Four for the flock

Plus: Fish Creek wants its fish back, a 12-year-old's record muskie, and the 2027 park sticker

Forrest Koslowski
October 01, 2026

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Mornin’ to the Lake Superior anglers. With the Bayfield fish hatchery closing, the DNR planned to turn this year’s brown trout loose in October as 2- to 3-inch fingerlings. So local fishermen chipped in to put more than 120,000 of them up for the winter at the St. Croix Falls hatchery instead. Nothing says Wisconsin like chipping in so the kids can stay home one more winter.

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This week’s weekly:

🐟️ Fish Creek might finally get its fish back

🎣 A 12-year-old’s last cast lands a world-record muskie

⛺️ High schooler’s camping scene wins the 2027 state park sticker

🐣 STORY OF THE WEEK: Four for the flock

Vintage postcard illustration of a whooping crane pushing its chick in a baby buggy along a marsh boardwalk

🐟️ Fish Creek might finally get its fish back LINK

The Town of Gibraltar wants to bring fish back to Fish Creek, the stream the Door County village is named after. The problem is the Redmann Dam, a concrete dam about a half mile up from the bay that keeps fish from reaching the wetlands where they’ve always spawned. Right now it’s mostly just Creek.
The plan is a trough that lets northern pike and suckers swim around the dam. Tearing it out was on the table, but the pond behind it now draws sandhill cranes, herons and ducks. It builds on a 2022 fish ladder at the Highway 42 culvert, three steps of 6 inches each.
The early planning was paid for with a grant from Knowles-Nelson, the state land and water program we covered last week that ran out of money in June. Now the town is applying for other grants to build it, and it’ll be looking for volunteers to pull invasives and plant trees.

🎣 A 12-year-old’s last cast lands a world-record muskie LINK

Madilyn Davis, 12, was fishing Long Lake in the Northwoods with her dad on July 4, the last day of the family’s trip up from Arizona. On what was supposed to be her final cast, she thought she’d snagged weeds. It was a muskie.
She’d lost a big fish earlier in the trip and had another come off that morning, so her dad, Dillon, who grew up fishing around Eagle River, had brought a certified measuring board just in case. The fish went 31.10 inches, spent less than a minute out of the water and swam off strong.
The International Game Fish Association certified it as the All-Tackle Junior Length Muskie Record. It was on the list of summer goals she wrote for school, right after petting a capybara. She did both. Our list said “sleep in.”

⛺️ High schooler’s camping scene wins the 2027 state park sticker LINK

Kiet Tuan Tran, a junior at Delavan-Darien High School, won the DNR’s contest to design the 2027 state park pass. His camping scene beat more than 120 entries. The DNR’s parks director called it a nod to the two things Wisconsinites love most, the outdoors and cheese. He’s not wrong.
The new design goes on sale Jan. 1. An annual pass is $28 for residents, $50 for nonresidents and $13 for residents 65 and up. Buy one in December and you get the 2026 design, but it’s still good through the end of 2027.
High schoolers can already enter the 2028 contest, with entries due April 30, 2027. The money matters, too: state parks run almost entirely on passes, camping fees and concessions, and the DNR says those haven’t kept up with rising costs.

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🐣 STORY OF THE WEEK: Four for the flock LINK

Some good news from the marsh. Four whooping crane chicks raised in Wisconsin this summer just fledged, which means they’re big enough to fly.

Four doesn’t sound like much. For these birds, it’s a banner year. Here’s why.

Meet the whooper. It’s the tallest bird in North America, standing about five feet, bright white with black wingtips and a red cap. The chicks start out a rusty cinnamon color. Think sandhill crane, but taller and dressed for a wedding.

Why they’re rare. Overhunting and lost habitat nearly wiped them out. By 1941, the last wild flock that still migrated was down to about 16 birds.

Why Wisconsin has them. Starting in 2001, conservationists raised chicks here to build a second migrating flock in the eastern U.S. That way, one bad hurricane or oil spill couldn’t take out the whole species. The first chicks learned the route south by following an ultralight aircraft flown by people dressed in white crane costumes. We are not making that up.

That eastern flock is now about 65 birds. They summer in Wisconsin marshes and winter across the eastern U.S. That’s roughly four times the 1941 low.

Why four is a big deal. Whooping cranes lay only one or two eggs a year. This year, 14 pairs nested in Wisconsin. They hatched 11 chicks, and 4 lived long enough to fly. The International Crane Foundation calls it one of the flock’s best seasons.

The part the experts like best. Some of this year’s parents raised a chick to flight for the first time. That matters because it’s hard work. The parents sit on the eggs for about 30 days, then take turns watching for predators and bringing back food, snakes included. A pair that has pulled it off once knows how. Any first-time parent can relate, minus the snakes.

The goal. The Crane Foundation’s long game is a flock that thrives on its own, without people stepping in. Four new flyers is a step in that direction.

If you see a huge white bird with black wingtips this fall, give it plenty of room. And if you want a guaranteed look, the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo has them up close.

Now get out ’der!

WISCAMPSIN WEEKLY POLL

Last Week's Trivia Check

We asked why sugar maples burn extra energy turning bright red every fall. This one was a real squeaker! Exactly 35% of you nailed the sunscreen trick, while another 29% figured the tree was just battening down the hatches against dry autumn wind.

The Correct Answer: Built-in "sunscreen" to protect the leaf while the tree reclaims nutrients.

The Takeaway: When green chlorophyll breaks down, bright fall sunshine can scorch unprotected leaves before the tree finishes pulling all the good nitrogen and sugars back into its roots. That red blush is basically a quick coat of SPF. It shades the leaf just long enough for the tree to stash its fuel for the winter.

This Week's Trivia

While folks in southern Wisconsin rarely run into them, anyone living in or heading to the northern half of the state knows the headache of porcupines. Leave an axe, canoe paddle, or sweaty pair of leather gloves sitting outside by the shed or deer camp, and there is a solid chance a porky will chew it right down to splinters. Old-timers always swore they were just grinding their teeth down, but they are actually after one specific craving.