Wisconsin DNR: Tainter Lake an excellent fishery with fewer carp than people think
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — As the result of a fish survey conducted in 2022 on Tainter Lake, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has determined that the lake is an excellent fishery with not very many carp.
Kasey Yallaly, a senior fisheries biologist with the DNR based out of the Baldwin DNR office, presented a report on the Tainter Lake 2022 fisheries survey at the March 21 meeting of the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District’s Board of Commissioners.
The survey covered game fish, panfish, non-game fish and common carp, Yallaly said.
Yallaly is a Tainter Lake resident herself.
Tainter Lake is a 1,752 acre flowage fed by the Red Cedar River and the Hay River, and while the lake has major water quality issues, it is a popular fishery and recreational lake, she said.
The lake is classified as a Complex Riverine Lake and has had no recent stocking of fish but is instead stocked by natural reproduction, Yallaly said, noting that Tainter Lake has a 10 fish bag limit on panfish while the statewide limit is 25.
In the early 2000s, the Cedar Falls dam improvement included the removal of the old flashboard system and the installation of a bladder system to improve water level fluctuations, she said.
Fishery surveys of Tainter Lake were previously conducted on a 10-year rotation, but the lake has been upgraded to a higher profile, so now surveys will be done on a five-year rotation, including Lake Menomin, Yallaly said.
Previous fishery surveys were conducted in 2012 and 1998. The surveys use fyke nets and electrofishing, and the electrofishing was also completed on the Red Cedar River from Colfax to the Russian Slough, she said.
There is an abundance of walleye. The electrofishing covered 12 miles of shoreline to target bass and panfish after the water temperature reached 55 degrees Fahrenheit, with electrofishing in the fall to target juvenile walleye along 10 miles of shoreline, Yallaly said.
Readers should note that electrofishing does not kill or harm the fish.
The purpose of the fish surveys is to evaluate the current status and health of a fishery and to update current data on abundance, size, structure and growth, Yallaly said.
The data informs management decisions, regulation changes, whether a fishery should be stocked and habitat improvements, she said.
Walleyed pike
A total of 1,719 walleye were captured during the survey, with an average length of 16.5 inches, placing Tainter Lake in the 95th percentile of similar lakes in the lake classification, Yallaly said.
The length of the walleye surveyed was between four inches and 27 inches, she noted.
The walleye were of an excellent proportional size distribution of 63, with a distribution between 40 and 70 as ideal, so Tainter has a balanced population, Yallaly said.
The male walleyes were 14 to 16 inches. Female walleye are larger, she said.
Walleyes have a high mortality rate of 53 percent, which is likely due to the absence of fish in the lake and lower river because fisheries biologists were connecting upriver locations during sampling, Yallaly said.
During the fall survey, the walleye that were four to seven inches in length were hatched in the spring, she said.
In 2022, there 78 walleye per mile, which is “very good,” and most of the walleye in the lake are one to two years old. The adult population is hard to sample. There is a lot of fishing pressure on walleye in Tainter Lake, Yallaly said.
The growth rates of walleye in Tainter Lake are average. Fish reach 15 inches in length in 4.1 years, with female walleyes taking 7.2 years to reach 20 inches in length, she said.
The walleyes are in good condition, which means they are neither too skinny nor too fat, with a condition rating of 91, Yallaly said.
Walleye are highly migratory, and they will migrate up to 100 miles to spawn. Walleye from Tainter Lake have gone all the way up to Rice Lake to spawn, she said.
Unrestricted access for walleye to spawning habitat is crucial, Yallaly said.
Northern pike
There is a low abundance of northern pike in Tainter Lake, and the lake is in the 25th percentile for northerns compared to similar lakes, Yallaly said.
The northerns surveyed ranged from seven inches in length to 35 inches, with an average length of 19 inches, which places Tainter Lake in the 75th percentile for size of northerns in similar lakes, she said.
Many of the northerns sampled were in the 15 to 20 inch range, with a few in the upper 20-inch and lower 30-inch range, Yallaly said.
Northern pike are more abundant in Lake Menomin because Lake Menomin has better spawning habitat for northerns. The northerns in Lake Menomin have a bigger population and have a little better size structure, she said.
Muskellunge
During the fish survey, DNR personnel captured three muskies, and all were juveniles, Yallaly said.
