Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District planning carp bounty program for this spring, muskie stocking next fall
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District is planning to run a carp bounty program in May or June and to stock the lake with muskies in September.
Kasey Yallaly, a fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, has made a suggestion regarding an individual to help set up a kiosk, a trail camera and a QR code to help with checking in the carp caught on Tainter Lake during the bounty program, said Tom Bilse, a member of the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District Board of Commissioners representing the Town of Tainter, at the December 19 meeting.
Yallaly is definitely “on board” with the idea of the carp bounty program, said Al Brown, chair of the Board of Commissioners, noting that she approves the permits.
The information that will be collected on the carp is how many fish were caught, where the carp were caught, what time of day were they caught and some idea of the size of the carp, he said.
The goal is to collect data on how many carp are in Tainter Lake and how much of an issue carp are for Tainter Lake, Brown said.
The carp bounty program will be in May and June during the time they are spawning. The exact dates of the bounty program will be determined by the weather and when the carp start spawning, he said.
Finding people who would be willing to help monitor the carp bounty program will not be a problem, Bilse said.
Could a Google form, QR code and a way to upload photos be added to the Lake District’s website? asked Adam Muck, a member of the Board of Commissioners.
Jim Zons, a member of the Board of Commissioners who designed the Lake District’s website, said that those components could be added to the website.
The person who will assist with setting up the carp bounty program runs bow fishing tournaments for carp, Brown said.
The Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District will be expanding the means by which carp can be caught to any possible legal way to catch carp and not only by bow fishing, he said.
In addition to Brown, Bilse, Muck and Zons, the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District Board of Commissioners includes Grant Peissig, Jerry Porter and Chuck Tack.
Muskies
Rather than stocking walleyed pike and northern pike in Tainter Lake, the plan is to stock muskies, Bilse said.
Tainter Lake has good habitat for muskie, and the cost is $13.50 to $14 per fish, he said, adding that there are other groups and associations that are interested in partnering with the Lake District on stocking muskies.
The plan is to stock muskies the second week in September, Bilse said.
Bilse reported that he has contacted the only fish farm in Wisconsin that supplies muskies, which also is used by the DNR.
Even though the plan originally was to stock walleye, Yallaly recommended muskie, Brown said.
If you stock fish “on top of” a population that is already producing, it can reduce the natural production, he explained.
Yallaly recommended one muskie per acre, so the total cost to stock muskie throughout Tainter Lake would be $19,000 per year, Brown said, adding that muskie could be stocked every other year.
Brown said he had talked with someone at the Sportsmen’s Alliance meeting whose group also was interested in stocking muskie, so there are other groups willing to partner with the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District.
If there are only enough funds to stock one muskie for every two acres, “then that’s what it is,” Brown said.
Other fish?
One Board of Commissioners member noted that some residents may be upset about the Lake District’s plan to stock muskie rather than some other kind of fish.
The fish stocking program does not always have to focus on muskie, Brown said.
Yallaly identified muskies as struggling with natural reproduction in Tainter Lake, and if fish are stocked on top of natural production, there is too much competition, he said.
“Based on my experience, there are more than enough walleye (in Tainter Lake),” Zons said.
“That’s what Kasey said,” Bilse commented.
Zons frequently posts photos on his Facebook page of walleyes he has caught in Tainter Lake.
Another member of the Board of Commissioners asked if Zons has been catching northern pike in Tainter Lake.
Zons said he had not caught any northern pike but that he had been catching at least three walleye per day throughout this past fall.
Sedimentation
Bilse, who is chair of the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District’s Sedimentation Committee, said he had met with representatives of Dunn County, the DNR, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to discuss moving forward with a project on the Stewart property (Dobbs Landing).
Chase Cummings, Dunn County conservationist, said he would contact an engineering company to obtain a cost for a project at the Stewart property. Grant writing will be discussed more at a meeting in February, he said.
Bilse told the Board of Commissioners that he had offered the Lake District’s help.
After there is a better idea of what the cost of the project would be, then the Board of Commissioners can discuss whether the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District wants to help with the cost, he said.
All together, 60 sites have been identified on the Red Cedar River that are eroding and sending sediment downstream to Tainter Lake, Bilse said.
The Stewart property produces 9,000 cubic yards of sedimentation per year, which is the equivalent of 600 Dunn County dump trucks per year of sediment, he said.
Even though there are 60 sites along the Red Cedar River that are eroding, if a couple of the sites that produce the most sedimentation are addressed, Bilse said the effort would be worthwhile.
The Stewart property will be put on the agenda for the January meeting so the Board of Commissioners can discuss what the Lake District’s scope of influence should be, Brown said.
Brown said the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District would “have to justify why we are going upstream” and that “there would need to be a public discussion.”
The Board of Commissioners also will have to approve just how much money the Lake District would contribute, he said.
A study done in 2014 documents the sedimentation sites, and the Board of Commissioners should all review the study “so we all have the same knowledge base,” Brown said.
Aerial views included in the study show just how much the Red Cedar River has moved over the years and shows where the channels used to be on the river, he said, noting that in some instances, the river has moved “25 acres away” from where it had been previously.
The Hay River has moved, too, and has created some oxbow lakes, but the Hay River is more shallow and moves more slowly, Zons said, adding that the Red Cedar River has larger areas that contribute to sedimentation.
Savings plan
As part of the business conducted at the December 19 meeting, the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District Board of Commissioners approved a “savings plan” with the Waznik Heike Group as part of the district’s fundraising activities.
Waznik Heike Group LLC is a financial planning company in Menomonie.
This will create funds that people can donate to, and their donations will be able to used as income tax deductions, said Grant Peissig, treasurer for the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District.
Five donation “buckets” will be set up initially: sedimentation, water quality, weed harvesting, boating safety and a general fund, he said.
Additional funds can be set up as they are needed. The goal is to provide an easy way for people to donate for a project that they feel strongly about, Peissig said, adding that a fund could also be set up for muskies, for example
Waznik-Heike will not be taking management fees for setting up the funds. The company has agreed to set up the funds as goodwill gesture to benefit the community, he said.
Zons, who is chair of the buoy committee, said people have asked him about contributing money for buoys for slow/no-wake zones.
Perhaps donations could go into the boating safety fund, he suggested.
The donations are tax deductible because the Lake District is a taxing authority that uses funds for the benefit of the public, Peissig noted.
The Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the savings plan with Waznik Heike Group LLC.
Slow/no-wake
Zons reported that work is progressing on the slow/no-wake ordinance.
The Town of Tainter currently has an ordinance that will have to be repealed and replaced by the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District’s ordinance, he said.
The plan had originally been to have the ordinance on the Tainter Town Board’s January agenda, but the notice about the ordinance must be posted or published 30 days in advance, and unfortunately, the time between the notice about the ordinance and the Tainter Town Board’s January meeting is only 29 days, Zons said.
Having a lake district “take over” the ordinance of a municipality puts the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District in “uncharted territory,” he said.
After the Tainter Town Board has repealed the ordinance and has granted authority to the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District, then the Town of Menomonie must sign off on transferring the ordinance, Zons said.
An application must be submitted to the DNR to have three enforcement zones for slow/no-wake zones. The Town of Tainter has submitted an application, and the Tainter Lake Rehabilitation District must submit an application, he said.
The public hearing on the ordinance will be held in February since the Tainter Town Board was unable to put the ordinance on the agenda for the January meeting, Zons noted.
