay as well as in the area of the boat landing in Oconto. Try minnows and worms for best results. Duck hunting on the bay continues to be a bright spot with lots of waterfowl to see. Open water hunters are doing well on divers and when the wind is right shoreline hunters have been doing fair on mallards and geese. The deer are starting the rut and are traveling during the day. Some very nice bucks have been taken.

Shawano County - Walleye action should be picking up on the Wolf River with the dropping water temperatures over the past few days. Late season musky fishing can be good on Shawano Lake with stable weather patterns. Wildlife staff have picked up the carcasses of 1,227 coot, 16 scaup, four mallards, one teal, one bufflehead, and one Canada goose off of Shawano Lake. This is a result of the trematodes ingested by these birds when eating snails and aquatic invertebrates. Sandhill cranes are providing wildlife viewing as the corn and soybean fields are harvested around Navarino Wildlife Area. Buck Fever Night will be Tuesday, Nov. 13 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Shawano County Highway Dept. shop on Richmond Street. DNR staff will be available to answer questions. A Snowmobile Safety Education course will be offered at the Shawano High School beginning Dec. 1 and 8. Please call the instructor to register for the class at (715) 526-8722.

SOUTHEAST REGION

Lake Michigan fisheries team report

Ozaukee County - Shore anglers in Port Washington have been catching a few coho and browns on spawn sacs and minnows in the harbor and near the power plant. Fishing off the pier in Port has been slow.

Milwaukee County - In Milwaukee perch anglers near the Summerfest grounds have been catching good numbers on minnows fished near the bottom. Decent numbers of brown trout have been caught by shore anglers fishing with spawn at Jones Island.

Racine County - In Racine flows on the Root River are very low. The majority of fish upstream of the weir are brown trout, and they have been hitting small black, brown, or olive colored flies. Colonial and Quarry Lake Parks have been providing the most action. Downstream of the weir decent numbers of browns and coho remain in Lincoln and Island Parks. Fish were processed at the Root River Steelhead Facility on Monday, November 5. So far this season DNR crews have handled 3,547 chinooks, 1,169 coho, 98 steelhead, and 242 brown trout. The salmon run has slowed considerably, and the facility has been shut down. If we get significant precipitation in the near future, the facility may be restarted.

Kenosha County - Shore fishing in Kenosha has been hit-or-miss. On good days, fair numbers of browns have been taken on spawn or tube jigs in the harbor. Fishing on the Pike River has been slow.

SOUTH CENTRAL REGION

Fitchburg DNR Service Center area

Sauk County

Devil’s Lake State Park - Autumn foliage is well past peak, with about 25 percent turned to color, and 75 percent fallen. The months of November and December are the least busy time of year at Devil’s Lake State Park. Fall colors have passed and ice fishing and cross-country skiing seasons have not yet begun. So if you crave solitude, this is the time! You can wander the trails and see no one else as you stroll along with leaves crunching underfoot. You can come camping with no worries about getting a campsite. Deer hunting is allowed in portions of the park during the regular gun deer season Nov. 17 through Dec. 9. Bow hunting is allowed Nov. 17 through Jan. 6, 2008. Recreational visitors who are hiking around the lake, bluffs, Parfrey’s Glen, and north and south shore picnic areas are well within the no-hunting zones, and should not be affected by the presence of hunters. Visitors to other areas of the park which are open for hunting might consider wearing blaze orange or choosing to hike in the non-hunting areas. All hiking trails are open. Mountain bike trails are temporarily closed because muddy conditions make the trails vulnerable to further damage. Almost all campround water facilities are shut down for the season. Running water restrooms are open in the headquarters, visitor center, and the main south shore building.

WEST CENTRAL REGION

Baldwin DNR Service Center area

St. Croix County

Willow River State Park - Seasonal temperatures have returned including snow flurries. Cedar Waxwings have been coming through on the trip south. The winter robins are flocked up. The upper end of Little Falls Lake has Canada geese and other waterfowl. Some of the best deer watching days are upon us. The bucks are much easier to view, especially during the low light hours. They may also appear in full daylight as the rut progresses. Please be considerate of others when it comes to wildlife viewing from your vehicle; pull off to the side and let other vehicles pass. Not all visitors are here to watch deer. Hikers should look at the Parks web site Current Conditions page for hiking information during the coming deer hunting seasons. dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/parks/. Now is a great time to hike since leaves are down. Campsites are now first come, first served. The Recreational Vehicle sites near the beach will be open year round. Vehicle access to the main campground will end in mid November, or at first snow accumulation. Campers with tanks and small water containers may load water at the service building just down the hill from the office building. Campers may unload water at the dump station but there is no rinse or refill water. Day visitors may pick up water at the office inside or outside. Pit toilets are open in the beach area, in the campground by site # 62, the boat launch, and at the new parking lot for the group camp. Dry land training continues for cross country skiers; 5:30pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the Nature Center. Random trail brushing work continues also. Please call the office for times when brushing crews are working (715) 386-5931.

