Wisconsin Walleye Management Plan
March 26
Fisheries Biologist Max Wolter of Wisconsin DNR just announced an update of Wisconsin’s Walleye Management Plan.  You can find that Plan and a lot of other great info at:   Managing Wisconsin’s Walleye | Fishing Wisconsin | Wisconsin DNR

Fishermen – Have a Lead-Free Tackle Box?
February 14
You love loons, right?  And you’ve heard that lead fishing sinkers & jigs are poisonous to loons, ducks, eagles and many other animals.  But you still haven’t ‘gotten the lead’ out – of your tackle box.   But consider this: When you get snagged and lose a sinker or jig in the lake, that small piece of lead will remain in the lake for thousands of years, all the while sitting on the lake bottom, looking like gravel.  Loons and most other birds regularly ‘eat’ pea-size gravel, which they need in their gizzards to help digest fish bones and such.  Lead sinkers and jigs look like gravel and are sometimes ‘eaten’ by loons and other birds (or the lead jig is eaten by a fish who is later eaten by a loon or eagle).   The Result: a slow and painful death.   Our suggestion: don’t put poisonous lead into the lake.  Throw away those lead sinkers & jigs in your tackle boxes.  Use tin or tungsten sinkers & jigs.  Doing that today could save a loon this summer, or any summer for thousands of years.  For an eye-opening look, see Ted Rulseh’s thelakeguy.net/blog.

Longer Days
The days are slowly getting longer and warmer.   We are patient.  And remember: even though the ice-covered lake may look dead and lifeless from above, there is another vibrant living world under that ice.

Lake Ice Climate News
The current (Winter) issue of Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine has an article (“On Thin Ice”) discussing some startling data about the effect of climate change on Wisconsin’s winter lake ice conditions.  Using data going back to 1860, the charts show how lake ice duration is getting shorter – more than you might think.  For example, the ice fishing season in Wisconsin is now about 24 days shorter than it was in the 1970s – that’s only 50 years!  Worse, sudden variability and temperature swings hurts the health of a lake, the lake’s food chain, and fish. 

OCLRA (Oneida County Lakes & Rivers Association) Next Meeting
of the OCLRA Board is 9-10:30 a.m. Monday, January 9, at the ADRC building in Rhinelander, across the parking lot from Trig’s grocery. All are welcome.

OCLRA NEWS
For the latest news about Loon Mortality from Boat Wakes, Wakeboat Concerns, “Forever Chemicals”, Road Salt, Walleyes, and more, see the OCLRA NEWS story on our “News” page.

Official Ice-Up Date
December 1
It looks like December 1 will go down as the ‘official’ ice-up date for 2022.

Improving Fish Habitat on Lake Mildred and Clear Lake
Paul Evans wrote a great essay about the many factors involved in improving fish habitat here.  As Paul says: it’s more complicated than you’d think.  Check out his essay HERE.

WAKE BOAT ISSUES – STORY BY MILWAUKEE JOURNAL-SENTINEL –   The issue of wake boats and other power boats that are too large for a given body of water is becoming more and more a matter of serious concern.  Damage to property and to wildlife as well as damage to the lake itself is serious stuff.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/outdoors/2022/12/18/wisconsin-residents-seek-to-minimize-damage-to-nature-from-wake-boats/69735263007/