Water clarity report from Tuesday February 10, 2015
Dear Winnebago System Sturgeon Enthusiasts:
Our DNR crew had been out checking water clarity a couple of weeks ago (January 27) and at that time water clarity was very good. Due to ice conditions at that time, the crew checked clarity at numerous spots along the East and North shore of Lake Winnebago. Here are the water clarity readings from then:
2 Miles off Pipe = 16’ of clarity in 16’ of water
2 miles off Quinney = 16’ of clarity in 18.5’ of water
1 Mile off Stockbridge = 17.5’ of clarity in 19’ of water
1 mile off Payne’s Point = 14’ of clarity in 14’ of water
Since then I have heard numerous reports of dirtier water on the South end and dirtying conditions across all of Lake Winnebago. So we went out today and much more thoroughly checked water clarity. The results are shown below (and attached), but the clarity seems to be extremely variable throughout the entire lake. In general, it appears that the East shore (average clarity of 16.25’) and North shore (average clarity of 16.2’) has for the most part clear water. The water clarity on the West and South shores is much more variable, but overall dirtier water clarity conditions. Average clarity off Merritt Street was 7.4’ while the South end sites was slightly better at 9.3’ of average clarity. Interestingly, these clarity values don’t differ much from the limited sample from 2 weeks ago, but again that date did not include any readings from the West or South shores. Although the water is dirtier South, there were still areas where we could easily see bottom in up to 13’ of water. So it may be just doing a good deal of scouting to find the clearer water before cutting in on Thursday or Friday. Good luck to all the spearers out there and I hope you have a safe and enjoyable 2015 sturgeon spearing season!
|
|
|
Water Clarity |
Water Depth |
Area |
Area |
Average Water Clarity |
|
|
Merrit 1 Mile |
South Road |
6.5 |
13 |
West |
West |
7.38 |
|
|
Merritt 2 Mile |
South Road |
5.5 |
15 |
West |
South |
9.28 |
|
|
Merritt 2 Mile |
East Tree line |
10 |
18 |
West |
East |
16.25 |
|
|
Merritt 1 Mile |
East Tree line |
7.5 |
17 |
West |
North |
16.17 |
|
|
Wendt's 1 Mile |
East Road |
8.5 |
8.5 |
South |
|||
|
Wendt's 1.5 Mile |
East Road |
13 |
13 |
South |
|||
|
Wendt's 1 Mile |
North Rd |
5 |
10 |
South |
|||
|
Wendt's 2 Mile |
North Rd |
10 |
10 |
South |
|||
|
Fond du Lac 1 Mile |
|
5.5 |
9 |
South |
|||
|
Fond du Lac 2 Miles |
|
11.5 |
12 |
South |
|||
|
Fond du Lac 1 Mile |
|
5 |
10 |
South |
|||
|
Fisherman's Road 1 Mile |
|
12 |
12 |
South |
|||
|
Fisherman's Road 2 Mile |
|
13 |
16 |
South |
|||
|
Pipe 1 Mile |
|
13 |
16 |
East |
|||
|
Pipe 2 Miles |
|
16 |
17 |
East |
|||
|
Pipe 3 Miles |
|
17 |
17 |
East |
|||
|
Quinney 3 Miles |
|
13.5 |
19.5 |
East |
|||
|
Quinney 2 Miles |
|
18 |
20 |
East |
|||
|
Stockbridge 3 Miles |
|
16.5 |
20 |
East |
|||
|
Stockbridge 2 Miles |
|
19 |
20 |
East |
|||
|
Stockbridge 1 Mile |
|
17 |
19 |
East |
|||
|
Fire Lane 8 - 1 Mile |
|
16 |
16 |
North |
|||
|
Payne's Point - 2 Mile |
|
16.5 |
18 |
North |
|||
|
Payne's Point - 1 Mile |
|
16 |
16 |
North |
We are committed to service excellence.
Visit our survey at http://dnr.wi.gov/customersurvey to evaluate how I did.
Ryan Koenigs
Senior Fisheries Biologist / Winnebago System Sturgeon Biologist
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
625 E County Rd. Y, Suite 700
Oshkosh, WI 54901
Phone: (920)303-5450
Fax: (920)424-4404
Ryan.koenigs@wisconsin.gov