Update: Walters and Musky Hunter

Long time, no post. Not much to report these days. Lots of data analysis, re-analysis, hair pulling, and re-re-analysis. A few days ago I left to help with a walleye telemetry project in Lake Erie/Lake Huron. We're tagging some great big Walters (walleye) on the Maumee River and (soon) the Tittabawassee. These are part of my duties as a research assistant. I consider myself pretty darn lucky!

Dr. Karen Murchie making a small incision to insert an acoustic transmitter. This fish will enable researchers to determine the movements of Lake Erie/Huron walleye: project description.

In other news, if you can get your hands on the newest issue of Musky Hunter (April/May) you'll see an article on Ottawa River muskies with a bit at the end of the article on my research. I'm looking forward to working with Musky Hunter in the future to disseminate our findings.

Hold Your Horses

As some of you know, this blog details the trials and tribulations of research. Sometimes, you mess up. I'm by no means a math genius and don't consider myself an expert statistical software user. I learn as I go, through trial-and-error and a lot of consulation and independent research. In reviewing the procedures I used to run the stats on my data, it appears I was doing it incorrectly. You have learn to speak the language of the software and apparently I was mumbling because there seems to be a miscommunication. One of the things I was super excited about turns out to not be statistically significant. The data is still interesting and there's still a story, but the "wow" factor may have just been knocked down a notch.

Keep on keepin' on.

For all my fellow anglers out there, I think you will find the results of the telemetry data analysis quite interesting. Some of it may confirm what you've observed for some time, some of it may surprise you. Currently, we're looking at how time of day (dawn, day, dusk, night), lunar quarter for both waning and waxing periods (eight total quarters), and temperature affect activity and depth. Time permitting we may explore other variables, but for now that's all we will examine.

Who knew data could be this fun to analyze!