BELLEVUE, WI (WTAQ) – A new spawning location in the Village of Bellevue is expected to increase the pike population.
Wetlands near Willow Creek at Bethal Park have become the new site designed for Northern Pike to spawn.
Work began in the Fall of 2018 and was completed this summer.
“It was two years of construction and it took Brown County months of design.”
Chuck Larcheid is Project Manager for the Pike Restoration Project in Brown County.
He says once they realized that they had a decent number of pike in Willow Creek, it became a good place for the new site, and the work they did should help the population.
“If they don’t find a successful wetland that has grasses, they will spawn in a less desirable place and their spawn does not develop,”
The fish will access the project by entering its discharge outlet from Willow Creek. While in the site, they will encounter two spawning cells.
After spawning, the fish will be able to reenter Willow Creek and continue to swim up through the project’s culvert connections with two branches of Willow Creek or swim down through and out of the Project into a lower stretch of Willow Creek.
“In past research, we see that Northern Pike do come up for spawning, so we know it will be used.”
The project cost around $70,000 dollars and was fully funded by Natural Resource Damage Assessment, Fish and Wildlife, and Ducks Unlimited.”