Adults are present in low abundance, and conservation clubs have expressed an interest in stocking muskies, she said.
Tainter Lake has the potential for low density trophy fish, Yallaly said.
The lake has excellent habitat for musky, and there is likely some natural reproduction in Tainter Lake, she said.
At least one of the juveniles that were surveyed was the result of natural production, Yallaly said.
Bass
Smallmouth bass were in the 95th percentile for catch rates on Tainter Lake, Yallaly said.
The smallmouth were of excellent size, up to 19 inches in length, with growth rates of 14 inches in four years and low mortality, she said.
Largemouth bass were in moderate densities, with an excellent size structure and condition and a growth rate of 14 inches in five years, Yallaly said.
The habitat in Tainter Lake is more suitable for smallmouth bass. Many of them surveyed were 11 to 15 inches in length, and the younger fish were ranging in length from six to eight inches, she said.
Panfish
Bluegill were in moderate densities in Tainter Lake with an excellent size, placing the lake in the 95th percentile of similar lakes, with an average length of 6.6 inches, Yallaly said, adding that Lake Menomin also has a good population of bluegill.
The Tainter Lake bluegill are in good condition with excellent growth rates and reach seven inches in length in 3.4 years, she said.
“They are growing like gangbusters,” Yallaly said, adding that Tainter’s bluegills are growing a couple of inches faster every year than the statewide average.
Black crappie
Black crappies were of low abundance in Tainter Lake, and that has remained consistent in the fish surveys, Yallaly said.
The black crappies are of excellent size and average 10 inches in length, placing Tainter in the 95th percentile for similar lakes, she said.
The black crappies also have excellent growth and reached nine inches in 3.7 years, she said.
Perch
Perch were the most abundant panfish, and the moderately high catch rates placed Tainter Lake in the 95th percentile of similar lakes, Yallaly said.
The perch were of excellent size, in the 95th percentile, with an average length of 7.8 inches, she said.
One female perch was over 10 inches long and was 15 years old, Yallaly said, noting that it is rare for a perch to live to be that old.
The perch have excellent growth rates and reach eight inches in three years, and they reach 10 inches in 7.5 years, she said, adding that many of the perch were in the seven to nine inch range for size.
Exponential
The increase in smallmouth bass and bluegill populations in Tainter Lake has been a sharp increase in abundance since 2012, Yallaly said.
The increase has been a steep increase, and an exponential increase, she said.
A chart Yallaly presented showed that the number of other fish in Tainter Lake has been increasing slowly and steadily over the years, but that the line representing smallmouth bass and bluegills has gone almost straight up since the 2012 survey.
The increase in smallmouth bass and bluegill is because of the improvements to the Cedar Falls dam by replacing flashboards with a bladder system, Yallaly said.
Both smallmouth bass and bluegill spawn in nests, and when the water level decreased suddenly because the flashboards went out, some of the nests were exposed, and the eggs could not hatch, she said.
Non-game species
Non-game species in Tainter Lake included redhorse, such as shorthead redhorse, golden redhorse, silver redhorse and greater redhorse, along with white suckers, bowfin (known also as dogfish) and common carp, Yallaly said.
There were no river redhorse, which are considered to be a threatened species, she said.
While people tend to refer to these kinds of fish as “rough fish,” they are all native species that do not churn up the bottom the way carp do, Yallaly said.
The rough fish live near or on the bottom, but they do not root up the bottom, she emphasized.
The concern with carp churning up the bottom of the lake is that their activities help release more phosphorus into the lake, which fuels the blue-green cyanobacteria blooms every summer.
Common carp are in low abundance. Redhorse were .9 per net per night, and white suckers were .2 per net per night, Yallaly said.
During the survey, common carp were scarce, and there were none collected, she said.
The bowfin, which are a predator fish, were the most common rough fish found in Tainter Lake, Yallaly said.
From previous surveys, red horse, suckers and carp have been on a downward trend, she said.
When the carp spawn, they come up into the shallows, which is often in front of peoples’ houses, and they splash around and make quite a lot of noise, which creates the impression there are a lot of carp in Tainter Lake, but they are low in abundance, Yallaly said.
The redhorse and suckers do not root up the bottom. They feed on aquatic invertebrates and mollusks, she said.