La Crosse DNR Service Center area

Despite the cooler temperature that accompany fall, many spiders are still active. This is the time of year when many young spiders go ballooning, and on almost any warm and calm day they can be seen sailing through the air. To go ballooning, they climb to the top of a shrub, blade of grass, or fence post, face the wind, extend their eight legs, and elevate their bodies at about a 45 degree angle, so they are raised above their takeoff perch. Then they spin several threads, which catch the air currents and carry the spider aloft. Ballooning spiders are not entirely at the wind's mercy, for they can exert a certain amount of control over their silken parachutes by climbing about on the threads, pulling in and winding up or streaming out more filaments. What an intriguing means of dispersal.

Mississippi River - Sizable numbers of tundra swans are starting to arrive. Peak numbers have not been reached yet.

Crawford County - The fall colors around the Crawford County area are now on the down swing. Only a few brightly colored Aspen and Maples remain. Most oaks are still holding onto their brown leaves. The Mississippi River is starting to drop rapidly. Last week the river crested out at about 11.3 feet but as of Monday Nov. 5, it was down to 9.1 feet. The Wisconsin River and the Kickapoo River have both stabilized. The Kickapoo River is at 8.12 feet (flood stage is 13 feet) and the Wisconsin is at 1.7 feet (flood stage is 9 feet). Without additional rain to the watershed the Kickapoo is expected to drop even further. The amount of debris floating down the Mississippi River has diminished. Most of the boat landings on the Mississippi River are in good shape. The landings at Gordon’s Bay, Lynxville, Cold Spring, Ferryville, Winneshiek, and Big Slough are pretty much weed free. Bluegill action was kind of slow this week. However crappies were biting pretty good in many areas. Try fishing the snags with small minnows for crappie or small ice fishing jigs (red or yellow) tipped with red worms for bluegills. Cold Spring heated up again late in the week for crappies but was spotty all other times. Walleye and sauger action was good. Trying fishing at Lock and Dam #9 at Lynxville or further down stream near the Harpers Ferry slough. Casting or vertical jigging One-Eyes have been productive. Walleyes and sauger are being located in deeper sloughs in the back waters also. The Roseau and Black Sloughs have produced at times. Walleyes have been biting up in Pool 9 in the deeper backwater areas south of the Lansing dike. Wing dam action fair this week. Also try trolling crank baits. A fair number of sauger have been taken too. Many anglers have switched over to minnows for bait. Most are finding bass action pretty good. Some of the wing dams have produced some small mouth bass but the best action was been in the backwater adjacent to deeper water. Some however are finding active bass in the recently flooded shallows. Duck hunting was pretty average this week even though over 150,000 waterfowl are on Pool 9 right now. Duck hunters were met with declining water levels this week and some pretty nice days, but not for shooting ducks. Some hunters report moderate action up in the Ambro Slough complex. The Lower Bottoms south of Prairie du Chien is now closed to duck hunting. Some areas of Pool 9 like the Copper Creek, Buck Creek, and Rush Creek bottoms had some good days. The Winneshiek and Big Slough complex south of the Lansing dike was fairly slow. Successful hunters report a mixed bag of teal, mallards, canvasback, bufflehead, pintail, widgeon, shoveler and gadwall. Hunters report fair to good action along the island complexes outside Lynxville (Deer Island) and Ferryville (Capoli Island). The lower Wisconsin River has been kind of slow. Some hunters are still finding some wood ducks while other have taken mallards. Hunters in the bottoms of the Wisconsin River need to scout around to find active duck spots. Archery deer hunters are glad to see the colder weather. The mosquitoes are pretty much all gone. Another positive note is that a lot of corn fields are being harvested and the rut is in full swing. Deer hunters are reporting rubs and scraps showing up all over the place. Hunting field edges has been productive for some archers while others have targeted thicker cover. Squirrel hunters are having pretty good success now that the leaves are starting to fall. This is a great time for bird watching. The fall migration of hawks is still in progress. Waterfowl numbers have really increased this past week. Just upstream from the Lynxville dam on Pool 9 there are over 100,000 canvasback ducks. In addition there are thousands of other ducks to be seen. The number of white Pelicans is much lower than previous weeks. Some can still be seen on Pool 9 in the Ferryville area. Swans have also moved into the area. Poison ivy and stinging nettle has taken a pretty good hit this week due to the frosty mornings. Mosquitoes have also been knocked back. Residents in rural areas report box elder beetles and Asian beetles were very active when the sun was out.

