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Along the Mississippi, “sunfish” usually means the popular bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus). Bluegills congregate to spawn in bedding areas over shallow flats from two to four feet in depth when the water temperature reaches 70 to 75 degrees.
The males come first to scoop out round nests and a good bedding area can hold hundreds of aggressive males who will vie for the attention of the females. The females will lay thousands of eggs in the most attractive nests and the males will fiercely defend them when they hatch.
This aggressiveness is what makes the spawn such a good deal for anglers. Up to 90 percent of the fish caught on the beds are the feisty males. They eagerly attack a variety of baits but one of the most exciting ways to catch them is to cast a floating popper or other light artificial with a fly rod.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, I watched a few hardy popper fishers casting in the shallows of Lake Onalaska. They were having little success yet, but I was catching a few nice males making pre-spawn preparations in the warmer water next to the shore. I was fishing the “lazy” way with worms on an ice-fishing jig and a tiny bobber.
I had a ball catching them and enjoyed a meal of fresh bluegill both nights. I might break out my fly rod and dust off my poppers when the spawn begins in earnest, hopefully by the time you read this. Then again, big bluegills are fun to catch however you hook them.
Eagle nest survey
Last Wednesday, I was ready to fish in a relaxed way. I had spent a busy and exciting morning with a crew from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Bill Thrune, wildlife refuge specialist and Jessica Larson, wildlife biologist from the La Crosse District, made up one of two crews out that day monitoring bald eagle nests for young eagles.
We were checking five nests in Pool 7 of the Mississippi River near Trempealeau, and to reach them all in one day we had to use an airboat. It was my first experience on an airboat and to say that it was exciting would be an understatement. Cruising along in barely an inch or two of water that would hardly support a canoe was awesome.
The knowledge that Thrune was an experienced airboat pilot and instructor gave me the confidence to settle into my front-row seat and enjoy the ride. Of course, we wore earplugs and plastic earmuffs to deaden the sound of the propellers and wore several layers of clothing to take the bite out of the unusually chilly air.
Bill would maneuver the boat to within 100 yards or so from each nest to minimize disturbance to the occupants. Usually, we would see one or both parents soaring about to protect the young. Thrune and Larson would then search for movement of eaglets with powerful binoculars while I took pictures of the action.
The first nest we checked had a large eaglet in the nest, as big as his parents. Jessica noted that this young eagle would soon be ready to leave the nest. One of the other nests was abandoned but another that appeared at first to be unoccupied turned out to have a couple young eagles in it.
A half-mile hike to yet another nest produced no eagles for the crew. The final nest however produced the most exciting views, with a less developed young eagle peeking from the nest and one of the parents standing guard on a nearby branch.
The monitoring of eagle nesting by the USFWS along the entire refuge has documented a dramatic increase in bald eagle nesting and reproduction over the past few decades. Pools 7 and 8 in our region have been consistent with this productivity, as residents and tourist have happily noted over the past few years.
Jessica encouraged continued public enjoyment of our eagles but she cautioned boaters, anglers and canoeists to give potentially active nests some leeway. She suggested giving them a buffer zone of at least 50 yards.
The recovery of the bald eagle has been a wonderful success story, and with continued monitoring, protection and public respect for their territories, this success story will surely continue.
Wood ducks
While returning to the boat landing in Trempealeau, we saw a female wood duck doing her broken wing act along the shore. A little investigating turned up her recently hatched and extremely cute ducklings. I was especially glad to see them, for I had been checking artificial wood duck nests just the week before with Leif Marking of Holmen.
Marking has been a longtime member of the Brice Prairie Conservation Association, which has designed and set out hundreds of artificial wood duck nest boxes. One of the nests that Marking was monitoring had 30 eggs in it, which, sadly, will be too many for the female to handle. Another nest was more encouraging since an amazing total of 17 out of 23 eggs had hatched.
The ducklings were gone since they very quickly jump from the nest and head for the nearest water to feed and hide with their mother. Marking, therefore, doesn’t often get to see the final products of his work, so I felt privileged indeed to see the little wood ducks near Trempealeau.
Whaditiz
They were common nighthawks, members of the goatsucker family, not a hawk.
Contact Jim Solberg at (608) 782-2560 or
nitefrogger@charter.net.
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