Common carp
The concern about common carp is that they disturb the sediment in the bottom of the lake, which releases phosphorus, Yallaly said.
But carp are not present in high densities, she said.
The densities were similar to the densities discovered by the Friends of the Red Cedar group that conducted a survey in 2019, Yallaly said.
The Friends of the Red Cedar group removed 259 carp from the lake, which was estimated to be six to eight percent of the population. The total number of individual carp in Tainter Lake is somewhere between 2,000 and about 7,500, she said.
Carp are likely a small part of the huge water quality issue on Tainter Lake, and removing more carp will not solve the water quality problems, Yallaly said.
Carp in Tainter Lake “are a small drop in the bucket,” she said.
Later on in the presentation, Tom Bilse, the representative on the Board of Commissioners for the Town of Tainter, said the 259 carp had been removed from the lake in two hours, and that the Friends of the Red Cedar had paid a bounty on carp last year.
Carp do not need water flow to spawn, and you see them spawning in the muckier areas of the lake. Bluegill are a great predator for carp eggs and spawn, Yallaly said.
Although Yallaly did not say so, it seems logical to think that the exponential increase in the number of bluegill in Tainter Lake over the past few years that has resulted from increased water level control at the dam has also contributed to decreasing the number of carp in Tainter Lake.
Research opportunities
Across the state, the DNR is seeing declines in the population of lake walleye, which is likely due to climate change, Yallaly said.
The flowages, like Tainter Lake, are doing better because the walleye have better access to spawning areas, she said.
Yallaly said she would like to pursue a research project with walleyes in which they are tagged and then tracked by receivers placed in the river.
The research gathered would help to evaluate walleye mortality, spawning habitat and the timing of their movements, she said.
The receivers will track the walleye, and researchers will be able to know the exact time and date when individual walleye pass by the receivers, Yallaly said.
Finding out exactly where the walleye are spawning will be valuable information for the future of walleyes in Tainter Lake, she said.
Improvements
Northern pike have a stable population but they are low in abundance, which is likely attributed to low water clarity and limited macrophyte abundance, Yallaly said.
Macrophytes are aquatic plants that grow in or near water.
There is the potential to implement more restrictive regulations on northerns to promote better sizes, Yallaly said.
Muskies are in lower densities than northern pike, and the population in Tainter Lake would be influenced by stocking up river and in lake locations, she said, noting that musky have been stocked in Big Moon Lake, Rice Lake and the upper Red Cedar River.
There is potential for natural production of muskies, too. Dunn County Fish and Game has noted that stocking of musky is favored by anglers, and it would provide a low density fishery with trophy potential, Yallaly said.
The low mortality rate of bass is likely due to catch-and-release. The habitat on Tainter Lake is more suited to smallmouth bass, she noted.
The 10 bag limit for panfish has improved the size. The lack of vegetation for spawning and for cover could be limiting recruitment, Yallaly said.
The non-game species, redhorse and suckers, have declined since previous surveys. They are native species that do not disrupt the bottom sediment, and they forage on aquatic insects. Bowfin are a native predator, and they have a stable population, she said.
The common carp are low in abundance, which is a similar number to the previous survey, Yallaly said.
Despite the water quality issues, Tainter Lake “supports a great fishery,” she said.
The lake has an excellent forage base, and phosphorus, as unlikely as it seems, is contributing to the quality of the fishery even if it is not helping the water quality, Yallaly said.
Recommendations
Yallaly offered several recommendations to improve the fishery.
Installing nearshore woody habitat, such as “fish sticks” and tree drops into the water, would be a good idea, she said.
Fish sticks are structures that are anchored to the short and are partially or fully submerged. They provide habitat for fish and provide protection to shorelines.
Stocking of muskies also is a recommendation, along with special regulations for northern pike, Yallaly said.
In addition, investigating the seasonal walleye movements and habitat use would be a benefit to the Tainter Lake fishery, she said.
Best management practices within the watershed will help solve the water quality issues for Tainter Lake, Yallaly said, noting that cover crops and grass waterways in the watershed will help.
The Red Cedar Watershed is 1,900 square miles.
The water quality in Tainter Lake did not “get like this” overnight, and it will not get better overnight, Yallaly said.