Vernon County - Many anglers caught limits of sauger at the Genoa dam on Saturday Nov. 3. Many of the fish were up to 18 inches in length. Duck hunters had some success on redheads, canvasbacks, and mallards on Pool 8.

Eau Claire DNR Service Center area

Brunet Island State Park - Fall colors are over with most of the leaves having dropped due to windy conditions. The tamaracks are still a brilliant gold. The open water game fish action has been fair with fewer fisher folk out on the water. Bass action on leeches and small minnows has been productive; walleye action has been good with live baits. Crappie action has been sporadic on a variety of baits. Deer activity is up; bucks are making an appearance during daylight hours in the park. Species of birds seen or heard include: ravens, black capped chickadees, phoebes, northern juncos, piliated woodpeckers, great horned owls, barred owls, bald eagles, and Canada geese. The park road renovation resurfacing portion is completed. Line painting and signing will occur next spring. The shower facility, the picnic area flush toilet building, and the camper dump station are closed for the season. Campgrounds are open with some electric sites, a hand water pump, and a pit toilets.

Wisconsin Rapids DNR Service Center area

Buckhorn State Park – Many leaves are still on the trees. Some bucks were chasing does over the weekend in areas outside of the park. Deer were sitting tight all weekend in the park, with two being taken during the youth deer hunt. The boat boarding piers and fishing pier are removed for the season. The park is open for early and late bow seasons. New hunting maps are available at the park office and on the park website for parkland, Buckhorn wildlife area (formerly area A), and yellow river wildlife area (formerly area B). The yellow river wildlife area (area B) is open to everything in the regulations. Buckhorn wildlife (area A) is open for small game, waterfowl, trapping, and deer bow hunting. Deer can be registered at the park office when it is staffed. Open year-round campsites are now first come. Drinking water is available at the park office and group camp. The 2008 photo contest started Oct. 1.

Roche-A-Cri State Park - It’s not too late to take a fall hike up the Roche-A-Cri Mound. The Roche-A-Cri Woods state natural area east of state highway 13 is open for hunting and trapping. The campground and facilities are currently closed for the season, but the park remains open for day use and is accessible through the winter parking lot on Czech Avenue, the southern border of Roche-A-Cri. The 2008 photo contest is now underway. Take advantage of the unique seasonal photo opportunities!

VHS fish disease update for Nov. 8, 2007

Wisconsin fisheries director Mike Staggs testified Wednesday at an informational hearing on the fish disease viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS, before the Assembly Natural Resources and the Senate Environment and Natural Resources committees.] Other invited speakers included Dr. Robert Ehlenfeldt, state veterinarian for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, which has jurisdiction over fish farms and fish health; Dr. Kathy Kurth, chief of virology, Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, which has performed the bulk of the VHS testing for Wisconsin fish. David Robison, Wisconsin Fish and Bait Dealers Association, and David Gollon Jr., of the Wisconsin Aquaculture Association, also spoke.

Natural Resources Board to consider permanent rules Dec. 5 in Madison

The state Natural Resources Board will consider permanent rules to prevent the spread of VHS at their Dec. 5 meeting in Madison. The board on Oct. 24 had tabled consideration of the permanent rules proposed by the DNR and modified the emergency rules DNR proposed so that requirements to drain water from boats and a ban on moving live fish away from lakes and rivers would immediately apply statewide. Previous DNR emergency rules extended those provisions only to Lake Winnebago, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, the Mississippi River and their tributaries up to the first barrier impassable to fish -- with the requirements to automatically go statewide if VHS was found anywhere else. The current emergency rules are in effect for 150 days but DNR can ask lawmakers for two separate 60-day extensions.

Summary of where Wisconsin’s at with containing VHS in Wisconsin

Since new emergency rules to prevent the spread of VHS took effect statewide Nov. 2, DNR staff have received a lot of questions from anglers asking about the rule details and frankly, looking for ways to get around them.

Most anglers fish with worms, leeches, night crawlers, artificial lures and other baits not covered by the rules -- or they buy just a day’s supply of minnows. The main change these anglers are required to make under the emergency rules is to drain water from their boats – a step many of them already take because they’ve been asked to do so for more than a decade to prevent the spread of zebra mussels and other invasive species.

