Tag Archives: bass

2012 In Review – Electrofishing, Pike-Hunting and The Return of Phantom Midge

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2012-06-22 13.23.102012 was a great year to be a limnologist. Center for Limnology researchers got out in the field to conduct interesting experiments in beautiful settings, papers published by both faculty and students received all sorts of media attention, and, perhaps most important, the CFL band, Phantom Midge, once again rocked the Christmas party.

As we sign off for 2012, we’ll leave you with some of our favorite videos (including a clip of Phantom Midge’s performance) of 2012 – Happy Holidays and see you in 2013, when we’ll do it all again!

 Tracking Northern Pike in Green Bay

Grad student, Dan Oele, let me tag along for a day tracking pike spawning habits

In the Field with Zoology 511

The Zoology 511 class goes out to a local trout stream and takes a census of the fishes that call it home.

‘Tis The Season for Sneaking and Spawning

Gretchen Hansen, a CFL post-doc, captures a sneaky juvenile pumpkinseed as he attempts to add some of his genes to the pool, while the larger adult male woos a mate.

LMB That I Used to Know

Phantom Midge takes that ubiquitous Gotye song and turns it into a story about bass/walleye interaction.

 

Fishing in the Dark

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The shock boat leaves Hasler Lab’s pier around 8 pm, heading out for a night of electrofishing on Lake Mendota.

A few weeks ago, a team of students and staff headed out on Lake Mendota well after sundown. The group was taking a yearly census of fish populations in Lake Mendota, one of several Wisconsin lakes that make up a study area of the National Science Foundation-funded Long-Term Ecological Research program, or LTER. There are 26 LTER sites across the U.S. and the Center for Limnology houses the project called North Temperate Lakes.

Fish crew members stand poised at the bow of the boat waiting for stunned fish to float into range of their nets along the dark northern shoreline of Lake Mendota.

Besides Mendota, the southern Wisconsin lakes represented are Monona, Wingra and Fish Lake near Sauk City. Up north, the crew monitors Allequash, Sparkling, Trout, Big Muskellunge and Crystal Lakes as well as two bogs all near the CFL’s Trout Lake Research Station in Vilas County.

While all of these lakes are monitored year round for water chemistry, temperature and other parameters, the fish census only happens once each summer. And part of that census involves heading out at night when predatory fish move inshore to hunt. Continue reading →

Smallmouth Bass: One Hazard of Fieldwork in Wisconsin Lakes

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Center for Limnology grad student, Gretchen Hansen, took this video from a past summer’s field season up in Vilas County. While we’ll honor the tradition of fishermen not sharing their favorite spots, it’s safe to say smallmouth bass are doing quite well in this particular lake.  Watch as one bass gets aggressive while Gretchen tries to collect rusty crayfish for her research. She says opportunistic bass would often grab her “samples” before she got a handle on them. Not this time, though!