I recently obtained some of the results from the pool 4 creel survey I did from November 1999 through October 2001. These are just a small percentage of the numbers, but they are probably the most interesting to the anglers of pool 4. The total catch/release/harvest numbers don’t mean much unless you compare them to the other years, but the lengh of sauger/walleye kept and released are what people are most interested in. These numbers are based on the full 2 years of surveys.
Estimated sauger caught is 487,134 fish
Estimated sauger harvested is 118,777 fish
Estimated sauger released is 368,357 fish
Average length of sauger harvested is 14.75 inches (Based on 5066 actually measured).
Average length of sauger released is 11.91 inches (Based on 26,012 actual reported released sauger).
13.6% of the harvested sauger were less than 13 inches. (Based on 5066 actually measured).
4.2% of the harvested sauger were less than 12 inches. (Based on 5066 actually measured).
Estimated walleye caught is 221,506
Estimated walleye harvested is 49,072
Estimated walleye released is 172,434
Average length of walleye kept is 16.99 inches (Based on 2031 actually measured).
Average length of walleye released is 14.24 inches (Based on 7845 reported released walleye).
6.2% of harvested walleye were over 20 inches (Based on 2031 actually measured).
2.3% of harvested walleye were over 22 inches. (Based on 2031 actually measured).
Basically what this shows is that the belief that people keep all the big walleyes they catch is not true. Yes, some bigger ones are kept, but a small percentage. Also, the belief that people are keeping any size sauger they catch is not true. A 14.75 inch average length for harvested sauger is pretty good. Hope you find these numbers interesting and I have to thank John Hoxmeier, the Large Lake Specialist from Lake City in charge of pool 4 for the information. Thanks.