These rules will require bigger changes for anglers who frequently fish with minnows and buy them in bulk, who fish several waters in the same day, or who use dead bait.

The emergency rules are in place to prevent transferring potentially infected water or fish to new lakes and rivers. This is necessary to keep Wisconsin fish healthy, maintain the state’s great fishing, and assure that future generations will have their own big fish stories to tell.

VHS has demonstrated in other countries and Great Lakes states the potential to cause large fish kills, long-term reductions in wild fish populations, and severe economic losses for the aquaculture industry. Anglers should know that their favorites -- musky, walleye, bluegill, and yellow perch, are among the most susceptible to VHS. They are categorized by the federal government as “Tier 1” species that have been documented to have suffered fish kills.

It’s too early to predict the short-term and long-term impacts of this fish disease in Wisconsin. The VHS strain affecting Great Lakes fish is new, so we don’t know exactly what to expect. VHS was first detected in Wisconsin in May in fish from the Lake Winnebago and Lake Michigan systems. Since then, the disease hasn’t been found in other waters (pdf).

Fish appear to be most vulnerable in the spring, when water temperatures are cold and their immune systems are stressed from the rigors of spawning. So spring could hold the potential for more fish kills. There are also reports from other states that the main VHS impact is on young fish. Die-offs of these smaller fish are not as easy to detect and may take years to show up in the fish populations and fishing opportunities.

What’s important for anglers to know is that they play a key role in limiting the spread of VHS. Biologists believe that good compliance from boaters and anglers with the VHS rules on the Lake Winnebago and Lake Michigan systems has been important in containing the disease to those waters.

Anglers who use suckers to fish for musky will want to buy only the amount they need, given new rules to avoid spreading a new fish diseases.

People who harvest wild bait, fish farmers, fishing clubs and lake organizations that normally stock lakes, and the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection are also being required to make changes to prevent the spread of VHS. DNR fisheries management staff and operations have been greatly affected. We have, and we will continue, to make significant changes in our hatchery and stocking programs

As Secretary Matt Frank told the state Natural Resources Board on Oct. 24, “this is a new reality we have to face as a state. We have to continue to do these things we’ve been doing and look for new things to do.”

VHS poses a difficult management challenge for Wisconsin. Future generations will likely judge us poorly if we spend significant resources and the effects turn out to be minimal. Yet those same future generations will surely judge us more harshly if we allow it to spread and VHS turns out to have serious impacts on Wisconsin’s fisheries.

Draining all water from our boats, never moving live fish away from a lake or river, and buying minnows from Wisconsin dealers are small sacrifices we can make for future generations. – Mike Staggs, fisheries director

Summaries of DNR changes made to minimize spread of VHS

VHS Monitoring and surveillance – Hatchery Fish: We tested 4,620 fish reared in state hatcheries and co-op ponds for VHS and none was detected. That number includes testing fathead minnows purchased to use as forage for muskies and walleye. We still have about 1,100 fish to test this fall, which includes 10 co-op ponds and captive, wild or feral broodfish. All together, that is a lot of spleens and kidneys. – Sue Marcquenski, fish health specialist

Wild fish: During 2007, our testing of more than 100 groups of wild fish showed that VHS was not as widespread as we feared. Twenty-nine different species were tested from more than 50 waters. Some were from a group of 60 individual fish collected specifically for VHS testing, one or two fish caught by anglers in VHS positive waters, or fish from a fish kill that looked suspicious.

Of the fish tested, a total of six from the Lake Winnebago and Lake Michigan systems were positive for VHS: a freshwater drum from Little Lake Butte des Morts; two freshwater drum from Lake Winnebago; smallmouth bass from Sturgeon Bay and lake whitefish from northern Green Bay, and a brown trout from Lake Michigan. Additional surveillance is planned for spring 2008, when some scientific literature suggests that the virus will be more likely to be detected. We have received a $30,000 grant from USDA-APHIS to expand VHS sampling next spring to fish from 30 additional sites in the Wisconsin River basin. We also hope to sample another 15 high-risk sites from across the states. – Tim Simonson, fisheries biologist, Madison

Hatchery Operations

After the discovery of VHS in Lake Winnebago, where it was not expected it to be, the state imposed a moratorium on fish stocking and transfers. DNR propagation staff did a top-to-bottom review of all operations to minimize any risk that the DNR could accidentally spread the disease. No VHS has been found in the hatchery system. All tests of hatchery-raised fish, their parent fish, and the water supplies have been negative for VHS. More additional changes are intended to keep it that way. Key changes require testing all parent fish for VHS, disinfecting all eggs we collect, and raising fish from infected waters only at hatcheries within the same basin, and then stocking them back only into waters where VHS has been documented.

