2025 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

2025 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

David Fielder

Michigan DNR

Fisheries Research Biologist

Alpena Fisheries Research Station

About me

Great Lakes, Walleye, Stock Assessment, Cisco

6:00pm CST

Welcome Networking Social - Sponsored by USFWS Grand Foyer (4th Floor)

7:00am CST

Continental Breakast with Exhibitors - Sponsored by St. Louis Zoo WildCare Institute Grand Foyer (4th Floor)

8:00am CST

Plenary Session 1 and Awards TBABen Batten • Jim Inglis

1:40pm CST

Fisheries Track: Identifying Walleye and Lake Whitefish Spawning Habitat to Inform Habitat Improvements for Lake Sturgeon in the Lower Fox River below De Pere Dam Regency C (2nd Floor)Braden Lensing

2:00pm CST

Fisheries Track: Identifying Spawning Sites and Fidelity of Ogaa (walleye Sander Vitreus): Implications for Fishery Stewardship Regency C (2nd Floor)Kayla Lenz

2:20pm CST

Fisheries Track: Evaluating the influence of climate change on walleye and largemouth bass consumption rates in a northern Wisconsin lake Regency C (2nd Floor)Jeston Hassler

2:40pm CST

Fisheries Track: Movement of Walleye and Sauger assessed using acoustic telemetry in Lewis and Clark Lake, a Missouri River reservoir Regency C (2nd Floor)Will Radigan

3:20pm CST

Fisheries Track: Environmental changes lead to reduced Walleye production in Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota Regency C (2nd Floor)Tom Jones

3:40pm CST

Fisheries Track: Evaluating the distribution of fish community production in northern Wisconsin lakes with different walleye recruitment histories Regency C (2nd Floor)Maxwel Wilkinson

4:00pm CST

Fisheries Track: Evaluation of otolith and eye lens chemistry for identifying stocked Walleye Regency C (2nd Floor)Joshua Fluur

4:20pm CST

Fisheries Track: Evaluating Data-limited Population Assessment Tools for Walleye Regency C (2nd Floor)Caleb Branam

5:30pm CST

Michigan State University Fisheries and Wildlife Alumni and Friends Social TBA

6:00pm CST

Offsite Dinner and Social ($) - Sponsored by Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation Anheuser-Busch Brewery

7:00am CST

Speaker Ready Room Open Mills 4 (4th Floor) Continental Breakast with Exhibitors - Sponsored by PayIt TBA

8:00am CST

Plenary Session 2 and Awards TBARob Hunt • Roger Still

10:20am CST

Fisheries Track: Apples and Oranges? Using radio and acoustic telemetry to evaluate restoration success. TBASeth Fopma

10:40am CST

Fisheries Track: Enhancing the science of age estimation: the creation of fishage.org Regency D (2nd Floor)Mark Pegg

11:00am CST

Fisheries Track: A Wide Net: Identifying Habitat Across Species and Age Groups of Fish for a Holistic View of the Ecosystem Regency D (2nd Floor)Kayla Lenz

11:20am CST

Fisheries Track: Long-Term Angling for Black Bass During the Spawning Season Reduces Nest Defense and Responsiveness to Lures Regency D (2nd Floor)Justin Lombardo

11:40am CST

Fisheries Track: Flow and temperature impacts on catfish populations in two Missouri River tributaries Regency D (2nd Floor)BJ Schall

1:20pm CST

Fisheries Track: Age and Growth Analyses on a Stunted vs. Non-Stunted Population of White Perch in Southeastern Nebraska Reservoirs Regency D (2nd Floor)Cali Engel

1:40pm CST

S-07: Evaluating Invasive Carp Management on the Illinois Waterway Through Adaptive ‘Multi-Agency Monitoring’ Regency E (2nd Floor)Michael Spear

2:00pm CST

Fisheries Track: Exploring Assessment Techniques for Minnesota's Newest Sport Fish: the Burbot Regency D (2nd Floor)Kristen Patterson

2:20pm CST

S-09: Quantifying angler harvest decisions using four decades of creel survey data Mills 3 (4th Floor)Ben Neely

2:40pm CST

S-07: Invasive Carp Removals in Missouri River Tributaries Regency E (2nd Floor)Adam McDaniel

3:20pm CST

Fisheries Track: Identifying potential sources of natural recruitment of muskellunge in Green Bay, Lake Michigan Regency D (2nd Floor)Ryan Eastman

3:40pm CST

Fisheries Track: Examining stunted Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) population in River Reservoir Regency D (2nd Floor)Kaden Ball

4:00pm CST

Fisheries Track: Dispersal of Juvenile Lake Sturgeon Stocked in the Saginaw River Basin Regency C (2nd Floor)Maxwell Majinska

4:20pm CST

Fisheries Track: Benefits and pitfalls of using time-lapse-photography to collect urban angler information Regency D (2nd Floor)Lewis Bruce

6:00pm CST

Poster Session & Tradeshow Social - C0-Sponsored by Aquatic Control, HDR Engineering & NASA TBA

8:00am CST

S-14: Managing for Resilient Walleye Populations: Avoiding an Ecological Tipping Point Regency A (2nd Floor)Greg Sass

8:20am CST

S-14: How RAD are Walleye Fisheries at the Southern End of their Range? Regency A (2nd Floor)Melissa Wuellner

8:40am CST

S-14: Understanding and building resilience in Green Bay walleye populations Regency A (2nd Floor)Daniel Dembkowski

9:00am CST

S-14: The Recovery of Saginaw Bay Walleye, a Case Study in Resiliency Regency A (2nd Floor)David Fielder

9:20am CST

S-14: Managing Sustainable Walleye Harvest on Lake Erie Regency A (2nd Floor)Travis Hartman

9:40am CST

S-14: Using angler derived data to assess walleye fisheries and resilience Regency A (2nd Floor)Jeff Kopaska

10:20am CST

S-14: 40 Years of Walleye Observations in Pool 14 of the Upper Miss. River Regency A (2nd Floor)Jeremiah Haas

10:40am CST

S-14: Lake Pepin - Perspectives from 60 Years of Annual Monitoring Regency A (2nd Floor)Nick Schlesser

11:00am CST

S-14: Devils Lake Walleye: History and Factors Impacting Sustainability. Regency A (2nd Floor)Todd Caspers

11:20am CST

S-14: Factors affecting year-class strength of Walleye (Sander vitreus) populations in western irrigation reservoirs Regency A (2nd Floor)Steve Chipps

11:40am CST

S-14: Seeing (bright) spots: Factors related to unexpected walleye success Regency A (2nd Floor)Christopher Rounds