It is not yet known how many of the 14.5 million fish originally planned for stocking in 2007 will finally go out the door as such stocking will likely continue through April 2008. DNR’s self-imposed moratorium, followed by quarantines issued for three hatcheries by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, delayed stocking while we waited for VHS test results and met other requirements. Lake Michigan, which depends on stocking for its trout and salmon fishery, did receive fish, although the stocking trucks were lighter than normal -- and that was common across the state. Some northern pike and walleye perished during the extra time spent in their rearing ponds because they ran out of the plankton they eat as fry or because of water quality-related health problems. Rearing ponds were not replenished with fresh water and then flushed for fear of sending potentially virus-contaminated water downstream. Some surviving fish were not stocked because their health had deteriorated to the point they are unlikely to survive the ride or stocking into a new water body. Some fish were euthanized, including more than 26,000 lake sturgeon because the eggs had been collected from VHS-infected waters or connected waters. – Al Kaas, propagation coordinator

Fish Kills – DNR received reports of 111 fish kills in 2007, up considerably from the 23 recorded in 2006 and the 34 in 2005. A handful of those fish kills were confirmed to be related to VHS. The increase over previous years likely reflected increased awareness of fish kills, and the public being urged to report dead fish, even if there were only a few dead fish if the fish had potential signs of VHS. – Andy Fayram, quantitative fisheries policy analyst

Wild Bait Harvest Permits - Beginning in May 2007, in response to the possible threat posed by moving VHS-infected wild baitfish, the DNR required that licensed bait dealers harvesting wild bait in Wisconsin apply for a free permit indicating the location and targeted species that they would be collecting from state waters. They are also required to keep records of what they harvested and where it was sold. The requirements have enabled us to learn a lot more about wild bait harvest in Wisconsin, including that less than 10 percent of Wisconsin’s 2,200 registered bait dealers harvest wild bait. As of mid-October, about 90 harvesters had been granted more than 3,800 permits, which are valid for one water body for two weeks. – Ted Treska, fisheries biologist, Madison

Administrative rule making - Emergency rules were passed by the state Natural Resources Board on April 4, amended later that month, and then expanded May 17 in an effort to prevent the disease from spreading to more inland waters. The combined emergency rules resulted in boaters and anglers being required to drain all water from their boat and make sure that live fish, including leftover minnows, were dead before leaving an infected water or its connecting waters up to the first barrier impassable by fish. The rules also established a permit system and recordkeeping requirements for licensed bait dealers who harvest wild bait. After the fact rule hearings were held on the emergency rules, with feedback from those sessions used to help shape permanent rules proposals. Five hearings on permanent rules proposals were held in July and August and a total of 33 people turned out. On Oct. 24, 2007, the Natural Resources Board modified DNR’s rule proposal, which would have extended the VHS rules on a water-by-water basis as the DNR had reason to suspect VHS was present in that water. The board modified that proposal, applying it statewide immediately, and those rules became effective Nov. 2. The board will consider permanent rules in December. – Bill Horns, Great Lakes fisheries specialist

Research - When VHS was first detected in Wisconsin in May 2007, DNR fisheries staff quickly gathered information form the most widely available and widely publicized sources about how the disease could be transmitted, effective methods to prevent its spread, likely effects on fish populations and other topics to make decisions about how to manage the disease. A comprehensive literature review is being conducted by DNR staff and will be available next spring to help identify important gaps in knowledge and will allow management efforts to be even more effective.- Andy Fayram, quantitative fisheries policy analyst

Outreach and information - Wisconsin, like New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, put new regulations in place to try to contain the spread of VHS. To make the public aware of Wisconsin’s new rules, DNR worked with partners to launch a broad public outreach effort. Efforts ranged from extensive one-on-one education by paid and volunteer watercraft inspectors, wardens and other DNR staff, to a four-month long public service campaign using radio and television announcements, signs at hundreds of boat landings, and enhanced and updated web pages. Numerous publications were designed and made available on the Internet for downloading and printing in English, and also in Hmong and Spanish, and DNR, UW-Extension staff and other partners made dozens of presentations to fishing and lake groups. The VHS efforts were able to build on more than a decade of work by DNR and others to publicize measures, similar to the VHS prevention steps, for preventing the spread of zebra mussels and other aquatic invasive species. In 2003, 80 percent of boaters said they took prevention steps, more than double the proportion in 1994.- Lisa Gaumnitz, public affairs manager, and Karl Scheidegger, fisheries biologist